The Background Story
Normally Jay and I take a trip over Halloween but this year it just wasn't in the cards.
Jay fully retired, sold his NYC digs, and bought a new house in a small rural town (the location/photos of which he doesn't want published online). Between packing, moving, unpacking, getting him settled into his new house and then his immediately leaving for a week long event he had scheduled, we had our hands full.
You'd think by now he'd be smarter than to give his brother, sister-in-law and myself copies of keys to his house.
Jay and Jude
His brother, Jude had come up with the idea of throwing Jay a no expense spared combination, surprise retirement/housewarming/open house/ Halloween party, setting this whole bash up in the week Jay was out-of-town.
Could we pull it off?
Well, if you've ever worked in a hospital then you know news on the hospital grapevine travels faster than the speed of light. Word hit the grapevine and we had more volunteers willing to help set the shindig up than we knew what to do with! A HUGE thank you to all of you who helped!
We decided to hold this party in early August so that the weather was still nice and warm enough that guests could be both inside and outside of the house and go swimming in the pool if they wanted to.
Virtually almost all of Jay's friends are his hospital co-workers so the guest list was huge. We also wanted to include some of the kids Jay had operated on to be able to come to the Open House portion of the party, that would run up to close to dinner time.
When the Open House wrapped up, only his closest friends would be staying for a dinner party celebrating his retirement.
Since we didn't take a Halloween trip, I'm posting this so hopefully it will give you some ideas for a occupation themed retirement party or Halloween bash of your own - not to mention how to stage a party for a very large group of guests.
And although Jude instructed us "No budget, break the bank" we didn't. Apart from the food and open bar we staged this party pretty inexpensively and I'll give you inexpensive decor links where I can.
Jay had no sooner retracted his landing gear upon take off than we set about redecorating his house for him. (He assumed I'd left to return to Wisconsin but in reality I was hiding out at Jude's and Dee's house.)
Jude wanted a satirical twist on this party knowing how upset Jay was with the state of our health care system. so much so that he was glad to be leaving bean counting corporations and hospital administrator headaches in his rear view mirror.
Dee, a couple of volunteers and I had already made the invitations in the day before Jay left town. We modified a Scrappy Tails haunted house invitation to look like a hospital - shown at right.
Jay likes things that light up and glow in the dark.
I love making pop up cards and invitations.
Scrappy Tails had these really cute LIT pop up haunted house tutorials.
We made only one version of invitation given the time constraint we were under...for those who would be invited to stay for the dinner party after the open house, we included a note saying so in their invitation.
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We requested everyone come in a medically themed costume.
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We invited them to bring their swim suit to swim in the pool.
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We requested all guests RSVP so that the caterers had a plate count and we'd have an estimate on how much buffet (snack) fare would be needed for the open house guests.
We also asked guests to PLEASE carpool as much as possible. It's really hard to put one over on Jay and the less cars he saw around his house the better and less chance he'd have to recognize anyone's car that would ruin the surprise.
Nor did we want any of Jay's new neighbors pissed off at him - so we invited them to the open house too. Several were gracious enough to allow us to park cars on their property so they weren't on the street and out of Jay's view.
I mention this because these practicalities can mean the difference between success and failure in pulling off a big surprise party.
Nonetheless we had a backup plan...Dee would be picking up Jay at the airport, she has asthma so carries an inhaler in her purse. She's a good actress so she was going to fake an asthma attack when they got to Jay's street and have Jay frantically dig for her inhaler in her purse...which she had in her pocket the entire time.
This would keep his eyes in her purse and not on the street until she could get them on the separate driveway that leads to his garage.
(Worked like a charm! Jay bought the fake asthma attack hook, line and sinker!)
Jude, Dee and I had planned out all of the staging in Zoom calls before I ever arrived in New York. Not only did this save us a heap of time as we had a staging blueprint to follow but I knew exactly what I had to bring with me from my Halloween decor stash that we'd use at the party.
We had a plan...the gals would stage the interior of the house, the guys would stage the exterior of the house. Jay's house is rather large so there's no way we could stage the entire place. So we decided to choose which rooms/areas guests would have access to and decorate those rooms/areas only. Each room/area would be a different unit one would find in a hospital.
The rooms/areas we staged included the front entry to the house, the foyer, the living room including bar, dining room, 2 guest bathrooms and the patio/pool area.
Front entry to house
Jude had cleaned out the numerous hospital storerooms that held no longer used, outdated hospital equipment that we could use in staging.
For never having staged anything before, Jude and the guys did a fantastic job!
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I hand painted the Code Blue banner above the door. made out of corrugated cardboard.
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The HELP ME and surgeons covering the front door Jude had custom made.
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The caricature of Jay was ordered from a company that does cardboard standees. The surgeon standee is no longer available but Etsy offers something similar.
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The pumpkin is real, the guys wrapped a gauze bandage around it, glued craft movable eyes on it and stuck a bunch of syringes into it.
The DOCTOR IS IN sign was originally offered on Etsy but that shop posted they were taking a break...so I made a stencil and did the sign on a scrap piece of wood I had that I painted black.
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The HOSPITAL ENTRANCE sign came from hospital storerooms as did the HOSPITAL road signs. Jay has a long driveway (separate from the garage driveway) that leads to the front entry and the guys planted the HOSPITAL signs along that long driveway.
Foyer entry
When you go through the front door you're standing in the foyer. To the right is the staircase that leads upstairs. Beside this stairway is a little nook. The wall makes a 90 degree turn down a hallway, at the end of which are front doors that open onto the living room.
Just to the right of those French doors is another door that leads to the laundry room and entrance from the garage to the foyer hallway. This is where we'd bring Jay into the house so he wouldn't trip to anything until he saw everyone assembled in his living room.
The stairway became the MORGUE ENTRANCE. We didn't want guests going upstairs so we blocked it off using a custom made standee.of a body being pulled up the stairs. Believe it or not, getting that standee positioned and secured properly so it stood up right was the hardest part of staging the foyer! Monoffilament fishing line to the rescue! We ended up tying it to the stairway rail in numerous places but finally got it.
We made the stairway nook into a cemetery.
In the nook we put a cemetery.
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The foam tombstones are DIY's I'd made for previous Halloween parties.
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The skulls, skeleton hands and black leaf garland all came from Temu. They were having a big sale so 4 pieces of leaf garland cost us $4.59 - regularly priced $18.59, The skulls cost $5.96 for a bag of 8 skulls. The skeleton hands cost $3.91 a pair, we bought 2 pair.
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The morgue sign I hand painted on corrugated.
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Dee and I gathered the tree limbs from a nearby woods and spray painted them black. We didn't want to muck up Jay's new walls (he would've wrung our necks) so we made the tree branches stand up by having Jude and the guys mix up some cement and pour it in coffee cans and other appropriately sized containers to anchor the branches so they were freestanding. While the cement was setting they used guide lines and lawn stakes to keep the limbs upright and in the right position. Dee and I could then use the black leaf garlands to hide these containers. We did spray paint the containers black to help hide them.
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The lights were LED lights Jay had.
The Foyer Hallway
Jude knew what he was doing when he charged Dee and I with putting a satirical twist on everything, as she and I are the Queens of Satire.
I think the hallway is self explanatory to anyone who has sat in a waiting room waiting to see the doctor.
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The chairs, gurney and IV pole came from the hospital storerooms.
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The skeletons and walking boot were mine.
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The round table came from Jay's office at the hospital as did the 3 pictures on the wall.
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Dee and I stenciled the waiting room sign on cardboard.
The guests laughed like hell when they saw the waiting room, especially at the "He's probably teeing off somewhere",
knowing Jay's addiction to golf.
The Living Room & Bar Area
We hung a sign on the French doors that read DOCTORS LOUNGE.
The fireplace is the focal point of the living room so we focused on that to start.
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We bought a roll of sheer black gauzy fabric from Temu to make the drapes.
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The lighted castle over the fireplace was a kit you assemble. See the video at left.
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We turned it into a hospital by adding the hospital signed (cardboard), the Bloodbath Hospital (made from cardboard) and DIY cardboard ambulance.
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For the nurse we used 2 identical cardboard standees. We gathered a piece of white gauzy fabric for the skirt, glued it to the back of one of the standees, then glued the 2 standees together so the fabric was sandwiched between them.
This way if the nurse spun guests would see 2 finished sides of the nurse.
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The white blood candles came from my Halloween stash as did my mannequin that we turned into a mummy by wrapping it in Ace bandages.
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The carts with the surgical instrument trays came from the hospital storerooms.
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Jude bought the loveseat cover.
The second conversation area in the living room we turned into Radiology.
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The photo backdrop we had custom made.
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The radiation 'room' we made (the picture at right) was just a corrugated refrigerator shipping carton we painted then smudged with scrapbook smudging ink. Then we glued a door hanger to it.
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The cartoon caricature of Jay is a cardboard standup we ordered from a company that custom produces them. We got them from Etsy but they're no longer available.
This company makes similar standees.
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I stenciled the Radiology sign on corrugated and the throw pillow came from my Halloween stash.
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The throw on the back of the sofa is x-ray printed fabric we bought. Dee hemmed all 4 sides and our throw was finished.
We got our fabric from Etsy but it's been discontinued since.
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The flat x-ray table we used as a coffee table we made out of corrugated. The candy dish is a bedpan.
The Bar
Jude had hired a couple of bartenders for his party so we didn't want to clutter up the bar with stuff that might get in their way.
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We make the Spookeasy sign out of corrugated.
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The stack of cups on the back bar are urine collection cups.
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We added another container of Halloween candy guests could help themselves to.
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We strung faux spider webs between the lights and added a glow in the dark spider.
The Bathrooms
We had 2 bathrooms to decorate and did a different 'look' for each.
We saw the above online and loved the idea of using the soaker tub in the first bathroom as HYDROTHERAPY.
We put a bit of a twist on our soaker tub skeletons when we found the mermaid skeleton at Amazon. We posed it so the tail was hanging out of the soaker tub.
We accessorized with skeleton decor items and called this room Hydrotherapy.
The second bathroom we made into SURGERY.
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We hung a white bedsheet over the wall behind the bathtub to look like a surgery curtain. In the tub we placed a small oblong table Jay had, covered it with another white bedsheet to make it look like an operating table and copiedthe Bowels Gone Bad pumpkin surgery on the table, shown below left.
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The pre-op room is a backdrop stapled to a wood frame we made.
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We strung faux cobwebs on the chandelier.
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On the fireplace mantle we placed a surgical pan, surgical scissors and 'bloody' gauze we'd made with red food coloring.
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We made a surgery sign and next to it hung some hospital scrubs.
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The mad surgeon is a cardboard standee.
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The chloroform towel came from Etsy.
Dining Room
We brought the retirement party aspect into the dining room with just a touch of Halloween to tie it all together.
The colors we used in the dining room were black, white, red and gold.
Guest of Honor chair
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Caduceus Table Runner - You can get one at Amazon or make your own out of caduceus fabric.
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Congratulations on Retirement banner
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EKG tracing was red removable painter's tape
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Dinnerware came from a rental shop.
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The skeleton buffer servers we made from Dollar Store items. Tip: Get your skeletons first and measure the head diameter before getting the chefs hats so you know the chef hats will fit. You can get child's adjustable size chef hats here.
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Jude bought the surgeon statue table centerpiece from Etsy
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Dee and I made our own champagne bottle covers but you can find similar ones here
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The portable toilet came from the hospital storerooms (That was Jay's seat of honor at the dining table)
Jude did order some outside round tables for the patio and we used disposable everything out there as the patio buffet was only snacks and finger foods.
The Exterior
Jay has a magnificent backyard. It's ultimately what sold him on the house. I hunted for hours to find a photo that comes close to what his backyard looks like and drew a diagram of what the photo doesn't show. (Jay installed the putting green, of course!)
Patio area where we set up more dining tables
Pool lounge area all around pool
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The patio area that extends down to the walkway to the pool is kind of built around garden "islands' that contain wild native foliage that require little maintenance and include small clumps of dwarf birch trees.
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The gals and I had to laugh when we saw the skeletons in inner tubes floating in the pool. Pure genius on the guys part!
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The pumpkins are inexpensive leaf bags from Walmart.
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The ghosts came from my Halloween stash as did the throw pillows.
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The guys did string white fairy lights around and in the tree clumps.
Food/Menu
Jude had the entire affair catered but we gals did want to make some of the treats for the patio buffet snack table and for the kids that would be attending.
Shrimp Cocktail Cups
Bruschetta
Spinach & Feta Puff Bites
Cranberry Meatballs
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Assorted Finger Sandwiches
For the kids we made things easy with picnic boxes filled with food kids like.
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PB&J roll ups or a club sub sandwich
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Serving of assorted fruits
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Bow tie pasta salad in a to go cup
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A bag of chips of assorted varieties
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Veggie sticks with a to go cup of Ranch dressing
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Ziploc bag with 3 cookies
These picnic boxes were the way to go! We tied them closed with ribbon so the kids could just pick the box up by the ribbon.
And the kids only had to make one choice - PB&J rollups or a sub sandwich.
We also set up a small candy table of assorted candies...
Did we manage to pull the surprise off? Yup! Jay never tripped to anything until he was at the French doors that open onto the living room, where everyone was waiting to surprise him. And he was STUNNED!
I debated about including this because I was afraid it would sound pretentious and it wasn't at all. That's not how our family rolls. But after our guests feedback I decided doing what we did is not only appreciated by guests but eliminates the hassle of guests trying to buy a gift for that person who has everything. Rather than everyone buying a gift, we invited guests to chip in on the gift we all collectively gave Jay, if they chose to do so. If they decided to participate the amount they donated was kept confidential and they all signed a card I'd made that we gave to Jay. Jude had already bought the gift he wanted to give Jay when Dee suggested we open it up to guests to chip in if they wanted to.
And when all was said and done, the guests told us Jay's reaction in receiving his gift was the highlight of the party.
So if you're dealing with a someone who has everything and is difficult to buy for and you have a large group of guests it's something you might want to consider doing and that's why I'm including this.
If you follow this site then you already know Jay and Jude are pilots. Both have their CPL's or Commercial Pilot's Licenses, meaning they're qualified to fly jets. And there was only one thing Jay incessantly talked about wanting to someday own. It was his dream.
Tip: Do not try to gift wrap a Lear Jet. It just doesn't work.
Four of Jay's friends who were guests at the party set up a live feed from the airport that played on the TV's in Jay's house and on the patio so guests could be in on the gift they all gave him.
The way Jude went about presenting this gift to Jay was just cool. He had a key cut in half lengthwise and wrapped it in a little gift box. (The jet was for both of them, that's why the half key)
Jay's confusion was evident when he unwrapped the half key, Jude told him we had to take him to where his retirement gift from everyone was, then blindfolded him to drive him to the airport. We deliberately turned him so that he was looking at the runway when we removed the blindfold and handed him the card signed by everyone. He was still confused until we turned him so he'd be looking at the jet.
It was the first time I ever saw Jay cry - and I mean bawl like a baby! He had Jude in a bear hug, just crying his eyes out. He couldn't even speak. Finally Jude pried him off and said "Well don't just stand there bawling like a baby! Go take a look at our new jet! It's half yours since we need 2 to fly it..."
All of this was being captured on video and playing out live back at the house. Jay was like a kid in a candy store when he got inside the Lear. I never saw him happier than he was that afternoon.
"Let's take her up so you can see how she handles" Jude suggested. We loaded the videographer and photographer on board to go up with them and film his first flight in his new baby - and everyone back at the house could "ride along".
If you've never flown in a Lear jet...
Pilot's have a language all their own so I'll "interpret" some of this. The pilot waving two fingers at the guy on the ground most typically indicates a fuel check. The pilot holds up two fingers to indicate “How much fuel do you have?”
The wingman or ground crew responds by holding up the number of fingers that designate how many pounds of fuel the jet is carrying.
If the gesture is part of a pre‑takeoff or pre‑launch sequence, it could also be part of a safety check with ground crew, though the two‑finger signal is most strongly associated with fuel status.
When you hear the other pilot call out "V1", V1 is the takeoff decision speed — the maximum speed at which a pilot can safely initiate a rejected takeoff in the event of an emergency. There are typically 2 pilots in the cockpit - one to fly the plane, the other handles radio transmissions, lowering landing gear, extending flaps etc.
This will be followed by "rotate". "Rotate" refers to the moment during takeoff when the pilot pulls back on the control column, yoke, or side-stick to raise the nose wheel off the ground, causing the aircraft to pivot around its lateral axis (main landing gear) and transition from rolling on the runway to becoming airborne. At that point you're traveling too fast to abort the takeoff and do a go around, you're committed to taking off.
When Jay got back to the house he went to every person who'd signed his card and personally thanked them. Not only did he thank them, he told them if they ever had to fly anywhere to call he or Jude and they'd fly them where they wanted to go. No charge. (A Lear jet requires a PIC (pilot in charge) and SIC (second in command) to fly it. Learjet models are not certified for single‑pilot operation.)
Later that day Jay told me the reason he broke down crying was the fact so many of his family and friends thought enough of him to make his dream of owning a Lear jet a reality. He never imagined he'd had such an impact on them that they'd do that for him. It was a great experience for everyone involved and the highlight of the party.
Living Room
This would be the most difficult room to stage because Jay's living room is quite large and includes the wet bar. Luckily we could use much of my Halloween decor stash I'd brought along.
Since the fireplace was the focal point of the living room that's what we concentrated on and then added elements after the fireplace was finished. The house above the fireplace was a kit you can buy here. The house does light up.
Jay bought the bat fireplace screen from Etsy and the cover for the loveseat.
The gauze ghost, white blood candles and orange candles were from my Halloween stash.
I made the drapes out of a roll of black gauze material from Temu.
Behind the loveseat I used one of my spotlights to light up the ghost when the lights were dimmed. I also brought along 2 of my fog machines and they ran in the living room until all of the guests had arrived.
I have the Titan and because Jay's living room was so large we needed the oomph and thicker fog the Titan puts out.
Jay found that monsterocity of a loveseat at a secondhand store and had it reupholstered for the party.
(It's finding a nice permanent home in the attic after the party. LOL) He said it reminded him of a bat. ????
(Okie dokie, whatever you say, dear. Far be it from me to rain on your parade Batman!)
We covered the recliner in another furniture cover. Jay got the lamp who knows where, probably the same shop he got his Barman loveseat at.
We decorated the bookshelves with stuff we had on hand, except for the potion bottles. Those came from Amazon with the potion labels.
For the bar we did a minimal amount of work, just enough to carry the Halloween theme through.
Before I forget...he wanted things that would glow when the lights were dimmed way down so I used these glow webs. Available here $4 per pkg.
I left Jay to his own devices when it came to decorating the 2 guest bathrooms. I have to say he did a pretty good job. Loved the Demon In A Well rug! It was so realistic looking that one guest was laughing at herself, telling me she walked around the well so she wouldn't fall into the well! LOL
House Exterior Staging
For the first time out I have to say the guys did a terrific job - starting with the driveway and the front entry to the house.
Jay has a long driveway and they lined the driveway with hospital road signs.
The entryway is pretty self explanatory.
Jay has the most magnificent back yard...
He doesn't want his home and/or location posted online so I spent hours trying to find a photo that was similar to his backyard. The photo still doesn't do his back yard justice,
His patio is built around 'islands' of gardens of native foliage that doesn't require much maintenance. Dee and I laughed like hell when we saw the skeletons in inner tubes decorating the pool. Leave it to those two to come up with that idea!
The ghosts and ground spotlight came from my Halloween yard decor stash.