The tradition of the stag party (sorry Hens) certainly goes back as far as Henry VIII times — wow, he must have had a few stag dos! Anyway, he would command you to attend his celebration by either a town crier or by royal letter on pain of death.
Some historians think the stag party may have started a lot earlier than that — as early as the 5th century BC. It is believed that the ancient Spartans would hold a dinner in the groom’s honour and make toasts on his behalf to celebrate his last night as a single man.
Whatever background you come from there is no getting away with the fact that marriage is possibly the most important decision of your life (tell that to Henry VIII!). So what better way to say goodbye to singleville than to get together with your friends new and old and celebrate in style?
The Introduction of Activities
The stag and hen parties pre 1990s possibly included a stripper and a trip to the local boozer. These days most stag and hen groups want a little bit more than just one night down the pub. They now look to activities to fill the days, and nightclubs, restaurants, bar crawls, booze cruises, lap dancing clubs and more to fill their nights.
Daytime activities such as paintball, quad biking, rage buggies, pamper days, pole dancing lessons, chocolate making pre 1990s were hard to find. With so much on offer these days we should embrace this new phenomenon head on.
Booking day and night time activities will:
- Keep the group together all over the weekend.
- Stop people from peaking too soon (if there are no daytime activities you might find everyone in the pub at noon and in bed by tea time).
- Provide great opportunities to take photos and bond with all the attendees.
- Be something to remember.
Guest post by Marco Walker of Designaventure
Image from Flickr by Dizzychoonz (CC BY 2.0 License)
