Surprise Birthday Trip to…
The BIGGEST Surprise I Have Ever Pulled Off
I love surprises and this was by far the most over-the-top present I’ve ever pulled off. There were secrets, white-lies, fake branding materials, behind the scenes orchestrating, and financial risks involved… Not to mention the constant busting at the seems excitement I couldn’t share with Todd.
The Backstory:
Let me set the stage… With the exception of the Caribbean Islands, Todd had never been outside the country. I have always loved to travel and happen to have a cousin that lives over-seas so he and I started coming up with a potential itinerary. We talked often and I quickly realized I would NOT be able to contain my emotions. I was surely going to crack and ruin the surprise. I needed a decoy, fast!
Pack Up + Go!
This is where I have to give major credit to an amazing company that plans surprise trips, Pack Up + Go. I did a trip with them for my mom’s 70th birthday and it was absolutely amazing (5 stars, highly recommend). Here’s how it all unfolded…
The Birthday Gift:
The Birthday Brochure
On Todd’s birthday, I gave him an envelope with a homemade brochure inside. It took him a minute to get past my thoughtful creation with pictures from some of our favorite milestones that he didn’t see my made-up confirmation letter from “Pack Up + Go”! Once he read through it, he was shocked I had planned such an elaborate birthday present and had all the non-manly, sappy emotions a girls wants to see. lol The best part about using Pack Up + Go as a decoy was that he couldn’t pry and ask questions about where we were going because I wasn’t supposed to know either. But this was only the start… I had a lot of work to do to bring this to life!
6 Weeks of Planning:
Confirmed Todd could take the Friday and Monday off work
Plane tickets bought
Passport expiration dates checked
Flexible itinerary created (details shared in next post)
Packed up and mailed key items to my cousin so they would be waiting for us when we arrived … Sneaky, I know!
Pack Up + Go sends you a packet ten days before your scheduled departure with the following information:
Weather report
Suggested packing list
Departure airport
Date/time to arrive at the airport
So naturally, I recreated my own version and tried to make it look as professional as possible and mailed it to our house! I have no idea how I didn’t spill the beans but the anticipation of his reaction was outweighing my guilt of deception. Plus, it felt like we were on a game show watching the national forecast on the morning news each day. What matched our 10 day weather report?! Where were we going?! I forgot to mention that Pack Up + Go only does domestic trips so he was 100% convinced we were going out west.
THE BIG REVEAL:
I couldn’t contain myself all day at work. Our bags were packed and we planned to make the hour and a half trek to the airport as soon as I got home. Coincidentally, it was my friends birthday that lives a stones-throw from the airport so we stopped by before our schedule departure time. We all gathered on the porch and took out the envelope that would tell us our destination. The first page said…
I apologize for lying …We are not going on a Pack Up + Go trip! Todd looked up at me super confused as I was almost in tears with him one page turn away from a surprise of a lifetime. He slowly flipped over the page and it said: Tonight you will be jetsetting to….
GERMANY
His reaction was more heartwarming and epic than I had imagined. The emotions ranged from disbelief, fear that he didn’t have his passport (I had it in my suitcase), back to disbelief, to pure joy and excitement that lasted our entire trip. We landed in Frankfurt and crossed off a bucket list item that night - OCTOBERFEST! My Dirndl and his leaderhosen were waiting for us when we arrived thanks to the package I had sent 4 weeks prior! We spent time in Weisbaden, Rhine Valley, and more. The best part was being in such an amazing place and experiencing it with my person. My only regret is that we didn’t go three days sooner because Ed Sheeran did a surprise performance where we were for Octoberfest. lol More details about our trip coming soon. You can also see videos on our social platforms!
Tess & Todd at the Frankfurt Octoberfest
