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I’ve seen some hen parties that really clock up the carbon and waste - whole crowds of women flying off to Prague for the weekend brandishing plastic wands, or staying in Britain but consuming vast quantities of imported alcohol in heated beer gardens, before binning their fairy wings and L plates and crawling into taxis for a long car ride home.

Hen parties do often seem to be wasteful rather than creative. They are all about excess, and I do know many hens who have found the expense, and the drinking, to be too much.

I suppose the easiest way to be green about hen parties is not to have one. But of course, they are a great excuse for a good party with your girl friends, and I love opportunities for a get-together! So, I’ve been trying to work out how I can still have a hen party but without it being too damaging (to the planet or to our livers).

I would like my hen party to be cheap – within the budget of all my friends and family. I’d like it near home, so that we do not all travel a long way to reach it, and I hope it will give us all something interesting to do together, rather than just drinking.

Lucie, one of my best girlfriends, is a silversmith. Yesterday evening she and I put our heads together to come up with a creative hen party plan. We will gather all the girls together for a jewellery workshop, where Lucie will show us all how to make silver wire jewellery, twisting wire and decorative beads together to make our own earrings or bracelets. Then we will all have dinner together somewhere and probably a few drinks to toast our fabulous feminine creative efforts!

Lucie tells me that we will need a workspace where we can all sit round a table for the jewellery making. And as we will need to share the wire cutters and other equipment, I expect I will need to keep the group fairly small – but in a way I think that is a good thing. Having only a small group means we will be able to have a closer gathering. And jewellery making is something that will interest everyone – my youngest bridesmaid, my smartest colleague, my Mum, and all the rest – without breaking the bank.

If I can arrange for us to hold it somewhere we can all have dinner in the same building, then the carbon cost of the party will also be low.

I also like the idea of making our own jewellery because it is learning something creative. It may even mean that some of the girls wear jewellery to the wedding that they have made themselves, instead of jewellery from a shop that may have come from an unethical source.

Right – I’m off to find somewhere with a large table suitable for a jewellery party!