Diana's hen party, or lack thereof...

[Duch_Luver_4ever]

Royal wedding: Hen dos... and don'ts - BBC News


The thread about Meghan's hen party had me thinking about back in her day, I didnt recall hearing anything about Diana's and found this little ditty on the BBC, interesting how she seemed to just miss the phenomenon.

"It's not often that royals and commoners alight on a cultural trend at the same time, but in the case of the hen do, that could be the case.

As Lady Diana Spencer prepared to tie the knot with Prince Charles in the summer of 1981, there was little expectation that she and a few friends might want to slope off to a wine bar for an evening.

But scroll forward five years, to the engagement of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson, and the bride-to-be could be found enjoying the company of her female friends at a hen do in London's exclusive Annabel's nightclub. Among the guests was her sister-in-law to be, Princess Diana.

While stag parties have long been a pre-marital ritual, the hen do seems to be a more recent custom that began to emerge in the mid-1980s."

[TLLK]

Yes I would have to say that the bachelorette party is a fairly recent custom so I'm not surprised that Sarah had one, but it would have been a bit surprising for Diana's friends to plan such a party.

[Duch_Luver_4ever]

Especially given the more conservative nightlife of the Sloanes at that time, with an evening of bridge being a wild night out....

[Izabella]

slope off to a wine bar for an evening

Probably what she should've done.  : :partaay: :orchid:

[Curryong]

Annabell's nightclub was open in 1963, so in theory Diana's chums could have had a party for her there. I believe Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon, Cressida's mother, was a regular in the 1960s.

However, I've never thought of Diana's friends or Diana herself for that matter, as loving heaps of parties or haunting nightclubs till the early hours. Whether that was timidity or didn't like drinking heavily or disliking the atmosphere of the smoky clubs of that era, I don't know.

On the other hand Sarah was older, she'd been to nightclubs, was quite a party animal, etc, so maybe it was just different courses for different horses and Diana and her circle liked informal little dinner parties at home instead.

[amabel]

It would have been quite acceptable for her to have a party at Annabels, but she did not seem to go them as a single girl.  however later on, I think she began to enjoy them more.. and went with Fergie....