Wedding Planning... Edinburgh Hen Weekend!

Oh, Edinburgh... what can I say? My favourite city in Scotland. A beautifully scenic city full of character, history, culture and many, many memories. The first city Gordon and I visited for a weekend break together (Valentine's 2010), where I tried out Aqua Spinning and competed in my second ever obstacle race (Men's Health Survival of the Fittest), the place I bought my beautiful Valentino's and now, the city where I enjoyed the best weekend with my hens!

Saturday

The party started early as we caught the train from Aberdeen to Edinburgh on Saturday afternoon and had ourselves a boozy little nineties train disco. The weather was unbelievable - we couldn't of picked a better weekend for it if we'd tried. After arriving at Waverley station and dropping our bags off at the Travelodge across the road, we headed to George Street on the hunt for a decent beer garden! Obviously everyone had the same idea and our search was unsuccessful. In the end we nipped into a nearby Sainsburys for a little prosecco picnic and sprawled in the sunshine in St Andrews Square, which became a bit of a theme for the weekend!


In the evening the girls had made plans for us all and we started off at Can You Escape? where we were separated into two teams to race against each other, solving puzzles and clues that would lead us to the key to our escape! Neither team completed the challenge but we had a good laugh trying. I'm still amazed how our host managed to keep a straight face using our hen party codenames - I'll leave those to your imagination!
Afterwards we headed to Gusto on George Street to fill our bellies! I'm not a big lover of Italians but this one surpassed my expectations. The restaurant is beautifully decorated, with atmospheric lighting and grand chandeliers. I devoured the smoked duck bruschetta followed by a spicy chicken and pepperoni pizza on a perfectly crispy base. While the others opted for another cocktail to finish, Mum and I couldn't resist dessert. I'm not even sorry, it was worth it - nutella and mascarpone calzone, people!


 Our final stop of the night was Copper Blossom - the prettiest bar I've ever had the pleasure of drinking in. It had been a long and tiring day of travelling so our Saturday night was quite chilled and we relaxed on the gorgeous rattan sofas, with cocktails in hand until our beds were calling us.


Sunday

I was up bright and early and stretched it out with Mum and Laura at  Lululemon's free Hair of the Downward Dog yoga class, where I managed my first ever crow pose! Brunch was booked at Hamilton's in Stockbridge - which turned out to be a much shorter walking distance than I'd thought. Both mum and I enjoyed the banana hotcakes with bacon (plus haggis for Mum!), while Laura swapped poached eggs for sliced avocado to go with her kale, zucchini and avocado fritters with walnut dukkah. Our attention was quickly snatched by the nearby Stockbridge market and we strolled in the sunshine, browsing the food and craft stalls and making friends with the odd dog or two... 

Sunday mornings don't get better than this. 

Our afternoon was equally special. We rounded up a small group of hens and headed to Harvey Nichols where the Chocolate Lounge had our names all over it! The perfectly white circular bar is a chocolate lover's dream, with it's conveyor belt of tempting goodies circling around like a little cupcake carousel. Feeling flush, we treated ourselves to a bottle of champagne and I panic ordered my salted caramel ice cream basket with prosecco and rose petal marshmallows! Luckily my mama taught me to share, and I sampled the chocolate fondue and petit fours too. If you're ever in Edinburgh, the HN Choc Lounge is an absolute must. We had the most perfect afternoon of chocolate and champagne. I think I even went as far as to tell the staff it was the best experience of my life!


More sunbathing was in order and we cooled down outside in St Andrews Square with some tasty bellini ice pops. Like I said, this was pretty much our meeting point the whole weekend! My other hens arrived later on the Sunday afternoon, just in time for a cheeky cocktail in the bar at Harvey Nics before we changed for the evening's shenanigans...


My bridesmaids had booked us a private area at the Three Sisters down in the cowgate area. We had a bite to eat and then got to shake up our own cocktails!. Karaoke was also on the agenda but by that point they'd already made us our own playlist of all our old favourites songs and we decided we were loud enough without the mics! We moved on to a few nearby bars afterwards via a ridiculously hilarious rickshaw ride which took us on a little accidental detour and had me laughing uncontrollably! The bars were total dives but it really didn't matter - we danced to live music and joined in on games with a random group of travelers. At one point my stomach hurt so much from laughing that I thought I might actually be sick - if that's not a sign of a good night I don't know what is!


Monday

While the others nursed their hangovers on Monday morning, a few of us slipped on our trainers and headed out for a pre-breakfast walk up Calton Hill. I've only ever been up Calton Hill as part of a race and hadn't really figured out where it was in relation to the other landmarks of the city. Turns out it was only a ten minute walk from our hotel! The hill is home to a number of monuments and offers some spectacular views of the city's skyline, from Arthur's Seat to the iconic Edinburgh Castle.

Our third and final day was over in a flash. I had the most fun times with my favourite girls and can't thank them enough for coming along and making it the memorable weekend that it was. My bridesmaids did me proud and even adhered to my "no blow up willies!" rule... thanks ladies! Here's hoping married life doesn't mean the end to girly weekends!

1 comment:

  1. Hello Lovely,

    It looks like you had a fab time! I loved seeing photos from your hen on Insta! Soon you will be Mrs. how exciting!

    Bloglovin: https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/igaberry-13323143
    Love, Iga x

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