15 August 2019

Aperitifs

"The Wedding of the Year" is fast approaching. I don't know how it is in America or Australia or elsewhere, but in this country it has become the fashion for brides and grooms to be to have lavish hen or stag dos ahead of their wedding days. Often these typically boozy trips will happen abroad, involving flights, hotel rooms etcetera.

Last weekend our darling Frances travelled up to Edinburgh in Scotland for her hen weekend. She was accompanied by ten of her best girl friends. By all accounts they had a super time, drank plenty of wine and prosecco and attended three comedy shows at The Edinburgh Festival. I snipped the picture below from her Instagram page - partly so that I can find it again when looking back through this blog in the future. It's a piece of our family history now - or to use a daft modern term - our journey!

Doesn't she look so happy?
Meantime the husband to be is going to have his stag celebrations somewhere in eastern Europe this coming weekend. I know exactly where he is going because I have been there myself - but I can't spell it out as Stew sometimes browses this blog and he will have no idea where he is bound until he reaches the airport tomorrow morning. Our son Ian is going too. Let's hope that the stag party doesn't finish in  post-Soviet police cells.

Back in my day - when the world was in black and white and Queen Victoria was possibly still on the throne - I had my stag do in our local pub with a small group of male friends. This was the night before my wedding. There was no food, not even a stripogram girl called Tallulah. The only difference between that night and any other Friday night was that I had an extra pint of beer. I was back home and in my bed by midnight, having hardly added anything to my tiny carbon footprint. We really knew how to party!

27 comments:

  1. My daughter is facing near bankruptcy because of her brother's upcoming wedding and the hens do is the worst of it.
    Bring back the simple extra pint, I say

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    1. These days an extra pint would cost £3.50 or $6AUS. Much cheaper than a souped up hen night you can't really afford.

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  2. That doll over on the left hand side made me laugh out loud, literally. Naughty girls!

    I never had a "hen night"... I wonder if it's too late?

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    1. That blow up doll has a special mask on it. It's Stewart!...Oh, and it's never too late to have a "hen night"! All you need is chicken feed.

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  3. For a moment there I thought you had joined the hen party but I see from Jennifer's comment that it is only a doll.

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    1. Eh? You really know how to hurt a guy's feelings JayCee! I am a doll!

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  4. They look as though they enjoyed themselves. Tom was ill on his Stag night (through drink)and I spent mine ironing my dress and staying in. lol
    Briony

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    1. You really knew how to have a good time Briony! Staying in and ironing? What could be better?

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  5. I married twice...and didn't have a Hens' Night for either; the guys didn't have a Stag Night, either. Both my weddings were low-key, small gatherings...it was what I wanted. I never want a big wedding with all the trimmings. Just my own personal choice. Both were fun, happy occasions, though.

    Not long to go now for the young couple, Yorkie. Their excitement levels will be rising rapidly. :)

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    1. As you suggest - it's all about personal choice - but often small really is beautiful.

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    2. Lee, it was exactly the same for my two weddings: small, low key celebrations, no hen or stag nights beforehand and no big posh trips afterwards. And I doubt the endings of these marriages (the first by divorce, the second by death) had anything to do with us not having spent a fortune for the weddings.

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  6. Were the Mumbai Escorts consulted for these parties? I think they should have been.
    I really don't understand today's weddings. My friends from nursing school took both me and Glen out the night before our wedding. Someone gave us a toaster. The next day we got married in a park and basically, the invitations had gone out by word of mouth. We had decided on Monday to get married on Thursday. It was a beautiful little wedding. We even had a musician show up and play for us. Then we went to our house and had smoked turkey and cake and champagne. It was perfect.
    But you know- times change and I certainly wish your daughter and her man all of the best and all of the love forever and ever.

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    1. That was a lovely, simple way to marry Glen. Thanks for sharing Mary.

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  7. In the motherland the tradition was (most likely still is) to have a "Polterabend". Polter - think ghost. Abend - evening. Which was organized and attended by BOTH bride and groom, family, friends - a sort of warm up for the actual event. Shards (broken crockery for luck) and all.

    Come to think of it, do you remember a TV advert some years ago (I think it was for a Visa card) where some groom is left by his stag do friends in the middle of nowhere like the desert, naturally; no clothes, naturally; trying to make his way to the altar in time? What touched me that he, unperturbed, made the running (literally) so determined he was to not let his future wife down. That's love. And conviction. And romance.

    U

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    1. "That's love. And conviction. And romance..." ...And that's Visa - helping people in trouble. Thank Barclays for Visa.

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  8. Like Ursula, I am of course familiar with the concept of Polterabend, where crockery is broken for luck and a lot of drink (and food) is served.
    But I had neither, since both my first and my second husband were not German, and we simply never thought about all these traditions. I didn't even have a wedding dress, just bought a nice new dress on both occasions that I could (and did) wear many times afterwards.

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    1. Perhaps you will finally have a Polterabend with your third husband! Now who could that be?

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  9. I just asked my brother (who is staying with me at the moment) if I had a stag do. He couldn't remember and I can't remember. The others who might have been at it (it would have been in the Ring O' Bells in West Kirby on The Wirral) are long gone unto another place or have disappeared from view. So much for memories!

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    1. Possibly the reason you cannot remember the stag do is that you were as drunk as a bishop in The House of Lords bar.

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    2. YP, I'm afraid that I got drunk when I was about 18 and it was such a dreadful experience that I decided never to allow it to happen again. I'm your archetypical boring old fart because it never has happened since.

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  10. We didn't have stag dos like they do now because we were poor in them days.

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    1. Aye lad. Ah bet we were poorer than thee. My family lived in t' coil scuttle.

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    2. We didn't even 'ave a coil scuttle.

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  11. What a fun celebration and she does indeed look like a happy bride!

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    1. What happens in Edinburgh stays in Edinburgh.

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  12. We may not always (or often?) agree with our kids' ways, but the world changes and as long as they are happy, that counts for a lot.

    That is, as long as they're the ones paying for it :D

    Besides, our own celebrations were more deluxe than those of our parents, in many cases.

    Your daughter is a beautiful woman. I am looking forward to wedding picture(s) of the happy couple.

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    1. Of course I won't be taking pictures as I will have other duties to perform.

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