Almost everybody loves a good surprise, especially when this surprise is a party. But someone has to organise it, which is always tricky; there’s a lot to do and you have to keep it a secret. There are people who are insanely good at it and they actually enjoy planning, sometimes even more than the fun itself, but they are pretty rare. Usually, you really want to make a nice gesture, but you’re always struggling with something, e.g. time. So what can you do if you want to organise a surprise party, but you have to hurry up? Here are some tips.
Engage other people
You can be the coordinator, but try to gather a group of people who will be committed to the task. The more of you, the less work each one has to do, which is a huge upside when it comes to last-minute parties. You can set up a Facebook group or a WhatsApp chat to distribute assignments and keep each other updated.
Set the time and invite guests
If it’s last-minute then you probably don’t have time for paper invitations, but no worries – a Facebook event or simple phone calls will suffice. You just have to inform the guests that it’s going to be a surprise party and specify the start time – punctuality is crucial in this case. Make sure the set hour is at least 30 minutes before the arrival of the guest of honour. Though it’s safe to give everyone the time appointed much earlier; in case someone is late, it won’t ruin the surprise. On the day of the party, keep track of your guests – if you see that someone is running late, message them and tell them to wait until after the big surprise.
Order a cake
Baking a home-made one is a nice gesture, but very time-consuming, especially if you’re planning a birthday celebration – you’ll need more than one for the cake feeding and the rest of the party. Fortunately, these days you can order basically anything online, so there’s also a wide range of just as delicious birthday cakes to be delivered to you. Time saved and you can spend it on something more troubling.
Get more food
If you don’t organise the party in a restaurant or a bar, you have to plan the menu carefully, because there’s nothing worse than hungry guests. As you’re not completely sure of the timing and you need things that can be easily hidden, go with simple choices. Cookies, crisps, little appetizers – standard party food will be a good choice. If you and your friends are willing, you can assign recipes for some of the guest of honour’s favourite dishes, then everyone can bring something. In case you see that food is going to be finished too soon, ordering a pizza is always a great idea.
Control what the guest of honour does
If it’s their birthday and they’re going for the temple blessings, that would give you the time to set everything up and you won’t need any fake activities to plan for them. If it’s another occasion, get an accomplice (a friend or a family member) to plan something that isn’t going to happen. It will give you the certainty that they won’t make any other plans.
Dress code
Bear in mind that your guest of honour won’t know about the party, so they probably won’t be dressed up; for example, it would be weird if they just came back from work or the beach and everyone else was wearing fancy dresses and blazers. So either inform the guests that the dress code for the party is casual or, just like on their birthdays when they were children, have a whole new outfit as one of the gifts, and a place for them to change.
Something more
Just because it’s last-minute, it doesn’t mean you can’t plan anything special for that day. If you set the date close to Rakhi celebration, you can think about preparing colourful strings for the guests to exchange them. If Diwali it’s near – you can light lamps or candles together; if it’s Holi – you better not throw the party in yours or any apartment. Make sure you have someone who will willingly take photos of the moment of a big surprise and the whole party. You can consider buying several disposable cameras and place them around the room for people to take pictures from different perspectives – after the party, you can make a photo album and give it to the surprise as a belated, but a wonderful gift.
Of course, everything depends on a person, a number of guests and a type of a party that you want to organise secretly, but it’s important to understand that, even when it seems like you’ve got too little time, all is not lost yet. After all, it’s the thought that counts, so even when something goes wrong, it still can be a nice gesture.
Be First to Comment