When I realised that I would be turning 30 whilst 7 months pregnant, my initial thought was that I would completely ignore this birthday! I thought maybe I’d focus on the baby and celebrate some other year when I could do the typical night out with too many drinks in a London bar.
After all, this was my second baby, life was busy enough and what fun is a birthday if you can’t drown your sorrows and forget it happened?
Then it occurred to me – maybe I could combine the idea of my birthday with a baby shower. Having had a very beautiful baby shower for my first baby, I didn’t want to subject my friends to the same games of ‘guess the chocolate bar in the nappy’ and the rest. Yet it would be nice to have some special girly time with the people that mean the most to me. I will inevitably disappear for a few months in the newborn haze that will shortly descend!
With that in mind, I looked around for a suitable activity for 20 women. I wanted it at home or in a convenient place, where many of the guests would be pregnant themselves! I came up with the idea of a ‘Life Drawing’ class!
Now hear me out…. this isn’t exactly the traditional baby shower – to spend an afternoon drawing a naked man. However, as someone who has actually attended and enjoyed life drawing in the past I just knew this would be the perfect activity! I wanted everyone to get involved (from a seated position!) and knew it wouldnt involve any contact sports whilst being enjoyed with or without alcohol!
I researched many ways to do this. It shouldn’t have been suprising that I wasn’t the first to think of this for a party. I found several companies, mainly aiming for hen parties, which offered a life drawing package.
After a recommendation by my sister in law, I went with Nude Life and their Hen Party Life Drawing package!
What does the package include?
The basic package included the model, an optional butler service, all professional drawing equipment, alcohol, games and forfeit suggestions and a personalised folder to keep drawings in as a keepsake.
Of course, this not being a hen, I made it clear that we wouldn’t require the butler service or alcohol, and that we would prefer more sophisticated poses than any seductive dancing!
Who was the model?
I got sent 6 gorgeous headshots to pick our model from, and although our initial selection wasnt available, we had the wonderful Jonny! He was prompt, communicative, and completely got the vibe of the party making everyone feel at ease!
On the day
I arranged a tea at home, with some pink prosecco, balloons and far too many cupcake options (Lola’s – always my fave!). We also made sure we had enough seating arranged for everyone. Apart from that my job was done!
Guests arrived from 3, and Jonny our model came along at 4. After a quick setup, we began!
Our drawing abilities varied massively, but everyone seemed to forget very quickly any awkwardness, and got very competitive over the drawing as Jonny guided us through various drawing games!
The time passed so quickly and at the end of the party, all my friends were asking why no-one had thought of this as a birthday idea before! Some claimed they never wish to draw again, but everyone loved the experience and would highly recommend it!
*This blog post was written in exchange for a discount from Nude Life but they were not involved in writing or reviewing the content*