2018 has been a busy old year at LNOF. We’ve been hard at the graft doing what we do best, sending thousands of stags and hens off on their travels, celebrating their final days as singletons. Whilst they’re there, they’re staying in some of the very best accommodation on the market and taking part in awesome activities, from the bucket list tickers to the downright hilarious and everything in-between.
But, none of this would have been possible without our fantastic suppliers’ hard work, dedication and relentless cooperation. So, as it’s the end of the season, we threw a huge party in London’s iconic Sway Bar, to say thanks to each and every supplier for making this all possible. It was time for our suppliers to switch off, kick back and have a good time… and with a free bar, that wasn’t too hard.
We kitted Holborn-based venue, Sway Bar, out with inflatable palm trees, flamingos and bananas, and everyone who arrived was given a Hawaiian lei to get into the tropical spirit. Before long everyone was swaying to the music and limboing like pros.
Before the shots had chance to take hold, Matt had some pretty big stuff to announce – the awards. At LNOF, we’re big on loyalty and we don’t like to chop and change suppliers willy nilly, which is why we make such a big deal of a 10 year partnership. And this year, joining the X Club after a decade-long relationship, was our friends at Plan A.
Next up was the award for the Best Overseas Supplier. This category saw some tough competition, with some of the best suppliers we’ve ever worked with being nominated. But there could only be one winner, and that was Ultimate Stag.
Another fiercely contested category is the Best National Supplier, with some of our biggest UK suppliers on the shortlist. However, they’re massively passionate about what they do, they really care about their activity and they go to great lengths to make sure that everything is delivered perfectly to our groups, so the winner could only be Sashay Dance.
The independent suppliers supply us with consistently dependable activities across multiple locations, and really work their hardest to add that spark to the customers’ weekends. With that, the Best Independent Supplier Award of 2018 went to Vaulkhard Group.
Next up was the Best Accommodation Supplier Award, which, when you take into consideration that we work with over 800 hotels, apartments and hostels, is a pretty massive deal. With a brilliant, friendly team behind them and in in-house nightclub, having hosted us for many a fam trip to Dublin, the winner of this award has to be Harcourt Hotel.
The penultimate award is the prestigious Most Innovative Supplier. Things are changing in the stag and hen world faster than ever before, meaning that it’s only the most adaptable who will survive. So, it was with great pleasure that we announced the dynamic and exciting Xtreme Events the winner of this category.
Finally, it was on to the biggie, the Outstanding Achievement Award. This was the much coveted award that everyone wanted their hands on, which was won last year by Stag Republic. The nominees this year were a real cut above the rest, including Ultimate Stag, Prague Weekends, Sashay Dance and Revolution Group, but the overall winner, announced accompanied by a fanfare and gold confetti cannons, had to be… Ultimate Stag.
As you may expect, many a celebratory drink followed, and continued long into the wee hours of the morning. Until the next time, possibly in another location… watch this space.
Want to see everyone get progressively more drunk as the night wore on? It's all right here in our gallery: