I know I'm three months late to blog about the surprise for my dearest boyfriend for our first anniversary celebration, so here I am to update on this very backdated entry! This is gonna be a very detailed post about the first anniversary celebration, from the planning to the actual day. Hence, it'll be pretty lengthy.


Our anniversary falls on every 9 December and in 2013, it happened to be a Monday. I decided to celebrate during the weekend (7 December 2013-8 December 2013). I started planning this surprise two to three months earlier, which was during late September. I researched on many, many hotels for the 2D1N staycation and finally decided on Wanderlust Hotel as it was quite highly-raved. Furthermore, the themed rooms looked quite fun & interesting judging from the reviews online. Initially, I had wanted to book the Space-themed room. However, it was fully booked. Therefore, I chose the Bling-themed room.

I did a gigantic hand-made card and it took me more than a month to complete. I ordered thirty latex helium balloons, from Party Wholesale Centre in a mixture of different shades of blue. Why did I order thirty & choose the colour blue? Cos he was turning thirty on 12 December 2013, a few days after our anniversary & blue is his favourite colour! And with the help of one of the lawyers (cos' her mom's shop is just next to it and she's a regular), I ordered a fruit tart from Ma Maison Cafe @ Millenia Walk. It was of chocolate flavour, garnished with raspberries and strawberries and specially made for two. I told her I wanted it to be of heart shape and wanted the wordings to be 'Happy First Anniversary & Happy Blessed Birthday, Babylove'. However, she said I could only have four words on the tart due to the limited space. Hence, I settled on 'Happy First Anniversary, Babylove!'

I had a hard time deciding on what to have for dinner as he's a very fussy eater. I wanted perfection for the whole surprise and hence, I came up with an excellent idea! I told him I received an invitation for a food-tasting event on 7 December 2013 via email and it would be free of charge if I were to go alone. If I'd bring a partner along, it would be 1-for-1. I even told him there was a list of restaurants for us to choose from and we could discuss over it as they would be sending me their menus. Therefore, I printed fifty over different types of menus for him to choose! The menus ranged from Asian cuisine, Italian cuisine, Japanese cuisine, fine-dining, seafood feasts, buffets, steaks and many more. Upon presenting the pile of menus that I have printed, boyfriend asked in doubt,  'how can this be a 1-for-1 deal when you can get to choose from so many different types of cuisines?' I replied, lying, 'oh, it is just another advertising gimmick. Anyway, we still have to pay, even though it is at 50%, right?' Then he went, 'oh, I see.' I was so afraid that I would give myself away cos' I would never wanna lie to him. However, for this surprise to work, I was left with no choice. After much discussion, boyfriend chose & Todai Restaurant.

I thought I had settled everything and then I realised I forgot all about the hotel! I had to think of a way to bring him to the venue of the surprise after the dinner. So, I told him that we had to pay to the restaurant in full first, then we would get the receipt and collect the reimbursement from the 'organiser' aftermath. Boyfriend got suspicious, not about me, but about the 'organiser'. He was afraid I might get cheated into paying a whole sum instead of the promised half amount. Therefore, he told me to speak to the 'organiser' and get the 'organiser' to send me an email to state every single thing clearly in black and white. At that point of time, I was feeling really guilty as the 'organiser' had never existed and I made up the whole story just for the surprise. Anyhow, I drafted the email and got my colleague to send it to me. After showing it to boyfriend, he felt more at ease.

This summed up the preparation and planning part of the surprise of our first anniversary. The upcoming post will be on the actual day of the surprise! Stay tuned~

Labels: 2013, boyfriend, Dear Daniel, first anniversary, keepsake, Ma Maison Cafe, planning, preparation, surprise, Todai Restaurant, Wanderlust Hotel