As a bit of a party animal, I’d been looking forward to my hen do for months. It was booked for April 2020, a month before the big day.
Then the coronavirus lockdown came into force, which meant my fiancé Tim and I had no choice but to postpone our wedding to later in the year – but we’ve been together for five years, so if we have to wait a little longer, so be it.
Once we’d gotten over the initial shock, it felt a bit selfish to be stressing about a wedding, but when my six bridesmaids suggested the idea of having a Zoom hen do, I realised it would make the best out of a bad situation.
At least I wouldn’t have to postpone every part of the bride experience. Plus, what else was there to do during lockdown?
The hen do took place last Saturday. A week before that, a bridesmaid who lives nearby left a bag outside my door – inside was a ‘bride-to-be’ sash, a veil and a much-needed bottle of prosecco.
On the night itself, I excitedly glammed up, applying fake tan, painting my nails and putting on strappy red heels. Tim had already had his virtual stag the weekend before, but while I was on my ‘home hen,’ he was in the spare room for a friend’s Germany-themed e-stag.
A part of me felt silly sitting there in a sash and veil, but when I logged into Zoom at 8pm I was greeted by 16 of my favourite faces.
The first few minutes were surreal, but also funny. Occasionally the signal would drop out or we’d all talk at once. One bridesmaid had issues with lighting so she was in semi-darkness for most of the night… but that just made us laugh more.
To kick things off, everyone had to introduce themselves and say how they knew me – cue embarrassing tales.
Next, we played a game where my sister read a story about me, and I had to guess who it had come from. It was a ‘this is your life’ of all my past escapades including eventful holidays, silly mistakes and drunken nights out.
They were stories like the time I got so drunk on a boozy brunch that I forgot where I lived and got off at the wrong train station.
If I guessed correctly, the girls drank. If I got it wrong, I had to drink a shot of fizz from my ‘c*** shot’ (a glass shaped like a penis). Unfortunately, I have a terrible memory.
Once or twice I was so mortified by the stories they were retelling that I had to jump out of shot of the camera.
I was only planning on drinking the bottle they had sent to me, but that soon went out the window. Before long Tim was drafted in to crack open one of the five bottles I’d panic-bought online a couple of weeks earlier.
To be honest, I can’t properly remember the end of the night. By midnight, there were only six of us left, all dancing and talking – or that might have just been me, I’m not sure.
Tim eventually put me to bed around 1am, after convincing me to stop dancing on the sofa to our wedding song.
The following morning, I didn’t feel fantastic, but even with the banging headache, I had a huge smile on my face. Lying in the garden all day, I kept my sash and half-broken crown on as I reminisced by myself – it felt like I’d had a night out.
I won’t lie – having a Zoom hen do felt odd, considering how different it was to what I had planned, but it was also the pick-me-up I needed.
I don’t really feel like I’ve missed out, as I’ll have a real hen when it’s safe to do so.
If anything, being a bride-to-be during lockdown has made me reassess my priorities.
It’s not what you do or where you go to celebrate, it’s the people you spend your time with, and who make the effort for you, that’s important.
Do you have an interesting Zoom or relationship story you’d like to share?
Get in touch by emailing almara.abgarian@metro.co.uk. Share your views in the comments below.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/11/i-had-my-hen-do-on-zoom-12534826/?ITO=squid
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