Updated on: Feb 16, 2024
Surprise! It’s time to wow your friend or family member with a surprise party, and that means one thing for sure—Lots of planning! You’ll want to make sure everything is taken care of and you don’t miss any details while planning it, or the cat’s out of the bag. You need a Surprise Party Checklist! After all, the last thing you want is to start planning a surprise party, and forget to tell your friends that the guest of honor doesn’t know there’s an event coming up!
No need to panic, though! Easy Event Planning has sorted all the tasks you’ll want to have done before the day of the event, including reminding your friends that mum’s the word! They’re all compiled in a free, easy-to-use template you can use right now.
Reasons to Love Our Surprise Party Checklist!
Auto-Timeline
Add the surprise party day, along with when you’re starting to plan, and the sheet will automatically give you due dates to shoot for while planning to make sure everything gets done in time. This includes things that have to be done on the day of the event!
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Visual Formatting
Our sheet helps you visually see what still needs to get done, and what tasks should have higher priority.
Did you decide on a venue? Check the box in that row to turn it green. This will make it easy to see what tasks are complete.
Time flies when you’re planning a party! If you are approaching the due date, it will turn yellow. If it passes, it’ll turn red. This will help you prioritize tasks.
Shareable!
This sheet is easily shared on google drive, and anyone you’re planning with can work with you in real-time! Just be sure to share it with the right people, after all, it’s a surprise!
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Useful Links
In addition to having an easy-to-use checklist, Easy Event Planning added some links to the sheet that you might find helpful.
Want to send an online invite to friends, but don’t know what site to use? There are online links included in the sheet.
Planning for some entertainment as part of the surprise? If you need help finding something like rentals, DJs, or caterers, vendor links will be included.
A big part of planning is planning a budget. Make sure your party is within a good one with our budget sheet template, created specifically for this type of event. A link to this template will also be within our checklist.
Helpful Hints:
Changing, Removing, or Creating Tasks
Do you have something special for the surprise that doesn’t quite fit with what we added for tasks? You can easily overwrite one of the tasks by changing the text in its cell. This will give your new task the same due date as the old one.
If you want to keep all the tasks and add more:
- Right-click on the row number of one of the rows inside the checklist and click ‘insert one above/below’.
- The new task box has three cells, merge those.
- This task won’t have a due date provided, so you can add your own if you want. This date will not auto-scale if you change event dates, so be sure to assign someone to it to make sure it’s completed!
- If you want to get rid of a task, right-click on the row number and select ‘delete row’.
Assigning People
Do you have a group of people conspiring with you on this surprise event? It’s easy to keep track of who’s doing what by adding names to the ‘person assigned’ column. Share the sheet with your friends who are in the know, and they can add their names to tasks they will complete. Not only does this sort out who’s on what task, but it also lets everyone know what tasks are still unmanned.
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Filtering For Information
During the party planning process, you may want to view specific information. There’s an easy way to filter data using our template! In the header cell, there’s a triangular icon in a few columns. Click it and select filtering criteria.
Here are a few questions you may want to answer:
- What tasks are not completed?
- Select ‘False’ in the ‘Done?’ column.
- Which tasks am I assigned to?
- Select your name in the ‘Person Assigned’ column.
- What tasks do I have to do myself?
- Select ‘DIY’ in the ‘Task Type’ column.
Changing dates
If you want to change when a task is due, you can just overwrite a due date. This new date will not auto-scale if the event date changes, but it will change colors when the date is approaching and if it passes.
Surprise Party Checklist: Conclusion
It’s no surprise that you’ll love using our surprise party checklist! It’s easy to use, automatically scaled to your event date, and super simple to customize. Have a blast planning your next surprise party with our awesome checklist. We also have plenty of other checklists for any holiday or event!
Also, check out our Surprise Party Budget Worksheet and Surprise Birthday Party Ideas article to learn more about planning the most shockingly amazing surprise party.
Written by Kayla Lattas Contributor: A'Rya Pratt