Saturday, February 15, 2014

Hip Hip Hooray! It's Valentine's Day!

Brian and I don't usually do anything crazy unpredictable for Valentine's Day.  The typical flowers, candy and a card followed up by going out to dinner is usually the routine.  This year I wanted it to be a little different.  As many of you know (I like to pretend there are actual readers), I love planning events, parties, get togethers, Bachelor viewing parties etc.. So I thought it might be fun to have an over the top Valentine's day dinner with a couple other couples.  Granted, I wasn't committing to anything but the idea was there.  A few weeks later I had two couples and two excited gfs to plan it with!

Here is what transpired:

We sent our men on a scavenger hunt and used lots of cheesy poems:

The first Husband got this on his way to work and then this when he got home:
Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Hurry home, I have a surprise for you!

Don’t be late to pick up your date, He lives on Del Rey, that should give it away!

Then my husband Brian got a card that read:
Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Be ready by 5:30, someone is coming for you!

Once Steven got to our house to pick up Brian I had their next clue:
This will be fun, tonight’s just begun. There is still one more, go knock on his door
Don’t be late, he lives by the lake.

That led them to Brian's friend, Kevin's house where his wife Sarah had a card for all three of them that said:
Suit Up!  You have 10 minutes

We had gathered all of their suits, shirts, ties and shoes and made them get all dolled up for us.  :)

Their next clue was:
Have your cake and eat it too, We ate it at a wedding for one of you

That card sent them to this amazing bakery called Nothing Bundt Cakes where they have the most delicious bundt cakes.  I pre-ordered our Chocolate Chocolate Chip cake and dropped off three flower corsages for them to give to us at the bakery earlier that day along with their next clue.  Side note, we did not buy the corsages, they are ridiculously expensive so instead I went to Trader Joe's and bought 3 bunches of flowers for $3.99 each and made them all myself along with 3 boutonnieres for the guys that we would give them later. Thank you high school Floral Design class I took 11 years ago!

The guys said they walked into the bakery and didn't know what to do so they just stood there waiting until one of the ladies clued in and remembered her part.  She gave them everything and they were on their way with the next clue:
Don’t be late, for our dinner date, Head to the lake, for our Italian plates!  

This card took them to an Italian Restaurant called Peppinos at the Mission Viejo Lake where we again had our order already in and waiting to be picked up along with the last clue.  Unfortunately it didn't matter how much advanced notice we gave the restaurant, the guys still had to wait 20-30 minutes for our dinner.  Anyways, the last clue was:
Race the clock, get to the dock, With flowers and cake head to the gate, Your ladies await!

The best part about our whole plan was this last part.  Kevin's grandma lives in a beautiful house on Mission Viejo Lake and has a party boat which she willingly let us borrow for the night.  We were at the dock with blankets and boutonnieres.  When they got to us we took lots of cheesy ball prom-esque photos, giving each other the flowers, pinning on the boutonnieres etc..  Then we boarded the boat and took it back to the house where we had a beautifully pink and red fancy table set to enjoy our dinner and dessert, and take more awesome photos.

We all had a great time and had so much fun planning everything even though it was in such a short amount of time.  

Here are a few of our pictures, enjoy!