6140

Surprise 40th Party - 60yr Old Stripper Fun

April 2003

Lee Anne in Fayetteville ,Georgia , USA

Special Mention

Surprise 40th! My husband and I are originally from Savannah Georgia and our family still resides there. I thought the best way to get everyone to the party would be to plan a suprise party and somehow get him there. (We are 4 hours from Savannah).  Theme: In my next 40 years...

Invitations: The invitations were very nice professional invitations. The theme colors were black, white , and dark hunter green. The invite gave directions to the party place and asked for a RSVP to be e-mailed to me at work.

Decor: Each centerpiece had white tissue and black tissue paper enbedded in the holder. I stamped the white tissue with the "dates" of the specific time frame I was featuring. Each centerpiece concentrated on a specific time in Dave's life. Table one's centerpiece concentrated on the year he was born. The tissue was stamped 1961 and the centerpiece "Vase" was a pampers box. Along with the tissue I included memoribilia I began collecting for this occasion. A 1961 Willie Mays baseball card, a 1961 issue of Boy's Life, the front page of the Savannah Morning News on the day he was born. and of course his baby picture. 

Table two's centerpiece was his elementary school years. The tissue paper was stamped in the appropriate dates (to let the people sitting at the table in on the joke). The holder was a very old lunch box, and along with the tissue paper was memoribilia from his early days such as boy scout patches, bumper sticker from his elementary school ( you know the one..My student made the honor roll), old pictures courtesy of his dear ol' mom. also cans of pottied meat ( a long running joke with his mom). We even found pictures of his favorite dog.

Table three's centerpiece was his high school/college days. The "vase" was a Wendy's bag, because that is where he worked during high school. I stamped the tissue 1979 and along with the black and white tissue I included: his graduation invitation, his tassle, his diploma, his eagle scout badge, pictures of him during his high school days. I made flying mosquittos with wire and store bought bugs and implanted them in the arrangement. Dave worked for the mosquitto control after high school.

The last table centerpiece concentrated on current time. The tissue was stamped 2000 and I included pictures of his children, our wedding invitations, pictures of the family on vacation, memoribilia from the hobbies in his life (Nascar, woodworking) and much much more. The vase was a shopping bag from the Coca-Cola store in Atlanta. Dave has been working there for 23 years. It has been 2 years since the party and I cannot remember everything I included in the centerpieces, and so I just gave you the basics, but needless to say they were the talk of the evening. Also as part of the decoration I had a very lard vinyl banner made which read "Happy 40th Dave" black background and white letters. The table cloths were dark hunter green and the china was white.

At each plate the was a white votive candle in a clear glass holder. black and silver 40th confetti was sprinkled on the table before the plates were set. The napkin rings were one of my favorite surprises. I used white sculpty (you can get it from Michael's) to make small squares with a hole in each corner. Then I made photo copies of Dave's 2nd grade picture and transferred it to each napkin holder. He was sure suprised and everyone got a good laugh. I took his collge I.D. and had it blown up to a very large poster and had it sitting on an easle facing Dave as he got off the elevator for the party. The writing on it read "Happy Birthday Stud!".

The Party was held at the Tybee Light House Shrine Club and so I utilized the very large light houses inside the building and bought ferns for the decor and since the light house is black and white it fit in with the decor. 

Cake: I had a cake table set aside with two white topiaries trimmed in black ribbon. I painted the terra-cotta pots a faux green finish. The cake read: "In my next 40 years" I placed candles and small objects on the cake I thought Dave may do in his next 40 years. There was a wedding cake candle with 5 small flags on it, on each flag had the name of one of his children. There was also a few sail boats, a couple of golf clubs, small coca-cola bottles with the words retired written on them, and an old fisherman enjoying the day. I also found some small magnets which had retirement saying on them. 

Dinner: Dinner was catered by our friend. It was a pork BBQ, and all the sides. (Much more elegant than it sounds.)  Of course we had sweet tea, coca-cola, and water.  After dinner entertainment: We stepped out onto the balcony and enjoyed the light house. The kids went down to the beach, and many adults and kids alike stayed inside and looked out the window and enjoyed the sights of the surf. We also danced (built in sound system) to the sounds of the 70's and 80's music. 

The last entertainment of the night came from "Maude" a local comedianne. She asked before the party the details of Dave's life. She was the "stripper". Maude is about 60 years old and was totally in costume with combat boots, fake wig and a blacked-out tooth. She pulled Dave to the front, put him in the "hot seat" and began her routine. She told how she and he dated, and named the high school they attended, and really did a great job. Then she put on her song and danced to "These boots are made for walking". Dave's face was cherry red and everyone there was doubled over from laughing so much. 

Pictures: My sister in law is a photographer and took great black and white pictures.  How did we get him there? I incorporated everyone in the family for this ruse. Well, his daughter, my step daughter lives in Savannah and sent him an "invitation" to her play (The Wizard of Oz) in which she was playing Dorothy. We placed the invitation on our frig and marked our calender.

We visited his mother in Savannah several times before the actual suprise party and she too had the "invitation" on her frig. (he's not too happy that all his family lied to him for about 6 months;-) It worked and he showed up for her play and was greeted with 45 of his friends and family yelling SUPRISE!  He was so taken aback he wouldn't get off the elevator for fear of ruining some else's party. He though he was on the wrong floor!

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