I Bought a Lawnmower: Brian Turns 24: How to Throw a Surprise Birthday Dinner

So although this may surprise some of you, my boyfriend Brian doesn't read my blog. His excuse? "I live with your blog..." Okay, I'll take that. Armed with that knowledge, I actually considered posting about how I was planning his surprise birthday dinner when I first started the process three weeks ago. I know his mom reads my blog (thanks Kris!), but since he didn't, I thought that it would be a safe bet. Then I realized that my decision was an accident waiting to happen, especially considering that he rarely has a reason for doing things, so reading my blog on the one day that I actually didn't want him to wouldn't be the weirdest thing ever. So today, on his 24th birthday and 12 hours after his surprise dinner, I decided to explain the process and how absolutely awesome he thought it was!

So for those of you who know Brian, he was a bit crazy in college. However, since getting a big kid job, especially one that forces him to wake up at 5:30 in the morning, he has chilled out a substantial amount. Taking this into consideration, I knew that I didn't want to throw him a party where there was going to be a huge amount of drinking or where he knew in advance that he was the focus of the attention. This led me to realize that a surprise dinner, instead of a surprise party, was probably a good bet.

So, using my list of instructions, I will tell you exactly how I planned Brian's surprise birthday dinner!

Step 1: Decide on the atmosphere that you want to create. Make it one that the person will be comfortable in and that people you invite will enjoy. For example, don't choose a beer tasting if a lot of the people don't drink. For Brian, I wanted to make the atmosphere very relaxed, where people were comfortable to talk and mingle with each other. For Brian's dinner, I chose a local restaurant that we visited frequently while in college. It was a pub-type atmosphere and people could drink and eat if they chose to.

Deciding on a date and time is also a part of this. If you are choosing a sporting event, you have fewer choices than simply going to dinner. For me, I wanted to make it near his birthday, and the weekend was out because we were going to be out of town. I also wanted to give people time to get off work and to make it into town if they were traveling. For us, Thursday night worked perfectly, also because the restaurant didn't host events on the weekends. We chose 7 p.m. so that some of his friends could make it from out of town.

Step 2: Decide on a guest list. It helped that the majority of people that I invited knew each other already, so that takes one big step out of my equation. However, make sure that if you are inviting people who will get along. For example, take appropriate measures when inviting friends who may have an outstanding issue, or who have previously dated. Make sure that they are both aware that the other will be there, and that the goal of the event is not for them to fight, but to celebrate someone's birthday, or whatever event you are celebrating. Since Brian was in a fraternity in college, I wanted to invite some of his alumni brothers as well as some of the current brothers that he is friends with.

Step 3: Decide on a form of contact for the invitations. Since this was a pretty basic gathering and everyone was relatively young, I took advantage of our generations vested interest in social media and text messaging. My first step was to create a private event on Facebook (make sure that if you are planning a SURPRISE party and want to control the guest list, that your event is private and that only you can invite people to the event). I gave a brief description of what the party was about, as well as included the fact that invitees could see the guest list, so that if I had left someone important off, they could tell me to send that person an invitation. Now remember that not everyone utilizes social media constantly, so two forms of communication may be necessary. After I assembled the guest list, I made sure to send a text message to the people who were not on Facebook to make sure that they were informed, as well as sent a reminder text to the people who didn't get on Facebook frequently.

This was the photo that I used for the event on Facebook. Original, I know. Thanks Google.

Step 4: Decide on any type on entertainment you wish to have at your event, if necessary. For me, the event was just dinner, drinks, and conversation. If you are attending a sporting event, that will be your entertainment, same for a movie or a theme park. If you are hosting a dinner at your house or apartment, or at the home of someone else, you may want to provide yard or board games so that people have something to do instead of just talk.

Step 5: Adding the extras. This may be my absolute favorite step, and it's totally optional, but I found that it worked really well. With a bit of extra planning, you can seriously do great things! For Brian's dinner, I knew that most people wouldn't bring a gift (why would they? Their attendance was the gift!) but I still wanted him to get a card from more than just me. So, I picked up a simple birthday card from Target, and passed it off to my roommate Kassie who was going to be at the event as well. The information said to arrive at 7, which is the time that Brian and I ended up leaving our house so that everyone would be there when we arrived. Since they had about 15 minutes with nothing to do before we got there, I asked Kassie to pass around the card that I had purchased and have everyone sign it. This way, Brian has just one card but it is filled with everyone's well wishes and greetings! I also made sure to leave my camera with Kassie so that she could take a few photos of Brian's surprised face.

Step 6: Hammer out the details. For me, this included double checking the numbers with the restaurant to make sure that everything was still on schedule, delivering the card to Kassie, arranging someone (again, Kassie) to arrive a few minutes before to the location and "check in" as well as be the visible person for people arriving, and updating the Facebook event/keep texting people to remind them of the approaching date and any necessary details.

Step 7: Make it believable. For me, this is where it got a little bit complicated. Brian was a bit unsure as to why we were going to dinner so late and why I wanted to look more presentable than normal. I was able to cover my tracks a little bit and tell him that because I had to come home and shower as well as pack a little bit, that 7 was just the easiest time. Plus, I told him that we never take pictures when we go out on dates, and I wanted to take a picture because it was his birthday.

Step 8: Arrive and enjoy yourself! The dinner turned out to be a great night of fun for everyone, and Brian was so happy to get to spend it with friends. Because everyone was eating and drinking, conversation was never forced and just carried itself at a nice relaxing pace throughout the evening. It was definitely a night to remember, and as soon as I find my camera cable I'll be sure to upload some photos! But for now, here are a few I took with my iPhone.