Welcome back to my hen party series! Over the summer, blogger Claire from Lacey in Places blog has been sharing her top tips for planning a hen party (read her first article here), including a downloadable budget spreadsheet and invitation templates (read this planning article here) to make it super-easy to keep track of the hens, the accommodation and activity costs. She has also written about making crafty decorations for the hen party and creating a DIY memory book for the bride . There are lots of useful articles in the hen party series, so check out the links below or click here to see all of the articles in the series. This week we are talking about stag and hen party t-shirts, and why you’ll want to wear them again and again.
During my research into hen parties and the traditions that have become synonymous with the ‘last night of freedom’, I have discovered a desire to create a homogenous group of stags or hens – especially when there is a large quantity of guests at the celebration. This could be in the form of fancy dress, or simply dressing in a similar way, in order to define the group as a ‘party’. This serves as an easy way to identify members of the group and helps to keep large groups together on a night out – a simple head count of guests wearing the same outfit can help ensure that stragglers don’t get left behind when the group moves on to another place or activity. And this is where t-shirts come in!
It’s been a massive trend over the past decade to design and print special t-shirts for hen and stag party groups. A little more wearable than fancy dress, it allows the group to dress the same, but retain some individuality – usually in the form of nicknames on the backs of t-shirts. It also means that the bride or groom will be more easily identifiable in the group, as they will probably be the only one in fancy dress – tutus, wedding dresses etc – and can easily be picked out for ‘special treatment’ from bar staff and activity providers! However, many of these t-shirts will be designed solely with the hen or stag night in mind and can rarely ever be worn again. But with a little extra thought about the design, you can easily create a top that commemorates a special occasion and can be worn again and again as a fashion item.
After investigating many t-shirt printers, I came across StagandHenTShirts.com and realised they would be able to provide exactly this kind of custom-design service. Gone are the cheap thin t-shirts and the plasticy PVC printed designs that crack while wearing; this company offer a full design and printing service to create a t-shirt that you will be able to wear again, and on top of that, will actually want to wear again! When a company kicks off their design process using high-quality t-shirts, vests and tops, you know that you’ll be getting a hard-wearing, top-quality product, and that’s before you’ve even added a design. I spent an enjoyable hour flicking through all their funky designs and color options before getting in touch with their design team to discuss my requirements.
One of my favorite fairies is getting married next year and I wanted to treat her to a t-shirt to get her excited about her hen do. I chose my preferred design of a chunky, retro text with pop-art image of the hen, then I sent off a facebook profile photo of my friend for the design team to work their magic on. I couldn’t believe my eyes when they sent back a ‘proof’ of the design that looked exactly like my bestie in a super-cool Andy Warhol-esque screenprint style - so glamourous! I was given a few suggestions of color ways and I chose the ink to be a hot pink (her favorite colour) printed on a classic white t-shirt (she is the bride after all!). I waited excitedly for her reaction as she opened the parcel and although we live 100s of miles apart, I swear I could hear her squeals of delight! It certainly got a good reaction when she posted a photo of it on Facebook and the ‘likes’ came flooding in!
While I was on the StagAndHenTShirts website, I spotted a couple of other designs that I liked the look of (which the eagle-eyed of you may have guessed from the above proof images). I chose a cool stag silhouette t-shirt for my hubby and I enquired about a matching hen t-shirt for me. Okay, we’re already married so don’t need them for hen and stag parties, but the design was so on-trend for this season that I couldn’t help myself. Although the company didn’t already offer a hen t-shirt, they were happy to accommodate my request and sent me a proof showing a chicken silhouette in black or white on a couple of different background colours. I chose a red for the festive season and quickly replied to the designer that I loved the hen design!
When the t-shirts arrived, we couldn’t wait to try them on and discovered just how soft the cotton t-shirts actually are – very comfortable and not at all cheap-and-nasty – and the image is created using the latest DTG full-colour printing process so that the end results are similar to screen printing and of a quality way beyond standard vinyl prints. This just goes to show that the t-shirts you can design on this website don’t have to be for a stag or hen do – they also have tops for group holidays, or you could make a birthday t-shirt for your pal. The possibilities are endless! Hubby and I snapped some photos of us wearing these cools designs – now wouldn’t you agree that these t-shirt are cool enough for everyday wear, not just for a stag or hen night?! And that’s the philosophy of this company: creating something that isn’t a throwaway item, something that looks so good that you will wear for years to come and is high enough quality that it won’t disintegrate after one wash! In this day-and-age where everyone wants to minimise the amount of rubbish that goes into landfill, it’s a very sensible option to choose a well-designed t-shirt for your ‘last night of freedom’ so that your guests will want to wear it again and it doesn’t end up in the bin: I hate waste and totally advocate reusing items as much as you can. So if it’s possible to get a non-throwaway item from stagandhentshirts.com for the same price as a binnable one, surely it’s a no-brainer?!
Next week’s hen party article will be from blogger Claire from LaceyinPlaces, sharing her ideas for hen party games and activities – including knicker-making - so come back soon!
More hen party series articles
- Hen party series ~ Planning a vintage hen party (LaceyinPlaces on cassiefairy.com)
- Hen party series ~ Make a personal gift for the bride (cassiefairy.com)
- Hen party series – ideas for fun activities (cassiefairy.com)
- Hen party series ~ ideas for personalising your party (cassiefairy.com)
- Hen parties on a budget ~ 5 essential tips (cassiefairy.com)
- Anyone for afternoon tea? Ideas for a thrifty party (cassiefairy.com)