Surprise Party Planning Etiquette

Surprise party planning requires a little more advanced planning on the part of the host or hostess than normal parties do, only because everything you are doing must be kept a secret from the guest of honor. The most successful surprise parties are when the guest of honor has no idea that anyone is hosting a party for them.

If you are planning a surprise birthday party, the birthday boy or girl obviously knows they have a birthday coming up, and this makes it even harder to keep the secret all the way up until the day of the party. One way around this would be to host a surprise birthday party on some other day rather than the actual birthday of the guest of honor. The date chosen for the alternative birthday party should be in close proximity to the actual date of their birthday, because if it's six months away, you may as well go ahead and celebrate the next birthday coming up too.

Surprise parties are usually more appreciated by the guest of honor because they know how hard it must have been to plan a surprise party and they will greatly appreciate all of your efforts. If the surprise party is going to be at a location other than your own, prior arrangements with the owner will need to be made so that all the necessary things to do in order to set up the party can be accomplished ahead of time.

Parking is usually a dead give-away if the guest of honor arrives and there are already a lot of cars right in front of the location of the party. Try to ask your guests to carpool together to cut down on the number of cars and then ask them to park around the corner or out of sight so the surprise won't be given away before the party begins.

Office surprise parties are fun as long as all of your co-workers know each other well enough to know that the guest of honor won't be embarrassed by having a surprise party at work. Employees might be startled or embarrassed to be having a party in their favor at the workplace, so be sure to get a feel for everyone's opinions on the subject before planning a surprise party at work. Also, don't forget to include the boss in all of your party planning ideas and get approval before proceeding too far in your efforts. Remember, the workplace is for working and you're not getting paid to party.

There are many different types of surprise parties. You could host a surprise party for someone turning over-the-hill, or an anniversary party, welcome home party, congratulations on your new job party or just because party. Whatever the occasion is that you are celebrating, if you think it will add to the celebration and make the guest of honor really happy, go ahead and plan a surprise party for them.

The main thing to take into consideration when surprise party planning is to think about how the guest of honor will react. Will he or she be happy or uncomfortable? If someone doesn't like to be in the spotlight, a surprise party is probably not the best type of party to plan for them. That doesn't mean they wouldn't appreciate a party in their honor, just that they would rather not be surprised and perhaps embarrassed in front of all the guests.

Whatever type of party you plan, always think of your guest of honor, think of all of your guests, and be sure to include yourself on the guest list. Plan your party so that you can enjoy yourself as a guest too.

Karen Shain is a party planning expert. For more great tips on surprise party planning [http://partyplanning411.com/surprise-party-planning/], visit [http://www.partyplanning411.com].