Gather everyone for the birthday that counts
Bring everyone together for a milestone birthday abroad, around one long table. Tell us whose birthday it is, and we plan it all.
It comes off your final price, and is refunded in full if you don't go ahead.
The birthday person decides almost everything: how far everyone flies, how many steps they can manage and how loud the night gets.
A villa for a dozen of you, a chef in the kitchen and three nights with nobody needing to drive home.
The trip you have both talked about for years, finally booked, such as Kyoto in autumn or the Serengeti.
A resort where the children have a kids' club, Dad has a round of golf and everyone meets for dinner.
One flight, a short transfer and a room on the ground floor, with her sisters flown in to surprise her.
We keep the secret with you, and suggest a half surprise when the guest list is long.
A table for everyone in a villa garden or a castle dining room, with the speeches in an agreed order.
The organiser usually ends up doing everything. This is the part we take off them.
Agree early who hosts what, and the celebration stays about the person it honours.
For a parent who says they want nothing, the trip itself is often the present. We plan it with whoever is giving it, quietly.
From all the children together, planned around the dates the birthday person can travel.
The birthday dinner, a better room or a day out, added to a trip that is already planned.
For family overseas who cannot come but want to give the birthday dinner.
Birthdays Wedded Wonderland has written about, and how each was marked.
A few close friends, a long weekend at a lakeside estate in Tennessee and one dinner party she hosted herself.
About 35 friends staying on site, a white gown, speeches and dancing, for a "wedding birthday" with no groom.
If the birthday person reads your email or answers your phone, choose how we reach you. We never contact the birthday person, or anyone you have not named.
We reply by email and never call, so nothing appears on a shared phone.
Short messages you can read when nobody is looking over your shoulder.
Tell us when you are alone, and that is the only time we ring.
Studio asks what you are celebrating first, so it works for a 40th or an 80th as well as a wedding.
See which families are coming and who still needs a nudge.
Dates, flights and where everyone is staying, on one page.
Put the birthday table together without a spreadsheet.
Once everyone has been together once, the next occasion is easier to plan.
Mark a parent's 40th or 50th anniversary, often planned by the same children.
Turn the next big anniversary into a ceremony, with the grandchildren there.
Bring everyone together again next year, with no birthday needed.
1. You hear back the way you asked: your advisor replies by email or phone, the way you asked, with questions about whose birthday it is, who is coming and whether it is a surprise. 2. A call with the organiser: the guest list, where everyone lives and anyone who needs an easier room. 3. Compare two or three places in writing: houses, resorts or journeys free on your dates, each with what is and is not included. 4. We hold the date: the house or resort, the dinner, the photographer and a transfer for every arrival, confirmed in one place. 5. Everyone arrives: each guest is expected at check-in, and on the night the organiser gets to sit down.
Tell us whose birthday it is, roughly who is coming and whether it is a surprise.
