A Surprise Hen At the Daylesford Organic Farm


Three years ago,
I would think that the title of this post
would guarantee a story of a chicken
would be about to unfold.

But guess what...
it's not!

A "hen" (or "hen-do" or "hen party")
is what ye olde Brits call bachelorette parties.

So surprise!

This isn't a blog post about chickens...
it's about a girls weekend away
celebrating my friend, Amber
and her upcoming wedding.

We surprised Amber with a weekend away
to a undisclosed location.

I came over an hour before we were leaving,
helped her pack a suitcase
with weird, vague scenarios she might encounter.

(Example: Pretend you are going to be in the "It's All Good" cookbook photoshoot.)

Amber thought I was crazy...
which makes her very intuitive.

We hopped the bus,
arrived at Paddington
and- surprise- all of her ladies
were waiting for her at the Paddington Bear statue.

We hopped a train,
gave her a box of clues,
and before we were out of the city-
our destination was revealed:
a ladies weekend at the famous
Daylesford Organic Farm
in the Cotswolds.









We had such an amazing time.

I really can't think of a prettier and more relaxing weekend.

We stayed in the Wild Rabbit Inn,
had a group yoga class,
got a visit to the spa for massages,
and took a four hour cooking class.








Now, I can hear your thoughts:
Lauren, you're supposed to be cheap.
This place looks fannnnncy.

Who do you think you are, Nora Ephron?

It was, but going as a group helped out the pricing so much!

We paid for our hotel separately, 
but for the yoga, 45 minute massages + cooking class
it was only around £160 per person.

That's not terrible for two days of activities...
especially of this caliber.

(And this group of girls was a pretty awesome one to share it with.)





Personally, I have to say,
it far trumps my bachelorette party,
which was so much of a disaster
I'm not even going to talk about here.


*    *   *

What do you think?
Is this your type of girls weekend
or would you spend that £160 on a flight to Ibiza?

(Personally, this girly weekend was my Gwyneth-y cup of tea.)





*all images original to Aspiring Kennedy

19 comments:

  1. Looks gorgeous from the photos, and there's probably a less intense hangover when compared to the traditional bachelorette party. But it still seems a bit expensive to me, considering how much weddings cost altogether. I'd still love to visit for a fancy anniversary weekend though- I've heard Cotswolds (or the Cotswolds? excuse my American ignorance) is stunning.

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  2. Hi Lauren!
    This is a very special way for celebrating a bachelorette party! I would love if mine would be something like this!!!
    (You really remind me Gwyneth! ;))Have a nice day, my dear Lauren!

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  3. This sounds like perfect hen weekend! When I lived in Vancouver people looked at me like I was mental when I mentioned a "hen do"! You forget how odd that sounds out of context....

    Beth // SANS SOUCI

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  4. All right, now we need to hear your bachelorette story. Disaster stories are the best!

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  5. *Disastrous..."disaster stories" sounds like something else altogether.

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  6. HiLauren
    I love your photos and the place you stayed looks amazing..
    I would definitly go for yoga not that much for cooking class...last year my cousin got married and I dreamt of planning her a addio al nubilato (as we say in italian) in portugal with yoga and surf classes...unfortunatly I was not the maid of honor so that the party was in Marocco with cooking class and spa...very expensive and not so fun for me ! but I was not the bride!!
    ciao from Italia

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  7. How fun! I would have loved to do something like this for my American Hen Party. The places look beautiful!
    ~Alysse

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  8. I would have loved something like this! My party was pretty low key and the events were a surprise to me as well. I was living out of state at the time so I wanted something small and close to home so my sister (and maid of honor) set up a winery visit, followed by a private zumba class (which ended up being a hour-long dance/laughing hysterical session), followed by a home-cooked meal from my wonderful Momma and a visit to the local (and very small!) town bar. Definitely not everyone's preference, but it was perfect for me. What you all did looks like it would have been SO much fun - the bride to be is quite lucky to have such amazing friends! :)

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  9. Looks gorgeous!! Such a cool idea!

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  10. Oh man, now you have to share your bachelorette party story! :)

    This looks like a wonderful weekend!

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  11. This looks like such a perfect weekend to me! Though I would love to hear your 'disaster story'!!

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  12. How sweet of all you girls to surprise Amber! It sounds like an absolutely incredible weekend :)

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  13. Currently masterminding ways to casually make my friends notice this post and throw me something similar somewhere down the road... looks like a heckuva lot of fun!!

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  14. Ok, you now have to at least tell us a little bit about your bachelorette with that teaser! My friends surprised me with a trip to Disney World, which was awesome. I love different ideas for bachelorette trips!

    This sounds amazing & I wish I could easily visit with my husband or something. Relaxing weekend away sounds pretty good right about now!

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  15. Looks absolutely perfect for a girls' weekend! And what a fitting name for a location for a bachelorette party :)

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  16. WOW! This sounds amazing. What a REALLY sweet treat for Amber!

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  17. Because of your post, and subsequently the posts that the other above mentioned ladies did, we're booked in at The Wild Rabbit for 2 nights in March, when we make our first visit to England. So looking forward to cozying up to that (perfect) fireplace in the bar with a good book, taking long walks in the countryside fresh air, and just getting some R&R. Thank you so much for introducing me to this place!

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