Aaron turns the big 4-0 tomorrow. I’ve known since this time last year that I wanted to do something big for his 40th, I just didn’t know what. It finally hit me over the summer that I should throw a surprise party for him in Flint while we were there for the holidays.
Keep in mind that I was an event planner in Flint for five years, so I have a lot of contacts that made this easier. Even without those contacts, I would have done the exact same thing if I were to throw another one (surprise, I won’t).
Before I get into my top tips, and the photos from the party I will tell you I loved the outcome of this party more than I can describe, and I am so happy I did it. That being said, I will never throw him another one. I didn’t like having to hide things and lie to him for months. At one point a day or two before the party I almost spilled the beans because I was so tired of lying. I’m so happy I kept the secret for a few more days.
This face was totally worth all the planning, lying, and stress.
My first tip is to find a venue that isn’t your home. The thought of having to plan a party for 40+ people at my home feels terrible. The cleaning and cooking, and parking, and planning to get him out of the house. No thank you. I chose an arcade bar Downtown Flint (The Eberson). I knew the owner and manager from previous events Downtown, so it was an easy phone call to make. I scheduled the party for a day they were not usually open so I could have the run of the place. When I picked a venue and a date in August, we had not planned our Christmas trip home yet. My next goal was to make sure we were in Flint on December 29th.
The second tip I have is to build a team. This was especially important since I was planning the party in a different state, but I would have needed my people either way. I had a group of four close friends in on the whole thing. We had a group chat where we discussed times, food options, how we were going to get him there, and everything in between. My mom was also a huge help leading up to the party. She took me shopping for last-minute decorations the day before, let me store it all at her house, and came early to help me set it all up.
Since Aaron’s party was during the holidays I gave everyone the date and time two months before the party. That probably isn’t necessary, but Aaron isn’t on Facebook so a simple event was how I invited everyone and updated them on party details. One quick note if you happen to be planning an event in a different time zone, Facebook won’t let you change the time zone after the fact. His party was at 3 pm Eastern time, but my choices for the invite were 3 pm PST, or 12 pm PST. 12 pm was technically correct, but I felt like it was confusing and no one looks at the time zone. I made sure to clarify in the discussion that the time zone was wrong.
Another tip I used is letting someone else worry about keeping the guest of honor busy. I gave that task to Aaron’s best friends, and let them run with it. They planned a Top Golf outing a few hours before he was supposed to be at the party. He thought the girls were going to get pedicures, then we would all meet up for dinner or drinks later. Once we all knew the plan, I stayed out of it. I told them what time Aaron needed to be there, and trusted them to make it happen.
A tip I learned after the party is don’t worry too much about the small details. Aaron only ate because someone gave him a plate, he ate a cupcake, but would have been happy with anything, and only noticed the decorations in photos. The small things don’t matter when you have a room full of friends and family.
My last tip is to enjoy the party! I had so much fun that day. We had over 40 people there that we had not seen in at least a year. It was so great to see friends and family all in one room celebrating an amazing man.
The best photo ever taken of me was snapped a few minutes before Aaron walked into the room. I had the best time that day!
Bonus tip: ask someone else to take photos for you. Either hire a professional or ask a friend. You won’t remember to do it, and you will be so happy that someone else did. I hit the jackpot by having a friend that is a photographer and loves Aaron. I can’t thank Mike enough for capturing that day.
Now to the fun part. The only photo or video I took the whole day, was of Aaron walking through the door. He was genuinely surprised!
The smile on his face was worth any amount of work. He was so happy he didn’t have words.
