Jade Sutcliffe

Jade Sutcliffe is The (NRL) Footy Show’s gorgeous Lady Luck and sports manager.  A former ironwoman, Jade married ironman Wes Berg earlier this year and lives on the Gold Coast.

I was the hen; my bridesmaids (my sister Elke Sutcliffe and best friend Shannon Reed) organized the whole affair. I think I was very relaxed hen and was happy with whatever they were planning or organising and only had one rule and that was I didn’t have to wear a veil!

My hen’s night was in January, three weeks before my wedding, which was perfect, giving me enough time to recover.

A mix of both, it was a hen’s day starting at 10am on Saturday and went all the way through the night with a small breakfast on Sunday with just my girlfriends the next morning.

There weren’t activities as such as I really wanted it to be a day not only for me but for everyone there. I wanted it more of a celebration of all my friends for all my friends. I grew up in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and now, living on the Gold Coast, I don’t get to see my girlfriends as much, so I just wanted a day to get everyone together and have a drink and a laugh.

We had a “Sex in the City” theme; everyone wore a little black cocktail dress except me who got to wear any colour cocktail dress I wanted. It was all a mystery to me I was only told each part as the day went along.

I was taken for hair and makeup in the city then straight down to Rose Bay Marina at 10am, where all my girlfriends and family were waiting. We boarded a very cool boat, had a red carpet leading up to it and everyone got a snap shot with the hen, paparazzi style.

We cruised the harbour with cocktails, music and canapés for a few hours, played a couple of question and answer games and then docked at Woolloomooloo wharf where everyone got off and we had a drink at Otto. When then went over to the Tilbury and continued to have cocktails and snacks.
We then head into Potts Point to a club called Favela where a friend very kindly organized a door list.

We all tried to kick on by this time it was 10pm and we’d been out on the boat all day in the sun and we had been going for 12 hours so had one drink a quick danced and called it a night.

Me, of course! Though we were all stars on the red carpet!

When we pulled up to Woolloomooloo wharf there was actually another boat mooring at the same time at it was a Buck’s Party with a bunch of Melbourne Boys. This had the whole boat very excited and they invited us to Otto and shouted the whole hen’s Party (probably 25-30 women) champagne. We stayed and drank with them for about an hour as they kept shouting us champagne and the boys fell in love very quickly with a couple of the girls. They invited us on to Hugo’s, but we declined even though they offered to cover the door charge for everyone and a bar tab (very generous offer!!).

No it was all very relaxed and fun, it was just like a big girls’ night out. Everyone dressed up and had a ball. I really wanted it to be about all my girlfriends and family not just me.

I probably wouldn’t change a thing. Mine was so lovely and so well planned. I have organized a couple in the past and actually organizing one at the moment and always try and tailor the day around the kind of person that the hen is. I just try and make the day as special as possible and make sure they always feel comfortable at and are doing activities or going places that they truly like. I really enjoy organizing hen’s days.