In the office, we like giving birthday surprises to our celebrators. One of the usual “instigators” will celebrate her birthday on Sunday, June 9.

As early as a month before, while celebrating another officemate’s birthday, she made sure that we all know when her birthday will be. In fact, she wrote it on our individual calendars. She even went as far as to say that she expects a surprise from us that will blow her away. She’s adorable that way 🙂 What she didn’t know was that we accepted the challenge.

So yesterday, I googled for a singing telegram since I’m not sure if there is still one these days. Lo and behold, my google search game me quite a number of organizations that provide that service. After listening to samples online and comparing costs, I got in touch with Arlyn Ricardo of Dangwa Florist.

She was easy to talk to, and I was surprised that they agreed to do it on short notice. The package included 3 long-stemmed rose and 3 song selections. The other package involved an arranged bouquet of roses, balloons and 3 songs from the acoustic singer. I chose the first package, but got another pleasant surprise — a bouquet (12 roses) plus 3 songs for the price of the first package.

Of course, part of my main reasons why I chose Dangwa Florist over the others is the singer. I listened to the sample online and liked what I heard. The guy is Gomer Sumihig, the composer/guitarist/vocalist of the band Blue Ketchup. He admitted that he was challenged by our song choices, but gamely learned the song overnight. I must say, he did it well.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to give you a video sample of how it turned out since our birthday girl is very particular about privacy. Suffice it to say, she was really surprised! Gomer sang the mandatory “happy birthday” song first, then broke into Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and the Beat”, followed by “Sweet Caroline” (Puck’s version from Glee).

It was really fun. Even my officemates were also surprised even when they knew that I would be bringing a singer for the surprise. I highly recommend that you do the same if you want to surprise someone. When you do, try http://www.dangwaflorist.com/ and look for Arlyn. Tell her I recommended you 😉