All the single ladies!

One of the most exciting aspects of preparing a wedding is the farewell to the single life. In recent years, Hen’s & Buck’s Nights have taken on new forms - meaning that they’re now across new cities, states or even continents and spanning entire weeks as opposed to weekends.

I decided to go with a fairly traditional one, an afternoon and night out with my nearest and dearest ladies, but that didn’t make it any less exciting.

Wanting to paint the town red while looking our very best, we headed to one of my favourite beauty spots for a little bit of pampering: The Benefit Boutique in Paddington, and the only place whose staff are allowed to touch my brows. I’d gone in a few days earlier and enjoyed a full body spray tan trial for my big day ($40) and now that I had my fifteen best girls with me, we let the Benebabes go hard at work giving us the ‘Now to Wow’ treatment of eyebrow waxes and lash & brow tints (from $25). And then the pretty party began. For just over $20, we spent an hour learning the secrets to pretty in a make-up tutorial with their expert staff, while fooling around with our pretty pink mirrors and personal make-up testers.

Sararh enjoys the 'Wow to Now treatment'
and petty party with 15 of her girlfriends.

Now that we were looking our best, we headed to learn the art of the glamorous seduction with international burlesque artist Rachel St James. After a few stunned moments gawking at her beauty, talent and poise, we enjoyed a round of cocktails & Moet Champagne in the lush surroundings of Darlinghurst’s The Art Lounge, and then got down to business.

Sporting a stage name that we’d earlier picked out of a hat (Ruby Fox, Dirty Martini and Cha Cha were faves) and pair of red gloves each, we learnt a seductive, but tame routine that would tempt any onlookers but that left quite a lot to the imagination. And after a short break (for some more cocktails of course) we were off to learn phase 2 of the routine, which involved some red feathers that we strategically used to enhance our performance (should we ever make it!).


Learning a burlesque routine with Rachel St James.

After a round-up routine, and a special gift of a burlesque music CD, we decided to replenish our appetites with dinner at Zachary’s (Bayswater Road, Kings Cross) and then a night of dancing at Sydney’s Establishment Bar, where a request of Jagged Edge’s Let’s get Married was made for yours truly.

And just at that moment, with the song of altars and white dresses blaring from the speakers, a lovely young man hoisted me up onto his shoulders and walked around the venue while my friends clapped and cheered. A beautiful high to a lovely night, in both the physical and metaphorical sense. Now, if I can only go again. But alas, there’s bigger events ahead of me!