How to Plan a Surprise Birthday Party

Surprise parties are not something universally loved. Sometimes people dislike the anxiety of suddenly being in the middle of a large crowd, with all eyes on them.
However, when people love surprise parties, they REALLY love them! If you know somebody who has a birthday coming up and has always loved the idea of being thrown a surprise party, you’ve come to the right place!
Not only does the lucky birthday boy or girl get all the attention they can get for one day, but they’re lavished with delicious foods and luxurious gifts that they didn’t have to expend any financial or mental effort to get! It’s like winning a lottery ticket without actually buying one, and it is one of the best ways in the world to let someone know that they are loved! So without another second, let’s go right to how one can perfectly execute a birthday party!
1. Learn what they love!
Let’s get the most important part out of the way first. A surprise party inherently means that the person celebrating their birthday isn’t going to know what’s coming, which of course means that you can’t exactly ask them how they want their birthday party to go. So from here on it becomes important for you to play detective!
Ask their close friends and family
The most obvious method comes first. Who could possibly know a person better than the people who grew up with them, or have been close friends with them since probably secondary school? These are people most likely to know their favourite flavours, favourite games, and favourite movies! All of this will be crucial when you’re selecting from our selection of customised cakes!
Get your answer straight from the birthday boy/girl themselves, cautiously…
Well, you can’t be so direct they’ll know what’s going on, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get some answers from them as long as you’re careful about now slipping up! Perhaps you could be browsing some cakes that you pretend are for yourself or somebody else. As you scroll through our enormous catalog, ask them what you think your non-existent recipient would like! There’s a good chance they’ll point at something they like and say “wow, this one is nice!”, and you’ll then have your answer!
2. Choose a venue!
Planning a surprise party is all about location, location, location. Where does the birthday boy/girl feel most welcome? Are they introverts who might prefer the comforts of home, or maybe they’re somebody who’ll better enjoy their surprise party outside, at a grand location! Here we tell you about some of the most popular places people have chosen to host surprise birthday parties!
At home
The biggest benefit straight off the bat; low costs. Renting a venue can get very expensive, and there’s no better way to save that money than by doing it in the warmth of your own home! Not to mention home is where everyone is most comfortable, and if it’s important to you that you actually surprise your friend, then home is the best choice!
You’re much less likely to arouse suspicion if you and your co-conspirators set things up as the birthday boy/girl is out of the house. You can easily plant a watchman outside the apartment and it’ll be easy for everyone to know when they have to be ready!
Another upside to having a surprise birthday party at home is that you know every corner of the place. You know how many guests it can hold, what decorations can go where and whether they can fit, etc. As they say, there’s no place like home!
At a hotel
If the birthday boy/girl is an adult or celebrating a birthday where they’re going into adulthood such as an 18th birthday or a 21st birthday, then a hotel is a very popular choice for a venue!
Hotels are incredibly grand and luxurious and they’re bound to give the birthday boy/girl a sense of wonder! They’re definitely going to be touched that a surprise birthday party is being held for them at such a place so sumptuous, and when you combine that with the surprise itself, they’ll definitely feel touched!
There are some downsides, however. Hotels often have a capacity limit, which means that the more attendees you have, the more expensive it’s going to get. It’s also much harder to keep the surprise going on when you lead the birthday boy/girl to a hotel unless you do a really good job of keeping up the pretense. There’s also the issue of hotels having policies about how you can decorate and other rules you have to follow. But of course, this also means that you can rely on hotel staff and management for a lot of help, such as sourcing food, alcohol, and other things that you may need!
3. Choose a theme!
Depending on who the lucky birthday boy or girl is, you’ll want to choose a theme that not only they will love, but all your attendees will be excited to participate in as well! Given that this is a surprise party, make sure one of the party planners is well aware of the likes and dislikes of the person you’re planning the party for!
Perhaps they’re somebody who’s celebrating their 18th birthday, or 21st birthday, in that case, it’s important for the theme to be one that celebrates someone going into adulthood! This is where a lot of your detective work comes into the equation. What hobbies or interests does the birthday boy/girl have? Are they a big fan of football, or perhaps Harry Potter? Would they think it fun if all the attendees were dressed as superheroes? All the answers you have will be crucial to choosing the right theme!
If the birthday party is for a child, perhaps your son or daughter celebrating their 5th birthday or their 10th birthday, then the planning is going to different! Base your theme around your child’s favourite things! Do they love Paw Patrol? Do they have a great love for all things Disney? When you have the answers to all these questions, planning the surprise party will be a breeze!
4. Send out the invitations
An obvious one that we have to remind everyone of! Once you’ve successfully determined the people that the birthday boy/girl will likely want there, then it’s time to contact them! Write an email detailing all of the things they need to know. These things include but are not limited to…
- Time and date
- Venue
- Theme and attire
- Gifts
Not everyone will be able to make the party, so make sure you know the number of people coming in advance! Don’t make the mistake of planning a birthday party for 15 people only much fewer or much more people to show up! This mistake can result in disastrous consequences, like cake and food that end up being thrown away, or worse, not having enough of those things for your guests!
5. Choose the perfect birthday cake
When the birthday boy/girl walks into the surprise birthday party, as the lights come on and everyone sings the birthday song, the very next thing they’ll notice is a birthday cake at the center of a table. And as the birthday planner, you want that moment to be the most special of all! It simply has to be the perfect birthday cake!
So how do you go about achieving that? Well, if you know all the likes and dislikes of the birthday boy/girl, it’s easy.
Flavour
Does the birthday boy/girl like chocolate, or perhaps cookie butter? No matter the birthday boy/girl’s favourite flavour, we guarantee we can provide it! We have 12 amazing cake flavours for every cake we have, and for two-tier cakes, you can choose up to 2 different flavours for each tier!
The cake flavours we provide are the following; Chocolate Banana, Chocolate Banana, Cookie Butter / Speculoos, Double Chocolate Crunch, Earl Grey Lavender, Fresh Strawberry Short Cake, Hojicha White Chocolate, Matcha White Chocolate with White Choco Bits, Premium Pure Vanilla Bean, Sea-Salt Chocolate Salted Caramel, Strawberry White Chocolate, Vanilla Lemon Curd, Vanilla Raspberry!
Hobbies and Interests
We have a wide selection of customised cakes for just about every interest a person could possibly have. If the birthday boy/girl is turning into an adult, whether that’s an 18th birthday or a 21st birthday, we have a catalog of birthday cakes specifically tailored for 18th birthdays and 21st birthdays! If they happen to be big football fans, we’ve got them covered as well!
If the birthday boy/girl is your son or daughter celebrating their 5th birthday or 6th birthday, then note that we have customised cakes modeled after children’s favorite things! Here is our selection for all children who might be animal lovers! If they’re lovers of cartoons, we’ve got cakes customised with the most popular cartoon characters as well!
We come to the conclusion of this article, and we wish you the very best of luck when it comes to planning the perfect surprise birthday party. We hope our advice will prove to be helpful to you. There’s a lot of work that goes into it, and many things can go wrong, but when everything works out perfectly, a surprise birthday party is one of the most amazing things that a person can experience, whether as a birthday boy/girl or as an attendee!
Honeypeachsg Bakery is the best cake shop in Singapore! We make the best birthday cakes and wedding cakes in Singapore, and we offer the best cake delivery as well! We charge only $9.90 for delivery, which we make completely free if your order is over $150! We also make customised photo cakes as well as corporate cakes for company anniversaries!