The Ultimate Surprise Party ~ Day One (Philadelphia Event Planner)

For those of you who may not have read the previous blogs about the planning of this trip, here are the links to part one http://www.eventsbymonroe.com/main/?p=470 and part two http://www.eventsbymonroe.com/main/?p=478 .  As promised . . here are the details of how the trip went.

I arrived at my parents house to meet them before leaving for the airport.  At this point my mother still had no idea that we were going to Rome, and thought that we were heading to Longwood Gardens and then out to dinner.  During the hour leading up to the car ride we all began to get a little anxious.  We had been planning this trip for a year, and couldn’t wait to tell her about all that we had been working on.

We got into the car, and pulled out of the driveway.  After about five minutes in the car we asked her to put the directions into the GPS for the restaurant we were going to (which we would give her the zip code to Rome to enter).  Of course, the GPS was in the other car.  Go figure, so we went to our default plan of giving her the present we had for her, which also had her plane ticket in it.  She was so shocked, she didn’t know what to say.  She even cried!  She was so excited, it took the rest of the ride to the airport for it all to process.  (Video Footage will be coming soon!)

We arrived at the Philadelphia Airport and met up with my fiance, Tim, who was waiting for us there with the bags.  We checked our luggage, got our boarding passes, and headed for the terminal, where surprise number two was waiting for her.  As we walked into the terminal she found five of her friends awaiting our arrival who would be joining us on our trip.  She was speechless.

While waiting for our flight we stopped into Chickie & Pete’s to have our last taste of American Cuisine for a few days.

The flight was on time.  Everybody took a nice little nap on the plane.  Everybody except for me that is.  Somehow I always see to get stuck next to an armrest elbower.  Not only was I elbowed the entire trip, but the large man sitting to my right was wearing a puffy winter coat the whole flight, which took up even more room. . . ugh.  Lucky for me I brought a great book for reading, and was equally excited about the new technology for watching movies on the plane.  Now each seat has a personalized screen on the back.  It is a touchscreen that allows you to choose from various movies, TV shows, news, games and more.  Everything is free except the games, and of course the $5.00 for a headset.

Our flight landed at 7:30am (Rome’s time).  Everyone else seemed pretty refreshed from their nap, I however was a little groggy but happy to be out of that seat!  I was less then thrilled to have to go to baggage claim and then wait in the long line to get through customs.  To my surprise, there wasn’t a long line at all for customs.  The agents actually couldn’t even be bothered to look up from what they were reading to look at our passports, let alone stamp them.  I have done a good amount of traveling in my life, and have never experienced this.  They didn’t even look at my picture, they just waved us all through.  It’s amazing how security differs from country to country.

Our ride to our apartment is another adventure all together, so I will use that to begin Day Two.  Ciao!

Do As The Romans Do. (Philadelphia Event Planner)

**This is the second part of the previous blog. If you haven’t read it, go back and catch up **

So. . . now that we had come up with this amazing idea, that would be the “surprise trip of a lifetime”, we had a LOT of planning to do.  We started by talking to all of her friends, and seeing if they would like to join us.  Seven of my mom’s friends were ecstatic to come along, making a group of 13.  13 people in Rome, now that’s a party!

We contacted my mom’s supervisor at work to let her know that she would be taking some vacation time.  Then we started the planning, the concocting of our story, and how we would get her there.

First we needed somewhere to stay, so we started looking around on all the top travel sites.  There are some gorgeous hotels, with amazing architecture, but so many of them only had rooms for two, which began to get pretty pricey.  We decided to see if we could find apartments to rent, which worked out to be much more cost effective, until my dad upgraded ours to the lap of luxury   He insisted that it’s a once in a lifetime trip, and we should enjoy it.  (Hey, I wasn’t going to argue)

We then began researching the area to plan our itinerary, and search for the perfect spot to host my mother’s birthday dinner.  We will be visiting all of the great tourist spots, shopping, and since we are Catholic, we acquired tickets to go to the Vatican for Mass on Palm Sunday.

My sister and my dad went out and bought her clothes for the trip, new make-up, and everything she would need.  My mom is VERY perceptive, if one thing was out of place she would notice (this is how I often found myself in trouble as a teen.  I was never as good at covering my tracks as I thought I was).  We couldn’t risk her realizing that something was missing, so new everything it was.

Now that we had her bag packed and tucked away in a closet she would never look in, we had to think about how we could get her there without her knowing.  We didn’t want to tell her about the trip until we were already on our way to the airport, so we tried to think of what would be in the same direction.  Longwood Gardens is a location our family has grown very fond of over the past year, and it just so happens to be in the same direction  as. . . you guessed it, The Philadelphia Airport.

My dad and I put together a fake email about a special Longwood Gardens, and an Authentic Italian Restaurant (the actual restaurant we will be having her birthday dinner at in Rome) was having for one night only.  This special was conveniently being held the week of her birthday.  It involves an hour tour of Longwood Gardens beautiful orchid display, followed by a five course dinner with fine Italian wines at the restaurant just down the road.  She bought it, and found it so thoughtful of us to find something she would enjoy so much (boy is she in for a shock )  My wonderfully amazing fiance has all the bags in his car, and will drive down to the airport and meet us there.  Meanwhile, while I am in the car with my family, about half way to the airport, we will ask her to type the address of the restaurant into the GPS, and when she asks for the city, we will tell her Rome.  I will, of course, be videotaping inconspicuously from the back seat, and will youtube her reaction for all to see!  Once we get to the terminal, all her friends will be waiting there already, which will be surprise number two!

I can’t wait to get back and begin my next blog series “The Ultimate Surprise Party”.  Stay tuned!

When In Rome . . . (Philadelphia Event Planner)

By the time you read this, I will be in the air on my way to Rome.  (A huge thank you to Amanda Ojeda for posting my drafted blogs for me while I am gone).  At this time I have hopefully just accomplished pulling off the biggest surprise party of my event planning career.  Although it has been killing me, since the person being surprised by this trip is one of my frequent readers I was not able to write about any of the plans in my blog. . . until now!

Over the years I have not only done event planning for my company, and other companies I have worked with, but also for friends and family.  There is never an occasion in my family that does not get an all out bash.  For my parents 25th anniversary we threw them a surprise party with an International Theme and 80 of their closest friends.  This was the perfect theme for them.  Through my life I have been lucky enough to live in three different countries, due to my father’s work, and have gotten to travel more then the average person.  While living in both England & Germany my parents took full advantage and traveled to so many places, Greece, Italy, Paris, Austria, Scotland, Alaska, Amsterdam, etc.  The list goes on for a while.  So what better way to commemorate 25 years together then to incorporate something they love!  The party was fabulous down to every detail.  Every room in the house was decorated in authentic decor from a different country, and food to go with it!  There were lawn inflatables, souveniers, etc.  We even got some of the guests to dress in costumes.  It was a phenomenal themed event, and an amazing time had by all!

For my father’s 50th we threw him another great surprise party with a fall theme as his birthday is in September.  He was utterly surprised, and had no idea.

Around this time a year ago we began to consider what we should do this year for my mother’s big birthday (we won’t say which one).  My father LOVES to party, and is very social.  If you put him in a room with 200 people he didn’t know, he would leave with 200 new friends.  My mother finds it more enjoyable to do things with the people she loves, and to experience unique adventures.  She specifically told me years ago she would much rather do something for her “big birthday” then to have a party.

For my parents anniversary party we gave their friend the option of putting money towards a trip to Italy for them, rather then a gift.  We knew they had been wanting to go for a long time.  To play along with the International theme we placed the check of all the money their friends supplied into a Pinata and had them smash it to get it out.  As of last year they had still not had a chance to take the trip, so we decided a trip to Rome would be a great way to surprise my mom for her big birthday!

Come back tomorrow to read how we pulled it off!