5 Things That Surprised Me About Planning A Surprise Party

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Or if not again, welcome to The Attitude Of Adventure Blog!
I'm Morgan Deane and my mission with this blog is to give great, applicable advice and funny stories, so that you get a laugh, leave with something helpful, and keep coming back!
I'm a Christ follower, I'm married to the LOVE of my life, we're parents to Winston BARKtholomew Deane (the Goldendoodle), and I love pizza! No seriously. I could eat pizza Every. Day!
{Want to know More About Me? Check it out!}

And now, for the reason you came here today!

Surprise parties can be fun, silly, serious, big, small, perfect, disastrous, or amazing. They have all kinds of sizes, locations, and occasions. You can throw a surprise party for literally any reason and everyone will get behind it because people love a surprise.
Below are The Things That Surprised Me About Planning A Surprise Party. There's some funny stories too, so prepare yourself and let's dive in!

HOW I FEEL ABOUT SURPRISE PARTIES

Surprise parties are one of those things you hear about and wish you could be a part of. Then you get invited to one and you're even more in love with the idea. Unless you hate surprises from either the giving or receiving side, in which case why are you even here? But you know, all are welcome.

I have been surprised with a party twice in my life. Once was a birthday party that Andy threw me and the other was a bridal shower at our church. Both were incredibly sweet and lovely, but awkward for me. I hate being surprised. I hate being the center of attention. I hate that feeling that everyone is watching and waiting for a response. The most awkward moments of my life are when people sing happy birthday to me. What the heck are you even supposed to do in that situation? It's awful.
Obviously, I am super appreciative and happy that people love me enough to throw me a party. I hope I was a gracious guest of honor and didn't make them feel bad for making me feel awkward. I don't want to feel awkward. I would just rather be in the know. But, that's not how it works y'all!
On the other hand, I've been a part of 2 surprise parties that didn't involve me being surprised and had the time of my life! One was an engagement party for one of my husband's co-worker and the other was the one I recently planned for his 25th birthday.
What I'm trying to get at is that you should be aware of who you're throwing the party for and how they'll feel about it. The last thing you want to do is pour your heart and soul into this project just for the person it's for to hate it and wish you hadn't. It's a lose-lose situation.

THE PREP WORK

Here are pictures of the print out I created after I planned the party. It's much prettier than the one I used and keeps everything in one place. Make sure to follow this link to print it out for FREE and get started on your surprise party!

INVITATIONS

You may know everyone that your guest of honor would want a the party, but chances are you won't. Ask friends and family, but be sure that whoever you ask, you invite. I had to steal Andy's phone to get the contact info of some of his friends from work and high school that I don't know well. If this isn't a realistic option for you, you can use social media to find them. Just be aware that sometimes messages get lost if you're not friends with them.

I text out the invitation as soon as I knew the date and time of the party -about 6 weeks lead time. Once I figured out the location, I sent another text to each individual or couple. And finally a reminder text on the day of to those who could make it.
I invited about 50 people and only about 25 of those were able to make it. Just keep that in mind as you're creating the guest list and purchasing food.

KEEPING SECRETS IS HARD

This seems obvious, but I have to let you know that the person you're planning this party for DOESN'T KNOW. When you start to think about what they would want, it becomes so hard not to ask. When you have no choice but to ask, you have to be sneaky about it. Bring it up casually or in passing, ask another friend and hope this person chimes in, or preferably start a year in advance (not realistic, but hey).

An example of this was when I wasn't sure what kind of cake Andy would want. Y'all. I should know what kind of cake he likes. We've been married for almost 2 years! But I'm not a cake person. I didn't even care about our wedding cake. I wanted chocolate mouse from this place called Fancy Pantry in Alpharetta, GA and that's what I got. I much prefer ice cream or cookies or ice cream cookie sandwiches to cake. So I don't pay attention to what cake other people like because I would much rather bring them cookies. Or ice cream. Or... well, you know.

I had to ask or guess what cake he'd like, so I opted for asking. Better safe than sorry. Casually one night, I just straight-up asked, "What's your favorite kind of cake?" Y'all, I am so not subtle. Andy can read me better than anyone I know and it's not hard to because everything comes across my face. My heart was beating so hard, but I tried to keep it together. "Chocolate cake," he said, "Or cookie cake. I like cookie cake." I added cookie cake to my check list and went on with the rest of our night.
A few days later, I mentioned in passing, "We should go get cookie cake for your birthday while we're at the outlet mall later." It was a few day before since his birthday was on a Monday and we were out on Saturday. Do you see what I did there? Instead of asking and then him getting suspicious when he didn't get cookie cake, I got it for him anyway! He didn't suspect a thing when I actually got him a huge cookie cake for his surprise party. And we got cookie cake twice. Win, win!

SPEND CASH

If you're like us and you live on a shared budget, it might be hard to keep your purchases secret. Andy and I share a bank account and look at our EveryDollar app on a weekly basis to sort our purchases into their categories.
I knew that when I was doing my shopping for the party that I would need to be sneaky about the way I purchased and from where. I messed up when I went to Party City and bought some party supplies on my debit card. When it came through on EveryDollar, Andy asked what it was for and let's just say my answer wasn't smooth. I kicked myself for not purchasing what I needed there with cash. He wouldn't have known until I told him after the party.

If you too share a bank account with your spouse, you may be wondering how to get cash without him questioning. Here's a few ideas:

1. Sell some stuff on Facebook Marketplace. It's an easy way to get some quick cash and I'm sure you have plenty of stuff lying around that you can sell.
2. Purchase everything on the day of. This isn't the easiest approach, but 
3. Use the Cash Back option at the store. You can sort it into groceries until the big day.

"HOW DID YOU GET HIM THERE?"

This is the second most popular question I get after "Was he surprised?" The answer is that I leaned heavily on his family and my best friend, MiKayla. I used MiKayla as an excuse to not spend the day with him like we normally would on a Saturday. Then I told him that since I'd be out, he should go watch the Kentucky basketball game at his parents house. His sister, Abby, added to his desire to drive over when she announced she'd be there as well.

To get him from there and back to our house, Abby asked him if he wanted to do a game night. It was perfect! I had to stay in contact with her so she could stall as necessary, then they all drove over together. It was really wonderful. My plan for if it was nice outside was to have her ask him if he wanted to play basketball at the park where we would hold the surprise party. Either way, he was completely shocked.

CAPTURE THEIR REACTION

This was an afterthought and thankfully one of our guests was sweet enough to catch everything on video and send it to me. Check it out on my Instagram if you're interested.

It was really fun to look back at the end of the night and have proof that, yes, this did happen and he was totally 100% not expecting it.

RECAP

That was a lot. Let's go through everything you need to remember! You can even save this little cheat sheet.

1. How will they feel about a surprise party?
2. Download the FREE Surprise Party Printable. Then use it to help plan when, where, who, and what you want there as well as what you need to get in preparation.
3. Be sneaky with your words and questions.
4. Be sneaky with your spending. Use cash.
5. Get a plan in place to get the guest of honor to the party.
6. Have someone video the reaction.
7. Yell, "Surprise!"

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

I hope you enjoyed today's topic!
If you want to see more by me, check out my full list of blog posts.

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I'd Love To Hear From You!

~M

Author: Morgan, Living Relational