LAHENDO2016 PART TWO

So now part one is done, it’s time for part two! Apologies if this is slightly lengthy, but we actually did a hell of a lot of stuff on the Saturday which ended up going on till about four in the morning- I blame the strippers!

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So I came downstairs to find that most of the girls were already up and making themselves breakfast. Sharon was making herself a lovely meal and I had my breakfast made by three or four hens which was lovely!

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Soon after this we had the spa team arrive! We could choose a massage, nails or a facial- I had a special hot stone massage using lava shells which was just fabulous.

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After this, it was time to get crafty! For my wedding I decided to have handmade flowers on the tables and so enlisted the help of my hen party to finish the job! We made red and white flowers to go with the theme using tissue paper. I think I’ll be doing a mini snippet of how you make these in my hen do vlog if any of you would like to know how to make them!

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After a solid craft session, it was time to relax those muscles with a trip to the jacuzzi outside on our decking. I was so excited to whip this out of my suitcase…

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I’m wearing a one piece swimming costume from To Dive For, a brand who you might remember hearing about on my recent trip to Dubai this summer. I love the bright colours of the design and I will be showing you more (including the back detail) on my hen do vlog on YouTube!

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As the afternoon slowly crept into early evening, we all gathered in the living room to play a few games and quizzes. Each hen had their Sass and Belle notebook handy but they couldn’t do anything about beating me in the quiz muhahaha.

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Some of the prizes given out were a mixture of underwear which somehow ended up on our heads, so photo time!

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I was so excited to introduce the bridesmaids to their dresses for the wedding on the hendo- these stunning dresses are from In One Clothing, and they loved them! The versatility means that each bridesmaid could wear the dress exactly how they wanted- don’t they look gorgeous?

So after playing dress up, it was time to get ready for our evening dinner cooked by a team of chefs who came to the hen house. I laid the table with some very fitting Halloween decorations from Talking Tables– we had a bunch of masks and accessories which were just the trick!

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We had a plentiful supply of wine from Premier Estates wine as well as some scrumptious non alcoholic drinks from Luscombe Drinks– the raspberry crush was definitely the favourite of the night.

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We took a stunning group shot on the balcony upstairs, I couldn’t have asked for a better bunch of friends.

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After dinner, we made our way outside for a quick five minutes to let off our sparklers- you’ll all have to stay patient to see what happened in the vlog!

One thing I wanted to share with you all was a very special present from one of my oldest friends who gave me this..

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I couldn’t believe it when I pulled it out of the box, it was an apple made from the book pages of Twilight:Eclipse and it is honestly one of those gifts that I will remember forever.

So the evening ended with a fabulous screening of Magic Mike XXL in the cinema room, the best strippers and we all enjoyed it very much!

Saharasplash x

Missed out on lahendo2016 part one? Read it right here!

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LAHENDO2016 PART ONE

I have been so excited about posting this post, as this will no doubt have everyone jumping up and down. The time is almost upon us (in 9 days to be exact), and I am here to share some great moments with you from my Hen Party weekend extravaganza! LAHENDO2016 Part One will cover the theme, the journey, the place and also some amazing surprises too for the party. I invited along 15 girls (one of which I have to mention was very missed 🙁 ) for the #LAHENDO2016.  So for those who don’t know, my mother owns a motorhome. This was decked out- much to my surprise- with designs on the back and sides to let the whole world know of course that we were having a hen party. My sister Evie was in  charge of the whole thing from start to finish as she’s my maid of honour and the one with the design skills! She expertly took the colour scheme of the wedding (dark red, white and light grey) to decorate the motorhome and used a font very recognisable to those Twilight fans out there. The wedding will be based around Twilight in certain areas (I’m not giving away too much) as Paul and I met at a Twilight event, so very fitting! lahendo2016_ lahendo2016_-2

So we set off from Ipswich and were headed to Manchester. We had booked a luxury stay in a gorgeous house through Celebration Cottages. The house we stayed in sleeps up to 20 people and was ideal for the kind of thing I was looking for in a hen do. I am not a party goer nor a fan of excessive drinking and so I opted for the girly sleepover sort of vibe instead which I wouldn’t change for the world. lahendo2016_-137

This shot was taken on the last day but it shows the artwork from the sides so you can see. Plus some more hens too!

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We stayed in a house called The White House, and as soon as we pulled up after our 6 hour journey I knew that we were going to love it. The front of the house was made of glass (similar to the Cullen’s house in Twilight) so that made me very happy! The house itself was beautiful. It had a stunning design, more of which you will see later, and it had everything we could possibly need from the marble kitchen to the cinema room. Now I had been working very hard on something for all the hens involoved. As a blogger I wanted to make the most of this beautiful location and this special occasion, and so I had a little help from some of my favourite brands.

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Each hen was presented with a bag full of a variety of things for the weekend and they loved it!lahendo2016_-13 lahendo2016_-14

So in their gift pack they found:

Premier Estates Wine

I love the Prosecco from Premier Estates. It is crisp and so light and delightful. We all enjoyed this Prosecco throughout the weekend and you can see more of them in Part Two! The bottles fit right in with the designer kitchen and our glasses were at the ready!lahendo2016_-61

Mr Stanley’s

Mr Stanley’s went above and beyond for the hen. Each hen had a glorious selection on confectionary from chocolate moustaches to fudge and lemon fizzies. This was so perfect for the hen party as we had vegetarians, coeliacs and lactose free requirements so there were treats for everyone. lahendo2016_-63

Amie Skincare

I took advantage of using the master bathroom for this shot! Equipped with television et al, we really enjoyed a selection of treats from Amie Skincare who I am a big fan of. We had the best micellar water for our makeup removing needs, moisturiser and a selection of their new face masks which I will be reviewing separately on the blog.

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Sass and Belle

Sass and Belle are one of my go-to brands for gifts and homeware. They provided us with the cutest notebooks for our games and quizes which I shall be talking more about in Part Two! Their designs were loved by the hen party as each couldn’t wait to open these up and take a peek inside! lahendo2016_-66

KIND Snacks

KIND Snacks are the perfect snack for a big sleepover weekend, especially when you have a lot of guests with different diets. KIND snacks kindly sent us a range of flavours for the weekend which are all gluten and dairy free. My favourite was the dark chocolate and cherry bar- so delicious!

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So the first day/evening of the hen was fairly chilled. We explored every inch of our quarters, chose our bedrooms and took a lot of silly photos as we waited for the whole party to arrive. I have to give 3 hens a massive applause who came from Wales, and the journey took them 9 hours in a small car! Every hour or so we would receive an update from them in the form of a dubsmash song 🙂 lahendo2016_-20

Here we are having fun with our chocolate moustaches!

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Stay Tuned for LAHENDO Part Two, there’s so much more to see including games, knickers and jacuzzi fun!

Saharasplash x Bride to be

 

Dragonfly Tea celebrates 15 years

I usually am pretty good at getting to events on time as I like to think I am quite organised and a fairly good planner. On the evening of this event however, I don’t think that I could say either of these things as I ended up getting incredibly lost around Kings Cross station. I was hopelessly following my Google maps directions in circles and by this point I was starting to feel like I would never get to the event which had begun well over an hour ago. I ended up calling one of the girls who had invited me who was so great at directing me and 10 minutes later (feeling very puffed out and silly) I arrived at the DFMasterclass!

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If you haven’t seen my previous post on Dragonfly Tea, they are a family owned British company who are just so passionate about bringing the best quality teas to the British high street. This year Dragonfly Tea celebrates 15 years and to mark this they have brought out a fantastic new range of teas called the tea house collection. They were also kind enough to host a select few of us for this fabulous tea masterclass!

dragonfly-tea-celebrates-15-years-3The location (which I will now remember for the rest of my days) was at the Waitrose cooking school and I was so happy to see it when I arrived. I had missed a little bit of the tea trivia but the staff and hosts were so gracious and set me up with a Long Island green tea straight away.

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Our host Georgia Ginsberg from Dragonfly Tea talked us through what would happen next, which was a tea test! We had 10 teapots around the kitchen and we had to taste, smell and work out which one was which from the new collection. The academic in me always jumps at the chance to take a test so I was straight in there!

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Even though I missed the first part, my tastebuds did me proud and I got 7 out of 10! I do like to drink a range of teas so I think this helped a lot 🙂

We had a great time taking photos of all the teas and flowers, it was one of the most amazing blogger events I’ve been to this year!

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Dragonfly Tea celebrates 15 years in style, as not only do they have the brand new tea house collection, they have also brought out a luxury candle. This candle is super lovely and it’s definitely something everyone should have when taking a relaxing bath. The scent is homely, woody and just right for the transition into the cold season. I had the best blogger evening at the DFMasterclass and want to thank the Babushka Comms team for inviting me along!

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Saharasplash x

Head over to my latest beauty post about my 12 week trial with SmoothSkin IPL here

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