Hen parties on a bill Life and character The Guardian

Knitting together… qualification parties are the new hen parties. Photograph: Masterfile/Radius Images

If there are dual difference to set upon fright in to majority right-thinking women it is these: hen weekend. Most of us will be informed with the flourishing over the years of "night" to "weekend" (and I have listened of at slightest dual "hen weeks"), and how a week end in Blackpool has turn a week end in Las Vegas. Remember the tallness of the madness? In 2005, according to a consult by one credit label company, one in 3 hens went abroad for theirs, spending around £550 a head, whilst one in 10 outlayed around £1,000. But hen – and ram – parties appear to have turn less extravagant.

"There is a clear recoil opposite spending hundreds of pounds for a week end hen celebration abroad, generally due to the recession," says Deborah Joseph, editor of Brides magazine. "People are being some-more beautiful with singular budgets. I went to a good hen celebration where we had a sketch category at an art propagandize with an art clergyman – and a bare masculine model. After a lot of sniggering, everybody took it unequivocally seriously."

Other ideas that Joseph says are apropos some-more renouned embody value hunts, flower- arranging classes and picnics. One of the most appropriate hen parties I"ve been on was a school-style sports day in the park, followed by afternoon tea in the hen"s garden.

"The importance between all of my friends has been on keeping costs low but you do something fun and opposite and memorable," says Baseera Green, a personal assistant. Her own hen celebration – lindy bound classes, followed by afternoon tea at home, and afterwards on to a cooking and dancing bar – came in at £130 each. "I"m organising an additional one for a crony where we"re going to a crafts seminar to have vintage-style fascinators. People get to know each alternative improved when they"re fastening over an wake up and they"re all still sober."

Crafters such as the Make Do Mend team, formed in London, additionally run workshops featuring special hen celebration activities together with crochet and cupcake decorating.

And if all that is a small twee for your liking, take heart from headlines of an additional trend. According to Keith White, selling physical education instructor at Redseven, a dilettante hen and ram celebration organiser, "Women are increasingly you do some-more traditionally masculine activities, similar to paintballing and go-karting."

Another reason to be cheerful: maybe pole-dancing lessons are eventually on their approach out?