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How do you plan a surprise party for a 22 year old guy?
My boyfriend is in the military, and he's coming home for a short leave in a couple of weeks. I was thinking that since his birthday is in a couple of months, and he hasn't been around to celebrate it with his friends since high school, I'd throw him a surprise party.
Here's the catch: I've never planned a party on my own before!
I know I need to get a hold of his friends, which I should be able to do through Facebook, but I've got some other issues. There will be about 20 people at the party.
1) What kind of food should I prepare, and how much? I'd like to go a little bit beyond just pizza. We do have a barbecue (but a small backyard), so that is an option.
2) Alcohol: how much should I plan on purchasing? The guys aren't exactly heavy drinkers, but I'm a one beer kinda girl, so I have no clue.
3) Activities? I don't want to make them play spin-the-bottle or anything lame. We have a few gaming systems and everyone attending is a gamer, so I thought that we could have a multiplayer going on there, but that's only 4 people at a time. I don't want people getting bored.
Any other tips from expert party planners? Thanks!
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I'm going to assume many attending will be guys, and if so you are in luck. Feed them anything and they'll be happy. You could order pizza, wings, hoagies, typical guy foods or just barbecue some burgers and hot dogs if the weather is nice. People go crazy over kebabs on the grill. Presentation is everything, so if you get some nice serving plates any food will look good.
Have you thought about desert? You could surprise him with a cake that has his picture on it.
Hmm well the later the party is the more they will drink. I would guess 3 beers per one guy and 2 for a girl. Do the math. Margaritas or mojitos are fun for outdoor parties.
You could make funny activities that relate to your boyfriend. Gaming systems are fun but they will seperate the party (4 or 5 people playing and the rest standing around). A pinata could be funny if you got one of his favorite characters on it (trust me, once the guests have some alcohol in them it will be the best thing ever)
Twister could be a silly game or you could get some board games (Dirty minds is pretty funny, and Would you rather? is interesting) or print out trivia questions/conversation starters.
You could have a fish bowl or decorated shoe box with paper and pens to let people write birthday messages to him. It's like a modern guest book.
Atmosphere makes a good party, so if yours will run into the night add candles or paper laterns outside to give it a nice vibe. White or cream table cloths go with anything, just keep everything simple and classic. Also, tell people asap! Far enough in advance then they have no excuse not to come.
Emphasize that it is a SURPRISE! People are great at ruining surprises. Make a plan in advance to work out all the kinks.
Good luck and have a great time! He deserves a great party for serving our country. Wish him a happy birthday for me =]
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For sure have doritos, cheetos, pop like mountain dew, dr pepper, pepsi. IT would be great to have a local band to play at the party and also if they like video games, guitar hero and singstar definitely fit the bill. I would but enough beer and alcohol to be safe for someone to be able to have about 4 on their own. You may have some left over because not everyone drinks that much but at least you would have some left over. If you ask his friends they probably would know a good band and you wouldn't have to spend more than 20 dollars to get them to play. I wouldn't buy a cake but maybe a cookie because boys love chocolate and cookies.
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