Planning a surprise party when you live together?

lembaslover

So I just moved in with my fiance which is awesome I love having one place but now I'm realizing I can't really hide good things from him like a surprise party. 

His birthday is July 7th and I know he feels overshadowed b/c his parents always combine it with a July 4th celebration and his friends have commitments to family that weekend and can't really celebrate. So I decided I want to surprise him by having a bunch of his friends show up either at our place or a restaurant a week or so after his b'day. I've talked to all of his friends and most of them are free but now I'm not sure how to coordinate this.

For example we share google calendar and I can't just make an event called "surprise party" in there yet I don't want him to decide to do something else that day. 

Then there's the issue with food and drinks. He's going to find it very strange if I just go out and buy a ton of food and alcohol like I'm throwing a party. Plus it's a week after so I'll be making another cake and that might just seem strange as well.

I was thinking of having one of his friends suggest hanging out at that time so it's not a total surprise but he still wont know his other friends are coming. Then if I do like pizza I can ask what toppings and surprise him by ordering a few extra pies. And for alcohol just be like oh hey 2 for 1 sale on vodka woohoo... 

So that's my best idea so far, has anyone else planned a surprise for someone they're living with have any suggestions?

theycallmelinz

Could you get some of his friends to run errands for you? Like you give them money and a list and send them shopping? I'm sure they would understand that you can't have this stuff at your house because it's a surprise. Then the day of, yes get a friend to take him away from the house for everyone to get there and you get everything set up.

STARMOON44

I would go with a restaurant and calendar it as date night with you.

randomslove

Would it be feasible to mutter something about a work event you've been tagged to help out on that day? Maybe even tell him that you guys are invited as a couple.

redheadbride15

I love surprise parties!

I successfully pulled this off for my H when he got a new job about 9 months ago. I arranged for a big group of people to show up at a local bar after a certain time. For the scheduling issue I just told him that we had a plan to have dinner there with my brother and his GF (which is something that we do fairly frequently, so it didn't seem unusual to him at all).

When you live together throwing a surprise at a restaurant or bar is a bit easier, but there are some ways of pulling it off in your home if you can get another one of the guests to help by storing the food/liquor at their place before the party and bring it over with them.

teddygirl9

I like the date night idea at a restaurant. If you want to do it at your house and need to hide food/drinks, do you trust your neighbors? My neighbors would totally be up for that, and then I could just grab it right before or something.

 

I picture it like: you prep beforehand, hide everything at neighbors/have friends bring it. Ask him to go and grab pizza because X friend is coming over. Then all friends come over (and you have extra food than just 1 pizza lol), grab food & bev, and surprise him when he comes in.  Or maybe friend needs a ride so he has to go grab him or something.

novella1186

STARMOON44 said:

I would go with a restaurant and calendar it as date night with you.

This. Tell him to keep that night open because you want to take him to dinner for his bday. Have the friends meet you guys at the restaurant. 

If you need to buy alcohol (like you plan on having everyone over after dinner) then either hide it (I had stuff in our home office and H never bothers to go in there so I know it's safe) or keep it at one of the friends' houses so they can bring it over with them. 

See if the restaurant will do a cake, or if they will let you drop one off from a local bakery, or bake it at a friends' house and have the friend drop it off. 

[Deleted User]

I find it pretty easy to hide things from FH in plain sight.  He's pretty oblivious to things around him so it's easier to just put a box in the hall closet rather than cover it with blankets in a bin under the spare room bed.  

If I was going to hide a party from him, I'd make all the plans/shopping/etc when he's out on his regularly scheduled outing with the guys every Wednesday night.  Buy booze, chips, dip, salsa, pretzels, stuff that doesn't need refrigeration now before he's thinking about it.  Put it all in a bin somewhere so you only have to pull out one thing when the surprise starts.  You might have to inform him you're buying beer to have just in case (because it will need to be cold) and buy some random apps to keep in the freezer just in case.  (Sometimes I like to have apps for dinner and we always have enough selection in our freezer to do that.)  Because now that it's summer you never know who might show up and need to be hosted.

southernbelle0915

STARMOON44 said:

I would go with a restaurant and calendar it as date night with you.

This.

But if you decide to host it at your place, I would just ask his friends if you can drop stuff off with them after you go to Costco or whatever. Or put stuff in moving boxes (since y'all just moved in together) and tell him its personal stuff you'll unpack later.

emmaaa

I third (fourth?) going to the restaurant and telling him it is date night. and then having your firends meet you there. surprise!

I planned a surprise graduation party for H about a month ago and it went surprisingly well. His parents asked him to come to their house to help with a few things. During that time I mowed the yard, cleaned the house, went to the store to get groceries, came home, showered, and set up. DH's sister helped by bringing a few things and his mom made a couple of sides. There is no way I could have pulled it off without their help.

And even though it was a success, it was one of the most stressful things I've ever planned and I plan events for a living.

lembaslover

Wow these are all great suggestions!! Thank you all.  Unfortunately most of his friends live ~1hr away so getting help from them would be a bit tricky. Also they all seem to have strange schedules and sounds like some might just drop in and leave at different times so I think I am going to try to host it at our place still so they have that option. I don't know why I didn't think of date night as an excuse... but I will definitely have to use that if I ever do this again.

southernbelle0915 I LOVE the moving boxes idea! It's genius. I've totally been delinquent on unpacking stuff so he'll think nothing of a bin and have no clue it's full of booze and chips and stuff. Plus I think if I just tell him his one friend is coming over, which shouldn't ruin the surprise b/c he knows this friend is visiting family that week from a few states away, that I can get away with baking a cake and having a few other apps that need fridged for him coming.