Hen Party Budget: What It Costs and How to Split It

Seven people in a group chat, one rental link, and a message that just says "tell me what I owe." Three days later nobody has an answer. The hen party budget usually gets decided in the worst possible place: a taxi at 1am, when someone realises the drinks were never in the price and the house deposit came off one person's card.

It doesn't take a spreadsheet full of formulas. It takes four columns, a figure per person, and a deadline for the transfers — all agreed before anyone books anything.

Write the hen party budget before the group chat starts

Open a sheet and give it four columns: accommodation, transport, food, activities. Add a fifth for the things that arrive late, because they always do. Then write every figure per person instead of as a total. A place that costs €600 and sleeps six is €100 each, and €100 is the number people actually say yes or no to.

• Accommodation: nights multiplied out per person, cleaning fee included.
• Transport: the van, the fuel, the parking, or train tickets if people arrive separately.
• Food: the long dinner, the breakfast run, and a per-person estimate for drinks.
• Activities: only the ones with a date and a time, priced per head.

Split the bill per person, not per couple

Count every guest as one unit. If someone brings a partner, that's two units, not one and a half. It reads as obvious here, and it still causes the loudest argument of the weekend when the bill lands on the table.

Then split in two parts. Shared costs — the house, the van, the long dinner — divided by heads. Optional ones — the spa slot, the dance class, the cocktail workshop — paid only by whoever books them. Set a transfer deadline three weeks out, and say plainly that prices can move after that date.

A hen party budget stops being an argument the moment every line has a number and every number has a name next to it.

Dinner gets closed ahead, drinks counted separately

Ask the restaurant for a set menu or two options, then confirm the exact headcount 48 hours before. Drinks almost always sit outside the menu price, so add an estimate per person and put it in the chat, not on the night's bill. Table decoration stays small: a cloth, confetti, a sign with the name. If it doesn't fit in one bag, it isn't coming home.

Activities are paid as they're booked. A dance class or a tasting needs confirming ahead; everything else can wait until the group is sure. One person pays the deposit, the rest transfer their share the same day, and the receipts go into a shared folder — that's how you settle whether the taxi and the tip were already covered.

Close the numbers with one figure per person, and pick an invitation that doesn't need reprinting when the time or the address moves. A Send The Joy invitation is a page with its own link: €29.99 as a one-time payment, all scenes unlocked, the RSVP answers collected in one list inside the page, and nothing for your guests to install. Try a design for free and unlock it once the plan is settled.