Kiven Bonongwe had that
sort of birthday party here at French Lick Resort.
More than four dozen friends, all dressed to the nines.
Guests who came from as far as Washington, DC and New Jersey. Dancing and
celebrating that lasted until 2 in the morning. Even a car with a bow on it — a
car commercial come to life.
Planning a surprise party of your own for someone? The
Resort can be your party headquarters. And Kiven’s wife, Melody, could teach
you a thing or two.
She’s the one who concocted this whole thing. Kiven thought
he was coming here to spend two nights at the hotel, and dress up for a nice
dinner. Nothing out of the ordinary.
The real story? Melody had been masterminding for the last
seven months and had big plans. Fifty guests, for Kiven’s 50th
birthday. Melody kept everything hush-hush. Even when she was driving from
Indianapolis to French Lick a few times a month to meet with her planner. Even
when she and her daughter drove up to Chicago to buy that new car, which she
then kept hidden in a neighbor’s garage for a month.
And considering Kiven and Melody had never visited French
Lick Resort together, that could have thrown him off the trail that something
special was in store. Melody wanted an out-of-town destination for the party.
She recalled an acquaintance telling her about it and showing her some
pictures.
“So one day I said to my daughter, ‘Wait a minute, how about
we just go to this place called French Lick?’” recalls Melody, who then planned
a site visit to scope it out. “When we got there, the minute we walked in I just
was in love with the place. I was like, ‘You know what, this is where we’re
going to have the party.’”
Melody fine-tuned every little detail. Gift bags on the chairs at dinner for every guest. The cake (red velvet, Kiven’s favorite) came from the resort bakery.
The party music was easy — Kiven’s cousin is a DJ and came in from the East
Coast for that.
Melody even packed a “decoy” dress for the weekend. As Kiven
and Melody were staying at West Baden Springs Hotel overnight on Friday, her really nice dress was waiting at French
Lick Springs Hotel on Saturday afternoon and her party planner even reserved a
hotel room for her to change and get ready.
Meanwhile, Kiven got a call in his West Baden guestroom
telling him there’d be a complimentary car to pick him up for his birthday
dinner over at French Lick. The ride dropped him off at the Event Center
entrance.
“Opened the front door, and then I find a big crowd there
waiting for me,” says Kiven, also recalling the speechless reaction that
followed: “Oh my goodness.”
Even the guests didn’t know about the next surprise waiting around the corner.
Everyone went outside to take pictures, and a BMW X6 with a
giant red bow pulls up to the curb.
“I only see that in commercials,” Kiven jokes.
His kids had to help him connect the dots.
Dad, that’s yours.
They tried to pull off another enormous surprise — Kiven and Melody have family in Africa whom they haven’t seen for years. They thought some of them would be able to make the trip, but it didn’t quite work out.
Still, 50 guests for your 50th makes for a pretty
momentous birthday — both for Kiven and most of his city friends who were
making their first trip to French Lick for a little surprise of their own.
“Everything was just amazing,” Melody says. “The people we
invited, they were like, ‘We’ve never seen anything like this.’ They didn’t know
a beat place like that existed in Indiana.”