How To Agree A Hen Party Budget

How much does a hen do cost is one of the biggest topics that can arise when planning a hen party.

Bringing together a bunch of people from different backgrounds and financial situations with different interests has the potential to end in hen do chaos, even without a cost of living crisis.

For this reason, of the most important and first tasks on your hen do planning checklist is to agree a budget for the hen do. 

First of all, sit down together as Bride and Maid of Honour and talk openly about your ideas and what you want the hen do to be like. 

Once you’ve got an outline of the top ideas, how much they would cost and settled on some non-negotiables, it’s time to talk money and agree on the hen do budget. 

First things first, abide by the three hen do budgeting golden rules:

3 Golden Hen Do Budgeting Rules 

1. Don’t spend more than the bride can afford.

Planning a wedding is one of the most expensive times in a girl’s life and the average cost of getting wed these days is around £30k! While you obviously want to throw your girl the best hen ever, you have to bear in mind that her pennies are having to go a long way these days. 

Of course, you could bypass this hurdle by deciding to incorporate the cost of the bride’s share into what each hen pays which is very common, but that doesn’t come without its own issues. Which leads us onto…

2. Don’t make it so expensive that no-one can come.

Your hens are likely to have a wide range of financial situations, meaning that not everyone can afford to pay for a hen do where the costs run into hundreds of pounds. 

Sometimes, even just the cost of paying for a night out could put immense financial pressure on some, and that’s before you start racking up further costs for things such as food, accommodation, transport and activities. 

Luckily, there is a way that you can agree a budget for your hen do that works for as many people as possible

Wondering how much does a hen do cost?

3. Make the itinerary as flexible as possible to allow for different budgets. 

The best hen parties offer maximum flexibility to ensure that the bride gets to spend time celebrating with as many of her pals as possible. 

Making a hen do schedule flexible is easier than you think, especially if the hen party is taking place close to where most people are based. 

While it’s fun to book hen do accommodation and all spend a weekend living it up in a nice country pad together, for some this just makes the costs spiral out of reach. 

If you’re dead set on renting a house for your hen weekend, then absolutely go for it. But, consider having the day or evening activities take place somewhere close enough to home for some to not have to stay at the accommodation. 

Similarly, don’t make any of the activities compulsory, especially if they are expensive ones. There’s nothing worse as a hen when you’re being forced to shell out large sums of money for something that you absolutely hate. Plus, it’s good to have spectators who can take all the embarrassing photos! 

How to decide on your hen party budget

Once you’ve taken all the above into account, as the bride and the maid of honour you should be in a position to come up with a sum that covers the following:

• Activities
• Accommodation
• Transport
• Food and drinks
• Gifts

At this point, it’s really important to communicate the planned budget with your hens, and to mention that it is flexible.

It’s doesn’t have to be exact, but being given a ballpark figure will reassure your hens enough to either commit to coming to the whole hen do, or give them the option to say that they can’t afford it and they might need to hang back on some parts of the schedule. 

Get solid RSVPs

Once you’ve shared the rough plans and budget with the hen party, it’s really important to pin them down and get some definite numbers in your hen spreadsheet. 

The reason that this is so important is that you will need to know definite numbers in order to put together a final budget. If you plan a go karting activity based on a group rate for a minimum of 15 participants but later on it turns out only 12 of you want to take part, then the price is going to go up for everyone else. 

If you follow these tips, you’ll find that your entire hen do planning experience will run a lot more smoothly as everyone knows where they stand with money at all times. 

Have you ever planned a hen do? How did you find managing the budgets? Let us know in the comments!