How to plan a suprise party.

I will give you helpful information on how to plan a succesful suprise party. What supplies you will need, how to get help, how to pick a great theme as well as the most important one how to make the guest of honor arrive suprised.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• A guest list
• invitations
• food and drink list
• decorations
• a venue
• presents
• pictures of the guest of honor
• guest log or signable photo frame
• camera or video tape

1. Pick a date and find the location. The best way to not alert the guest of honor is to either one throw the party way early before their birthday or occasion so thy will not expect it or plan it at there house with a family members help so you will know when they will be gone and you can get in to set it up and get everyone in and be ready before they get there. It is nice if you can ask around a little to see what date works the best for most people, but do not worry about asking everyone just the people you for sure want there such as their parents or children and so on. Weekends and later afternoon and evenings are usually the best times.
2. You need to make a guest list of all the guest of honors, friends, family and co-workers. Sometimes if you can ask a family member who lives with them to sneak a peak in their personal address book for information this helps a lot. Another great way to get their friends info is from emails. When they email you it usually has a list of the other friends the also sent that email to. you now have their email addresses. Just let them know you are planning a surprise party and would love it if they could email you or call you with their personal information so you can send them an invitation. You can also put if they would like to help or if they have any great ideas to let you know. People love to help with surprise parties because they are so much fun. Once you have your guest list ready it is time to address the invites. I would mail the 2 weeks in advance a remind them that this is a surprise so to keep it hush hush and maybe even hide the invite just incase. Also if you need help with food put a list in your invites and ask people to bring certain items or let them know it is a potluck, and to call you to RSVP and you can let them know what is still needed to bring.
3. Pick a theme. Parties with themes are so much fun. For example for someone who is turning 50 you could have a fifties theme, with old music, poodle skirts, shakes and so on, or another fun easy theme is to have a Luau with Hawaiian shirt, grass skirts, ect, back yard BBQs are another popular one as well. You can pick anything for your theme just let your guest know in their invite and ask them to join in on the fun and dress up. Pick out your decorations according to your theme. Pick up streamers as they are very cheap and come in almost every color and there are endless ideas to decorate them. Balloons are another cheap way to decorate, a great and neat way to use balloons are to make a balloon drop for when the guest enters. Get a larger net and attached well on one side of the net with push pins to the ceiling, the side closest the where the will enter secure loosely with tape that has strings attached so when they walk in and you yell surprise you can easily pull the strings and the balloons you put in the net will come falling down. Be creative and have fun with it! I think overall one of the best decorations for a surprise party are old photos of that person gather what you can and ask others to bring or send you copies of any they have. Another great ideas is to make a slide show on a cd and have it playing through out the party.
4. Get all the food set up and drinks set up nicely on a table. Have all your guest park where they can not be seen or at least scattered so it doesn't seem ovbious. Have a table set up for gifts and a box for cards. Have the cake ready with candles and get your camera ready. Then yell it, SUPRISE. they will be so excited to see that so many people thought of them that no matter what they will be happy. Once the party is going let people mingle for a little and then announce there will be food. After food it is a good time to play a few fun games, there are several fun ones but one of my favorite for these types of parties is to have everyone write down a favorite time or memory with the Guest of honor or how they met, choose someone to read them and have the Guest of honor try and guess. After that it is a great time for gifts. Have all your guests of the party sign a sign able photo frame when they arrive or before they leave so they guest of honor can put a photo of the party day in the frame and remember always how much fun they had and of all the great friends and family. You can do a guest book but photo frames are more unique, cheaper and fun, guest books you usually put away and never see again. Have fun and good luck!