Be sure to stress the importance of keeping it a secret on the invitation. If you know someone is a bad secret keeper, talk to them in person or on the phone about ways they can avoid your spouse before the party. Some people don’t like surprises. If you’re thinking of planning a surprise party, ask your wife how she feels about them well in advance. If she says no, respect her wishes. The first thing to do when starting to plan a birthday party is to get a good sense of what your budget is for the event. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting your spending out of control. If money’s tight right now, host the party at a time where you don’t need to serve a full meal. This way, you can have light bites that are nice for guests, but you don’t need to serve a heavy lunch that will fill everybody up.
If you’re on a tighter budget, have dinner at your house for everyone. Make your wife’s favorite party foods so she can celebrate with her friends while saving money. If you want to mix it up, you can even invite them to brunch on her birthday. That gives you the rest of the day to celebrate and do more birthday activities.
If you still want to invite her friends to celebrate, ask them to meet you at the bar after dinner for a couple of drinks and some dancing.
If you’re not sure what kind of services she’d like, purchase a gift certificate and let her schedule the spa day for herself. That way, she can pick exactly what she wants to pamper herself with.
You can either tell her in advance or surprise her, but just remember that planning a surprise trip is much more difficult. Be sure to call her work and let them know that you’re planning a surprise trip for the week of her birthday so she doesn’t get in trouble for calling off.
If your wife loves classical music, take her to see the local symphony. Most large cities have a symphony that plays different shows throughout the week, so it won’t be hard to get tickets on her birthday.
If you need some inspiration, look at the kind of jewelry that she wears each day. That will help you narrow down your search to a specific type of jewelry that she’ll actually use. A great piece of jewelry for a birthday gift is anything with her birthstone in it. Looking for a specific stone will help narrow your search and the gift will be personalized to her.
If you don’t know her favorite flower, choose a bouquet of seasonal flowers like daisies in the summer or tulips in the spring.
Take a look at her collection already to see what she already has and make sure you don’t buy her a duplicate. If you’re not sure what she already has, you can get a gift card to a store that specializes in her hobby so she can pick her gift.
This a particularly great gift if your wife has to work on the day of her birthday. She’ll be happy all day thinking about her awesome birthday breakfast.
You can even include notes from her friends and family about their memories of different events. For example, ask her parents to tell the story of the day she was born, or get her best friend to write about how they met.
You can buy coupon books like these at some stores, but it’s definitely more heartfelt when you make them yourself. All you have to do is fold some pieces of paper in half, staple them together, and write your “coupons” on the pages.
