Party Time, Planning a Surprise 40th Birthday Party Tips & Idea

Party time in the Robinson household. If you know me personally, you know that I love birthdays and I love parties. This year was a special year, my husband turned 40 and I decided to give him a surprise birthday party. I started planning 2 months in advance and decided on gold, silver and black theme. I partnered with Oriental Trading for his decorations and found inspiration in their 40th Sparking Celebration Kit and built my decor around it.

The surprise for my husband was amazing. I loved planning it, getting all the decoration, seeing his face when he walked in and hosting it. Keeping it a secret was the hardest part. I was able to gather up many of his high school friends, get family members to fly in from out-of-town and we even had a live DJ.

The backdrop was created taping together two display boards from the Dollar tree, covering with wrapping paper and adding the decorations from the 40th Birthday Sparkling Celebration Decorating Kit. Very easy to do, but it came out really nice.

Put the Party Together

The afternoon of the party, I had our daughter take the birthday boy out to a movie so I could have time to decorate the house. A movie only gave us about 2.5 hours to get the house fully decorated and turned into a party scene. Lucky I had my mom, sister, and in-laws to help. I still needed to run to the grocery store for fresh flowers and a few other misc items. For the centerpieces, I purchased glasses vases and a bag of blacks stones. The morning of I purchased a bushel of Hydrangea, our wedding flower, from the local grocery store and a stem of baby breaths.

To get the total look you will need:

The food theme was Jamaican Jerk which we ordered trays from different local restaurants. If you are planning to surprise someone Catering is the best thing to do, but if you have a limited budget this is the next best thing. Family members helped by bringing in trays of jerk chicken, red beans and rice, fried chicken, cabbage, spaghetti, and I baked a pan of his favorite mac n cheese. We had cold salads and hoagie sandwiches in addition. This picture does not do justice for all the delicious food we served.

The party continued to our basement where I set up a signature drink of Margaritas and other adult beverages. Many guests were non-drinkers so left the drinks downstairs and the food upstairs.

To get this look I covered around high drink table and again purchased fresh flowers the morning of the party. For the vases, I put a slim vase inside a larger vase and placed sliced lemons all around, then put the flowers inside the smaller vase with water, very simple yet cute.

You’ll Need:

Black Round Plastic Table Cloth
Two Vases different sizes
Fresh Lemons
Beverage Dispenser

I mentioned we had a DJ, and yes the music was perfect.

I say the party was a success based off my husband’s happiness. He was extremely surprised and happy to see all his family and friends. The guest left with happy smiles. So overall I think I was able to pull off the ultimate surprise. His smile was enough for me to know he was pleased!