The Treasure Hunt

Not too long ago, one of my BFFs got married. Although it was customary for her closest friends to throw her a bachelorette party before the wedding, none of us (in this case, "us" refers to four) were living in Sri Lanka where the wedding was to take place. So with very limited options, the four of us (scattered in Canada, UK, Jersey and Singapore) thought hard on how to give our beloved friend - a simple, non-materialistic, family-loving, determined, serious-about-life yet sentimental girl - a memorable experience before she tied the knot.

With three weeks to go before the wedding, on 20th April 2016, a Whatsapp group was created and we immediately got to work. There was unanimous agreement for a treasure hunt. We also decided that due to the Bride's busy schedule and the significant amount of stress she was undergoing, the clues would be very easy to solve.

The following persons were the key players of the treasure hunt:

- The Bride (our beloved friend and recipient of the "Treasure")

- The Groom (who none of us had met at the time of organising the treasure hunt)
- Bride's father and mother (who lived with the Bride in Sri Lanka)
- Bride's brother and his wife (who were to fly to Sri Lanka a few days before the wedding)

- Shuri's sister's mother-in-law (who helped to compile the various gifts in Sri Lanka and execute the most nerve-racking finale of the treasure hunt)

- Organiser #1 - A Social Worker and part-time Master's student
- Organiser #2 - A recently married Doctor
- Organiser #3 - A Scientist doing serious work in the Pharmacology industry
- Shuri a.k.a. Organiser #4 - who was at the time plotting escape from an unsatisfactory job


An elaborate plan was drawn and item owners were assigned to various activities. It occurred to us that the plan, if executed well, would be epic. However, there were many things that could go wrong in this ambitious 10-step plan which we were trying to execute remotely and accurately with the help of people who had no idea about the treasure hunt yet and relying on timely online deliveries and postal packages. Each step was interlinked to another like the links in a chain and if one step failed, it would, in the worse case scenario, break the sequence, and if we didn't manage to get the timeline right, the Bride would not solve the clues in time to receive the treasure before her honeymoon! In which case, it would be an embarrassing fail, where the Bride would console us saying "That's ok, it was a nice try, guys. I love you and thank you for trying." and we'd have to inform our participants in the latter part of the hunt to "Abort the mission and just pass her the gift!"

The Master Plan

The treasure consisted of a wedding card, a Victoria's Secret travel pouch with an array of must-have items for an amazing honeymoon and married life afterwards, lingerie, a scrapbook filled with nostalgic memories, a mug with a hypothetical wedding photograph of us, and a Kama Sutra manual (because we believe that education is important). It helped to have the valuable input of Organiser #2, who also got married recently, to guide us with practical presents, while not getting too carried away with our imagination. It also helped that Organiser #1 was familiar with human psychology so we were able to sort of "customise" the treasure.

  

Contents which were placed inside are not shown here out of fear that my blog might be reported

 The wedding card with much love and advice from all four of us, compiled in one by Organiser #2

We tried to have a holistic coverage for the treasure chest

This was the closest to a perfect wedding photo we could have. Before this mug, we didn't know that Organiser #1 had good photo manipulation skills

The scrapbook was our favourite out of the lot and probably the Bride's too. It was also the one gift that we were most worried will not arrive in Sri Lanka in time for the grand finale of the treasure hunt! Thanks to having a very artsy member, Organiser #3, the scrap book turned out to have many beautifully hand painted pages with colourful additions, stories and photos of the Bride's childhood, family, her awesome friends (i.e. us), specific memories from our past and some extra blank pages. The Bride later told us she was looking forward to filling in the blank pages in the scrapbook.

Raw materials for a colourful project!

Memories of golden friendships 

 Besties for life

A page to remember the good heart and kind deeds of the Bride 

Memories of our days in school

Memories of her family

With the contents of the treasure chest more or less ready, it was time to plant the clues! Thankfully, I had to make a trip to Sri Lanka on 30th April for two days to sit for a university aptitude test and give my measurements for the bridesmaid's attire. This gave me the chance to meet her parents and the Groom for the first time. I also managed to plant our clues in the Bride's bedroom and secretly handed over two more clues to her mother and father (who were very excited and cooperative) after receiving a secretive briefing of the plan. All this happened while the Bride was very nearby and blissfully unaware of what was going on. 

We also sent out a help request to her brother

I met the Groom for the first time while accompanying them on some of their wedding errands, a few hours before my flight back to Singapore. This was the only time we could all hang out, given our tight schedules. I was introduced to the Groom in the car as they headed to the wedding hall to finalise the wedding decorations and menus. It was quite a challenge to find a moment alone with the Groom (while the Bride was hovering closeby), brief him quickly on our plan (who knows how he would have reacted!) and ask for a favour too (if he said no, it was too late to change our sequence now!), considering I met him in person for the first time just a couple of hours back! I couldn't let the team down, so the mission was somehow accomplished. 

He looked terrified when I told him I wanted a BIG favour when I had a private moment with him! But he turned out to be a cool guy who agreed to support the plan

Now that the clues were planted in place, it was time to officially start the Treasure Hunt! So here was the plan, simple yet complex:

Suspicious email to bride >> Leads to Groom >> Leads to Organiser #1 >> Leads to the Bride's mother >> Leads to Organiser #4 >> Leads to delivery of flowers + a clue in a bottle >> Leads to Organiser #3 >> Leads to the Bride's father >> Leads to Organiser #2 >> Leads to the Bride's brother >> Leads to the Treasure!

This was the most exciting part of the game. Mostly because we were able to confuse the hell out of the Bride and have a good laugh behind her back while she kept guessing. At times she got overly excited and solved clues faster than we anticipated (potentially jeopardising the plan) so we had to deliberately throw her off the scent until it fit with our timeline. And sometimes, certain clues were harder to solve or she was tied up with last-minute wedding arrangements so we had to be patient and figure out how to help her catch up with lost time.

One day, the Bride found a suspicious email in her inbox.

The suspicious email

 We only gave her the correct instructions after we gave her a hard time and laughed to ourselves about it. I mean, why not make use of the opportunity, right?

The game started with a few glitches, but eventually, we directed her to the Groom and the game resumed

The Groom's clue eventually led her to Organizer #1

 The clue from Organiser#1 led the Bride to her mother

 ...who then handed her another clue which was wrapped inside a pack of pot pourri...

 ... which was supposed to be a photo of Organiser#4 's (i.e. my) smile

But owing to a bad quality printout from a printer missing a few colours, the Bride received a confusing photograph, which went in our favour of stalling for time

Little did she know that about a week ago, l hastily tossed a clue behind a row of books in her room while pretending to listen to her about something she was saying

So many questions from the Bride, which can only signal impatience to get to the treasure 

Organiser #4 (that's me) got carried away and gave a clue with two parts; one a photo submission and the other was a (admittedly difficult) clue translated to Tolkein's Hobbit runes

We passed her based on a good effort posing as a hamster

Ideally, the runes translated as follows, indicating that the Bride will receive a message in a bottle soon. On hindsight, my choice of words to describe the bottle was not that great. Even though she couldn't figure it out, it didn't spell disaster since the clue was already on the way to her.

"Not too long from now, a surprise will find its way to you

A neck it has but no head and wears a cap

In it you will find love from lands far away

And a trail to your next clue"

The idea of a bottled message intrigued us.

Source: Getty Images

The clue in the bottle led her to Organiser #3

 Then, Organiser #3 gave her this awesome clue:

"In a galaxy far, far away was a boy who trained to be a Jedi...

He knew not, the truth about his past, his roots...

The next clue is the truth he uncovers when the Empire Strikes Back"

The Bride cracked this one very quickly and ran to her father for the next clue. At this point she was too enthusiastic and too fast for our likes.

 Source: http://onreallife.wordpress.com

The next clue from her father led her to Organiser #2.  She used to have a crush on Guybrush Threepwood from the game called Monkey Island so we had to put a picture of him

 Correctly guessed, and at this stage of the game, the Bride was on a roll!

The clue from Organiser #2 led her to her brother, who we figured was the best person to hand her the map

Meanwhile, Shuri's sister's mother in law helped to collect all the bits and pieces that reached her from various countries at various times and helped us to assemble the Treasure Chest. She also arranged for it to be secretly delivered to the Bride's house. While we were successful in coordinating a time to have the package delivered when the Bride was not at home, it was unfortunately the Bride who had to answer a call from the deliveryman to give him instructions to her house! By this time though, she had a good idea of what was going on and she was eager to get to her treasure, so it was alright.

When she got home, the parcel was hidden away by her brother who was the last clue holder in the game

"The lone oak swaying in the wind no more, Once held the chirping bird, Now holds the constant chirp"

The brother came up with a brilliant riddle for her to find a secret map hidden in their telephone stand! It must be some brother-sister mental connection because the Bride figured it out.

And he completely blew us away with a detailed map leading her to the treasure

Mission accomplished! It was a happy ending for us all. Also, we refused to take any responsibility for the embarrassment that was caused if she had to show the treasure chest contents to the family

Luckily for the Bride, 95% of the treasure hunt went according to the original plan, no steps were interrupted and she received her treasure on the day before her wedding day! Whew.

The Bride was completely stumped by how we pulled it off while involving her now-husband everyone in her family. To be honest, they were incredibly supportive and more enthusiastic than we anticipated. Without their help, none of it was possible. The Bride was a great sport even though she was under the intense stress of wedding planning while tending to a million last minute things. Later she told us that the joy of playing along in the treasure hunt helped her cope on the days leading to the wedding.

Many nails were bitten and anti-acid tablets were ingested by the organisers to make sure everything went like clockwork. Also, we enjoyed a lot of heart-warming moments when the Bride kept us all in the loop on how she was progressing with the game and what it all made her feel. We felt a renewed sense of closeness during this special period in her life, despite not being able to help her with any wedding planning as we wished or in the case of some, not being able to attend the wedding.

Those few days gave us a lot to look forward to as we went on about our routine, weary lives. And little did the four of us know that this treasure hunt will set the bar so high and no treasure hunt we ever organise again will ever be this good. And that's a lot of pressure considering there are three more potential bachelorette parties left to go in this group of friends.

As Aristotle once rightly said, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

Best wishes to the married couple for a loving life together, to bring out the best in each other and to be there for each other through thick and thin.