Hey guys, this is for a friend of mine…she’s wanting to organize a Mehndi party for her cousin and she wants it to be all girls b/c her cousin is hijabi. It would be like a bridal shower I guess. I told her there’s a lot of of girls with great ideas on this forum so I thought I’d ask. I need your help and ideas please.
What’s an activity or something all the guys(uncles + guy cousins) can go do while the girls have a Mehndi at the house? I was thinking all of the men could go out and have dinner somewhere but that may not last for more than 2 hours…and the Mehndi would last at least 4-5 hours. Where can the men go after dinner that doesn’t require spending too much money? The main problem is the age range(uncles to college going kids) all being grouped together and expected to hang out b/c they can’t be at the house while the girls do their thing. Any ideas? (It will be in Ohio this December so outdoor activities are not possible).
What are some fun things to do at an all girls Mehndi? Games?
Re: Help! Need ideas for a gender seperated Mehndi at home!
I hosted a well organized and fun dholki for my cousin. For the children i made goody bags with candy, and color books with crayons and activity books and a few other small party favors like tops to spin and bouncy balls and such. The kids were allowed full access to my room that had sponge bob and kid movies playing and stuffed animals and they all kinda sat together coloring, playing and stuff for most of the night. The women sang for a bit but we did play desi charades. I wrote out about 25 movie titles, put them in a hat and girls could take turns acting the songs and having the guests figure out what movie she's trying to act out. We timed each person and at the end instead of giving a gift to the team that won we decided that everyone in the room will vote on their favorite round of charades, the best actress or the most humorous one. We all gave the award to the girl that drew Rangeela lol trust me she earned it in a very humorous way. Recently my friend that won the prize threw a dholki for her cousin and asked me to host and organize the game again. So I did and again it was a great hit, I think Fashion was a dramatic one to guess and had a lot of flair. It was fun. The shy girls didn't have to get up and grab a movie they could simply sit back, laugh and scream guesses. When you have a room full of women that may not all know each other, trust me this is the way to get everyone friendly and to let their guard down a bit.
Another game I have played is something we do at bridal showers where the bride to be has to guess what her fiance's responses would be to questions such as favorite color, what side of the bed does he sleep on, favorite thing to eat, blah blah. This game is nice so that the room gets familiar with the type of guy the girl is marrying into (after all we worry about our girls) and can be funny based on questions or responses he gives.
You can have a dance off competition. Basically the host has to make a mix of songs and people need to be paired up. If you have a room of 20 girls willing to play just go around the room in order and number them 1-10. Instead of starting with 11 start with 1 and number the rest of the girls. Then the partners are set and they sit with each other. The host plays maybe like 25 -45 seconds of a song (a minute is too long somehow bc girls get shy) and each pair of girls try to rock the dance floor. At the end everyone verbally votes for their favorite pair and they win a prize.
Re: Help! Need ideas for a gender seperated Mehndi at home!
For the guys how about a meal AND a movie? And then after the movie go out for coffee/dessert?
Activities:
Does she want it to be mehndi-ish or bridal showerish? You can do the usual singing songs, doing dances, and putting flower necklaces/gajre on the bride, feeding her mithai, etc. You can also include some sort of quizzes and such -- have the guests take a quiz about the bride and see how well they do, also in advance ask the groom to take the same quiz and share his answers at the party. You can also ask the groom to make up a quiz about himself for the bride to answer in front of all her guests. If she gets an answer wrong he could create some sort of playful punishment (she has to eat something she doesn't like or sing a song or recite some movie scene or something). Bridal showers are also known for their toilet paper wedding dress game -- where guests are put into teams, one person serves as a model for each team, and each team constructs a wedding dress with toilet paper (you can decide whether to allow other materials). If you want to make it desi you could use red streamers or something, rather than tissue paper. And of course another activity is just opening presents :D.
Decoration:
Get a few strands of artificial flowers and such from a dollar store or Michaels or something (a lot of the autumn stuff is on sale right now, so you can get lots of stuff with the appropriate red/orange/yellow tones). Use those and some colorful dupattas and maybe some Christmas lights to create a stage. If done right, twisting two shades of streamers (I like yellow and orange or yellow and shocking pink), together in lines along the walls can look very nice. If you want it to be mehndi-ish also move chairs and tables to the sides and put white chaddars on the floor surrounded by colorful cushions.
Family/friend involvement:
You can assign games to a person or something. Decor to a few people, etc. But only if they are really responsible.
Re: Help! Need ideas for a gender seperated Mehndi at home!
WOW. I knew coming to this forum was the right idea. You guys have AWESOME ideas. All the game/decor/what to do with the men ideas are great. THANK YOU.
I'm copying and pasting all of your posts to my friend and she's taking notes and sharing it with her cousins in Arizona and Ohio...yes, your ideas are being read all over the country! lol. Thanks again and keep 'em coming if you have more.
Re: Help! Need ideas for a gender seperated Mehndi at home!
oh ya with the game where the girl has to guess her groom's answers to questions every time she got something wrong she had to put a piece of bubble gum in her mouth. It was rather funny to see the bride to be with chipmunk cheeks, struggling to answer 15 questions with tons of gum in her mouth and it was cute.
