Witnessing A Successful Surprise Party

I'm sure we've all been invited to a surprise birthday party, they're really great when they're pulled off right and the surprise is just that, a surprise! However, I'm sure we've been to a few parties where that surprise was ruined because the word accidentally got back to the one being surprised. Well, this past weekend I witnessed a surprise party where the recipient had no clue to what was going on.

The party planner had sent out the invitation via an event on her Facebook account. The planner was worried that the recipient would see or that someone would say something in front of her children and they would spoil the surprise, so her kids weren't even told! Just the birthday girls' husband was in on the party.

We all gathered at the house of the party, brought food and drink and waited for the honoree to show up. She was supposed to arrive at 6:30 but didn't show up to nearly 7! We were all waiting in the backyard, patiently awaiting her arrival and the time came when they drove up in the driveway, at this point she still had no idea what was going on, just that they were going to a friend's house for dinner. Well, when the kids got out of the car they ran towards the door on the side of the house and saw us and ran back to the car and the little one said to his dad, "There's a bunch of people in the backyard!" Well, his mom, the honoree, thankfully didn't hear what her son had said and the husband quickly went to the other side of the car and basically said to her to just leave everything, we'll come back for it. Your friend is waiting.

When she got to the side of the house where we all were standing in the backyard, we yelled SURPRISE! It worked! She began crying because all of her close friends and family were there to celebrate her birthday. She hugged everyone at the party and finally quit crying by the time she hugged the last person. She kept saying she had no idea over and over. The planner was relieved because her weeks of covert planning were successful and we all had a great time into the early part of the next morning!

So, if you were to plan a successfully surprise birthday party, I've found some helpful tips thanks to Rachel Ray that might come in handy for you.

Planning