Hen Night Scavenger Hunt

You may have had dozens of nights out with the girls before now. You may have gone to clubs or bars, to parties and socials. You might have experienced your youth as a free spirit, enjoying the night life as much as a person could be expected to. But those days are coming to a close soon, as your wedding soon approaches. Ahead is responsibility, monogamy, and commitment. The partying might not stop completely – not at first anyway – but it will probably be reduced rapidly. You're standing simultaneously at the end of an era and at a new beginning.

But don't worry about that right now. Don't fear what is to come next. Embrace the future and celebrate the past with one last hurrah. One final night out with your favorite gal pals. A hen night, as they are sometimes called. A bachelorette party.

Surely this feels like something that should be special, carefree, and fun. You don't want to do the same old song and dance, do you? You want to do something unique. And perhaps you want to go for a blast-from-the-past feeling. So why not take a childhood favorite activity – such as scavenger hunts – and turn it into something more grown up? A scavenger hunt with clues that relate to your life, your relationship, your partying days, and your future marriage can be a fun way to start your hen night.

Keep Children Out Of This One

Scavenger hunts are generally associated with kids, but don't mistake them for something that belong with children exclusively. More mature scavenger hunt ideas can lead to conversations and situations in which children should not be participating. So if you or any of the ladies attending your hen night have children, make arrangements beforehand to make sure that they will be watched by someone reliable and responsible. Fun is a priority, but the safety of your young ones should always come first.

Selecting The Party Planner

If you are the one getting married then you should not be the one planning out the scavenger hunt. That would ruin the fun and the surprise of it all! You should tell your friends that you have the desire to participate in a scavenger hunt on hen night, but you should not have any say in the specifics. So quickly hand this text over to a trustworthy friend of yours. Is that done? Wonderful!

In all seriousness, have a party planner cover all of this. Your best friend is usually a good choice, as they hold that title for a reason. Do not make the clues for your own scavenger hunt. Maybe you want to pick the specific theme, and that isn't such a bad idea, but go no further than that. Clues and riddles are not clues and riddles to the person who originally wrote them because that person starts out with the answer.

Reliving The “Good Ol' Days”

This is probably the most simple and straight forward hen night scavenger hunt that you can possibly have. Go through some of the best memories that the bride to be has with her pack of hens. Do you remember that night that you feel obligated to tell your grandchildren about when they come of age? What about that time that your group woke up in the wrong state? Take the wildest, funniest, most interesting memories from days past and collect them up. Talk to everyone else who will be at the hen night party and get their take on things. Make it a group effort.

Now, from all of these stories pick an object or event that represents the whole pretty well. If there was an actual item at the center of something and you still have the original then feel free to use it. If you have to get symbolic then that's fine too. Do whatever is necessary. Then, once you have all of the representations picked out, you will move onto the next step.

Anecdotal Clues

You don't necessarily need to have a scavenger hunt with riddles on hen night. If there will be drinking involved then you may want to avoid such mental puzzles, as a few shots will take away your ability to solve them. Instead, consider implementing anecdotal clues.

An example of an anecdotal clue would be a story that is told with a detail that the bride to be is sure to know. As said above, there are often certain items that take key roles in stories. So the best approach is to use those as the detail to be excluded.

Perhaps a lampshade features heavily in one of your tales of debauchery long passed? Then tell the story and make the lampshade the blank that needs to be filled in, as well as the object that needs to be found.

Location, Location, Location

The safest place to do a hen night scavenger hunt will always be in the home of a trusted friend. If you are planning to be drinking then it may be a bad idea to have things hidden at specific locations. This would require travel, which would either require a designated driver or a cab. Neither option is necessarily ideal, as no one wants to be the odd woman out, and cabs are growing ever more expensive as gas prices rise.

If you find the idea of putting the objects near where the actual stories took place then do not drink before going to find them. Pick them up first, finish the scavenger hunt, and then either go home or to the bar/club of your choice to drink.

Remember to take your safety seriously. No one wants the last big night out before the bride's wedding to be a bad memory. Make sure she gets to the alter safely and make sure that all of her guests are there intact as well. Your well-being should always come before a good time, not the other way around.

Now, this part of the article is written assuming that you’re the party planner and not the bride to be, but in some situations those two positions might be one in the same. Thankfully, this advice shouldn’t be too hard to adapt to your situation, regardless of who you are in relation to the bride, or if you’re the bride herself. Either way, you should still be able to pull off a hen night scavenger hunt.

Picking a Theme

Of course, there’s the general theme of a “last hurrah.” But that doesn’t mean that we can’t get more specific here. You’re going to want to pick a theme that fits well with the bride’s departure from the single life. Consider some of the following when brainstorming what the focal point of the evening should be:

• - Did she date a lot of different people or just a few?
• - Is she the type who likes to party or go out to clubs?
• - Does she have some night that sticks out in her mind as a big accomplishment or an epic story?

You might not know the answers to these questions, depending upon how long you’ve known her. So if you and the bride to be aren’t close enough for you to ask these questions (or know the answers already) you’re going to need to find a person who does. You can then try to gather the info through conversation, but it is far quicker to recruit them into the part planning. A close friend of the bride to be will likely be thrilled to help with their party!

Once you know the answers to these questions you can better come up with a theme. For example: If the bride has a long list of exes (and remembering said exes isn’t upsetting for them; they need to be able to look at the past and laugh) you could make each item in the scavenger hunt relate to an ex. The last item they find could be symbolic of their future spouse, the end of their hunt, of the party, and of their life as a bachelorette. It’s a fitting and symbolic gesture that is sure to resonate with them if done correctly.

Again—and this cannot be stressed enough—do NOT do this if the bride in question isn’t comfortable remembering her past relationships. If she has been through some abuse or she generally hates to dwell on the past then she will likely not appreciate being forced to remember all of her exes.

And another word of caution: only pick major relationships. If she dated someone for a week or two you probably shouldn’t take the time to include them in this little trip down memory lane, unless they were especially significant somehow.

Alternatively, you can retrace the events of a particularly epic night that the bride once experienced; a night that could come to represent her days as a bachelorette and one that she might never get to experience again. This would likely be a safer bet if you’re not sure how comfortable the bride is with discussing her past relationships.

Picking a Location

This relates to the second question on the above list and it is one of the most important aspects of any bachelorette scavenger hunt. You will need a good location for everything to go smoothly. Remember when we found out if the bride likes to go out to clubs? If there is one club in particular that she seems to love then you might want to find a way to incorporate it, especially if she doesn’t plan on returning often once she gets married.

You don’t have to host the entire party there, nor do you have to have the entire scavenger hunt take place there. It can simply be the final destination where they will find the final item. Or it can be where you go after the hunt. You don’t have to have a party that consists entirely of a bachelorette scavenger hunt, after all, and you could make the hunt a part of a longer evening.

But if the club – assuming she has one she likes – is just the end location and you’re having the hunt elsewhere you need to pick a good place. Take into consideration the bride’s other favorite places and what other activities might need to be happening there. If you’re going to be drinking then you need to pick a place that you feel comfortable getting drunk. Safety is an important thing to take into account and you should not get drunk in public or in a place that you’re not familiar with. And you should especially not get drunk and attempt hosting a scavenger hunt in said places.

Miscellaneous Advice

A bachelorette scavenger hunt can be a great alternative to a wild party and it takes the pressure off of all involved to do something crazy or dramatic. But, as hinted at above, it doesn’t need to be an alternative to a wild and crazy night. You can start the evening off with the hunt and progressively get wilder from there. You probably shouldn’t do the opposite, though, because after a night of partying most people aren’t going to have the energy left to go on any sort of scavenger hunt.

Lastly, while many think of scavenger hunts as things for children, this one is most certainly not going to be kid friendly. Leave them at home with a capable sitter or significant other.

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