Customer Spotlight: Joe's Surprise 40th Birthday Party

Okay, the is the BEST Customer Spotlight!

Kathleen, from New York, contacted me to create the invitations for her husband's circus-themed surprise birthday party. She was not about to let him turn 40 without a little bit of fuss.

I worked with her to customize and create 140 Spinning Circus Birthday Party Invitations. Kathleen sent me a number of photos of Joe to appear in the window below as text scrolled through the banner above. I also made custom labels for the envelopes for her:

A few weeks after the order, I received a note from her asking if it were possible to create some simple folded cards to send out as follow up cards to her guests. This is the text she asked me to include:

"April 1, 2009

To all our friends and family,

As most of you all know, we recently had new neighbors move to our town; Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. They have graciously accepted the invitation to attend Joe's 40th Circus Birthday, and they are requesting that our guests bring no cameras.

They have provided a photographer who will be at the party throughout the evening and will post all the photos online for all to see/print.

Thanks everyone for your cooperation, and get ready for some fun on the 16th!"

I FREAKED out (as I'm sure many of Kathleen's guests did)!

I ran around the office that entire day, telling just about anybody who would pause by my cube long enough about my two degrees of separation with the most glamorous couple in the world.

Angelina Jolie was going to actually see my invitations! I Googled Shiloh Pitts' birthday and discovered that it was two months away. Perfect, I thought, for a loving parent to see some unique birthday party invitations and decide that her daughter needed something similar. I pictured myself breaking into some crazy Hollywood birthday party extravaganza circuit.

Anyway, I responded to Kathleen's request with a cool, very professional note, letting her know the cost of the new order and how long it would take for me to turn it around.

Her next response revealed that it was an April Fool's Day prank! I missed the April 1 date on the card!

Agh!

The beauty of the joke, for Kathleen, was that Brad and Angelina WERE actually moving their brood into the neighborhood. Her area was all abuzz with the news. The kids had just been registered in the nearby school, so this story really did have the ring of truth to it.

A few months later, Kathleen and her guests (all dressed in the most amazing costumes ever) surprised Joe at what has to be one of the best surprise birthday parties ever. Guests flew in from all over (wouldn't YOU for a chance to meet Brangelina?)!

Kathleen was gracious enough to share the photos of the party, a few of which I've shown above. Don't miss that fun topsy turvy cake!

Great fun!