Tips for Planning a Great Surprise Party

A surprise party can be a lot of fun. It is not just a party, but also a gift for the person you hold the party for. There are some basic tips in planning a surprise party that will help make your party terrific.

1. Make sure it stays a surprise. This sounds very basic, but often this can be the most challenging part. Someone can slip and say to the honoree "See you at the party Saturday" and then they know what is going on. There are party invitations that specifically say that the party is a surprise party. You can also write in the invitation "Shh! It's a Surprise Party!" to reinforce this. When people call or e-mail that they can attend, you can say (or e-mail) them that it is a surprise party. While it may sound silly to remind people several times, this can be very helpful. If there is someone in your social circle who has a very difficult time keeping a secret, try explaining to them that part of the fun will be this person walking in to discover that you have thrown a surprise party. That will more than likely get your point across.

2. Keep party planning logistics simple. If several people are planning the party, divide up responsibilities and report back to each other on what you have done. Don't leave things hanging or to the last minute. Things that will need to be done include selecting a location, inviting people, food, decorations, having someone get the honoree to the party. Let people in your group who have ideas for each of these come forward and suggest that they take care of each of the steps. Keep track on a piece of paper who is taking care of what and what still needs to be done. A good idea can be to check in with each other once a week, or every couple of days about the party.

3. Select a great location for the party. A popular location for a surprise party is someone's home, or perhaps even a restaurant. Select a place you think you will enjoy having a party. Any location will work. The most important thing is to keep the party a surprise. If people are driving to the location, make sure that people can park their cars a block or so away so that the honoree will not see the cars out in front of the house or restaurant and will know what is going on. You want to keep the element of surprise until that last moment.

4. Inviting people. As mentioned before, make sure that the invitations say that the party is a surprise party. Confirm that it is a surprise party when people RSVP. If people need to be at the location by a certain time because the honoree will be arriving at a certain time also, then tell them this also.

5. Getting the honoree to the party. This can often be very funny. Sometimes the honoree will have the funny feeling that something is "up" because people are acting a little differently, but they can't quite put their finger on it. It is important when getting the honoree to the party, to have a very simple plan. The easiest thing to do is to have the plan to do something that you usually do, so that they will not think anything different is going to happen. So if you usually go to someone's house to play cards, then say that you want to get together at this person's house to play cards and that you will pick them up. Then if the party is being held at someone else's house, in the car you say that you need to pick up something that you left at that person's house before you go over to the other person's house. This sounds very natural and they won't suspect a thing.

Whatever you choose to do, it is certain that your honoree will appreciate the thoughtful gesture of having a party thrown in their honor to celebrate their birthday or another special occasion.