How To Host a Virtual Hen Party

Who would have thought that we would become such experts in hosting a VIRTUAL hen party?

Although we are all hoping that by now the words lockdown and social distancing are a distant memory, you might still want to host a virtual lockdown hen party via video chat just to make sure that everyone can make it and nobody will be left out.

The Ultimate Guide To Virtual Hen Parties

If you want to throw an online hen party but don’t know where to start, here is your ultimate handbook.

What Is A Virtual Hen Party?

A virtual hen party takes place online, via a video chat app where groups of friends can all “meet up” in a virtual room to chat, drink, and party the night away!

Virtual hens have taken the country by storm and lots of brides who have had to sadly postpone their celebrations are choosing to host a Zoom hen party.

It’s a great way to mark the occasion on the original date you were supposed to all be meeting up.

Some couples even chose to have a virtual wedding party if their nuptials were cancelled due to Corona.

What To Do For A Zoom Hen Party

While a virtual hen do is never going to be the same as the real thing, the best way to tackle it is to do as much as possible the same way you would for your actual hen.

This article is packed with activities, but here is a summary of some of our fave virtual hen party ideas:

• Create cute, digital invites via Paperless Post.
• Pick a theme and dress up accordingly!
• Book a Virtual Group Experience
• Eat & Drink together via video chat
• Play virtual hen party games
• Do Virtual Karaoke
• Plan a quiz about the bride

Read on for more inspiration.

1. Book Virtual Hen Party Activities

Karaoke, dancing, watching a movie – all of these can be really fun virtual hen do activities even when you’re not all in the same room!

But if you are looking to re-create the fun and hilarity you’d have normally, then there are plenty of virtual hen party activities to choose from.

Best Online Escape Rooms For A Zoom Hen Do

If you’ve ever done a real-life escape room you will know how fun and challenging it can be to solve all the puzzles within the time limit in order to make sure your group escapes. Virtual escape rooms are much the same, apart from you do them from the comfort of your own home.

Best Online Creative Experiences

Online Life Drawing	Online Macrame Wall Hanging Class	Virtual Make Your Own Perfume Class	Online Painting Class
Have you ever fancied trying life drawing? Have a go from your living room, much less cringe!	Macrame is the latest craze, have a go at making a wall hanging with your pals.	Find your signature scent with this online perfume making class.	Channel your inner Van Gogh with this 90-minute online painting class,
★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★
Price:£49.99	Price: £49	Price: £49	Price: £14.99
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A murder mystery has long been a party favourite, now you can do an online murder mystery and solve the crime over the internet.

The ever-innovative and adaptable British hen party industry has evolved during lockdown to expand their offering to include some fun activities for a virtual hen party.

• Book a virtual hen party stripper
• Try Virtual Wine Tasting
• Sample a Virtual Gin Masterclass
• Eat Virtual Afternoon Tea
• Do a Virtual Yoga Class
• Enjoy a Zoom Live DJ Set in your living rooms

If you want to settle down and enjoy watching something together for a cosy night in then you can use the Netflix Party browser extension.

2. Get Cocktail Delivery

If you were planning on hitting up the local bars then you’re going to need to get a good selection of drinks in to recreate that.

Why not order in a cocktail-making kit from one of the many companies that have started offering lockdown cocktail delivery?

Lockdown Cocktail Delivery Kits

(Swipe left to see all the options)

If you let all the hens know in advance you can each order in a kit to make your favourite cocktails.

If you’re ordering with Cocktail Delivery share this link with the girls and tell them to use the code ILOVECOCKTAILS for 5% off cocktail delivery!

Click below to claim your 5% discount:

Think spirits, mixers, wine, shots…whatever you can get your hands on for your lockdown hen party, get it in!

Lots of the games above are also brilliant Zoom hen party drinking games so make sure you’ve got a Prosecco on ice!

3. Play Virtual Hen Party Games

If you were all together in one place then there’s no doubt that you’d be having lots of fun. Just because you’re all at home there’s no reason not to do the same!

Loads of the suggestions on our ultimate list of Hen Party Games are totally doable for a virtual hen party.

We’ve selected a few that you might like to try below.

List of Virtual Hen Party Fun

There are so many hilarious virtual hen do fun that you’ll be laughing so much you’ll completely forget that you’re not all in the same room!

If you want to take the stress out of the organised fun then you can just buy pre-made games to play at a virtual hen party very affordably online.

Game Combo Pack

Hen Party Murder Mystery

Virtual Hen Party Game Bundle

Get this digital download bundle that includes 7 great virtual hen party games as well as a quiz that you can customise for your own hens!

Included in the bundle are:

Price: £18.00 (Buy on Etsy*)

Virtual Games: Free Downloadables

These free downloadables might come in handy for your Zoom hen party games.

Simple right click or long hold on them to save the image and use it for your online hen party.

Find the to the answers to the polish or porn game here.

4. Order Virtual Hen Party Packs

We know, you’ve all spent the last few weeks in your tracksuit bottoms and not going anywhere near your make up bag.

But girlfriend, grab that sparkly dress and slick on some lipstick because it is time to PAR-tay.

If you want to take the Zoom hen party fun even further, you could order a Virtual Hen Party Kit.

The idea is that each of the hens order a pack, then there is often a special “Bride-to-be” pack.

Best Virtual Hen Party Packs

Here are a couple of the best virtual hen party kits to choose from:

Each hen party pack contains everything you need to have the best hen night in isolation. Then, you all open your boxes together while on Zoom to see what’s inside!

What we love about these boxes is that they combine lots of the ideas we’ve used in this article by providing you all the little bit and bobs you need to make it the most fun it can be!

Check out our article for even more Hen Party Accessories.

5. Host A Virtual Hen Party Dinner

Why not all coordinate to make the same thing for dinner, perhaps find out what the bride’s favourite meal is, then eat on video chat at the same time.

Or even better, you could all order the same Deliveroo or Uber Eats to be delivered to each of your houses at the same time.

A virtual Chinese takeaway to be enjoyed together but apart, or a remote pizza!

6. Virtual Hen Party Karaoke

Gather all the bride’s favourite songs and blast them out so that everyone can enjoy the party atmosphere. You can even all dance together!

We’ve put together the Ultimate Hen Party Playlist so all you have to do is press play, share your audio with the girls and enjoy the tunes.

You might think that virtual karaoke doesn’t work, but if you play your music through a site like Watch2Gether then share the link with all the hens you will all be able to add songs to the playlist and sing nearly all in sync!

Gift Ideas For A Virtual Hen Do

You and the other hens might decide to cheer the bride up with a little gift.

Cute gift ideas that you can send to her house in advance are:

• Letterbox Flowers – Check out the contemporary letterbox bunches from Bloom & Wild* which are available from just £23.

• Cute Iced Biscuits – Everyone loves these iced biscuits – definitely something that will bring a smile to the bride’s face at her virtual hen. Check out Biscuiteers*

• Custom Jewellery – We adore these sweet engraved bracelets and we think the bride will too! Visit Bloom Boutique*

• Personalised Prosecco – A gift that she can drink on her virtual hen night and then keep the bottle as a memory of the special night it was! Available from Prezzybox*

• Beauty Box – give her something to look forward to each month until the wedding can finally take place! Look at a Glossybox Subscription*

It’s Glossybox’s 10th Birthday and they are celebrating with a great offer – by subscribing this month to any subscription you will receive a FREE box worth over £50! Just use the code : FREEBOX

For more ideas, check out our Gift Ideas To Cheer Someone Up

Decorations For A Virtual Hen

So it’s a bit difficult to know what to do decor-wise because you’re not all together so everyone buying bits and bobs to decorate their rooms would be a bit much.

We advise that the hens club together and buy a couple of bits that can be sent to the bride for her to decorate her room and make it look nice and hen party-ish for the virtual hen.

Even just investing in some balloons and a banner will boost the bride’s spirits and really help her feel like this is an actual hen party.

Best Virtual Hen Party Banners

A cute banner can be strung up behind the bride while she is on screen.

Swipe left through the table below to find the perfect option for your bride – we particularly love the personalised ones!

You really don’t need to spend much between you, and what you do buy can then be put away and used again for the rescheduled real-life hen party!

Check out our article for even more hen party decorations.

Making It Social

Usually we recommend using our printables to hand out copies to your hens.

The great thing is that our downloadables are also perfect to use on your social media to share the lockdown hen party fun.

You can all fill out your “Advice for the bride” on your Instagram story and tag the bride so she can share it in hers.

Don’t forget to tag us so we can join in the virtual hen do fun too, we’re over at @PlanTheHen.

You’ll find all the printables/hen do story templates in our highlights.

Which Video Chat Is Best For A Virtual Hen Party?

You also need to do is decide how you and your hens are going to get together for the virtual hen do.

Luckily there are a number of brilliant free video chat providers that will make it feel as close to hanging out with your mates as is possible at the mo:

Zoom Hen Party

Zoom has become a really popular way of communicating during the lockdown.

You just need to download the app to your phone, tablet or laptop, or you can use the desktop version.

Once you’ve signed up you can schedule a meeting for your virtual hen do and share the invitation with your pals.

Advantages of hosting a virtual hen do on Zoom:

• It’s quite a slick app and the connection and video/audio quality tends to be of a high standard.
• You can change your background to a virtual background which is super fun and perfect to add to the hilarity.

Disadvantages of hosting a virtual hen party on Zoom:

• It’s aimed at businesses hosting virtual meetings so other than the virtual backgrounds it all feels quite corporate.
• Unless you sign up to the pro version, you’ll have to restart the meeting every 40 minutes.

Houseparty

Houseparty is a bit like a more fun version of Zoom and as its name suggests, it’s more aimed at fun virtual meetups rather than for business.

The great thing about Houseparty is that the smartphone and tablet versions enable you to play quizzes online together which makes it even more ideal for a virtual hen party.

Houseparty is free and has no time limits.

Facetime Hen Party

You can also just use the old faithful Facetime to host a virtual hen party as it is possible to add multiple participants to the same chat.

However, in testing we found that it can be very buggy if hosting a larger number of hens so we would rather recommend you use Zoom or Houseparty for bigger groups.

Google Meet

Google’s own video chat app also makes it possible to have group chats with multiple friends at once and the service tends to be fairly reliable.

However, it’s mainly aimed at more business usage and therefore doesn’t come with many fun additions like funky backgrounds or entertainment.

Which video chat app you use for your virtual hen party is completely up to you, and all of those listed above are free, or at least have a free version.

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We hope these tips can help you host the BEST EVER online hen party.

Enjoy it as a bonus addition to your pre-wedding fun rather than a disappointment at the real life hen do having to be postponed.

If you do host a virtual hen party, do tag us in your photos and stories on Instagram so we can see what you all got up to!

So even if your best laid plans, and your back-up plans, have gone awry, you now have all the info you need to throw the best virtual hen party you hoped you’d never need to have!

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