My sister, brother, and I had decided to send my parents to Vegas to see the La Reve show for their 25th anniversary. Since we wished we could've sent them to a much nicer place, but couldn't afford it, we just decided to make the main gift the tickets-since they've been dying to see that show-and since it just so happens to be in Vegas, we would have course make accommodations for them to stay there with some food arrangements and everything.. even though it was really hard on us.
Fortunately for us, we have a large extended family who decided to chip in/help us out, by giving each member of the family something to take over/pay for (like an aunt would pay for the hotel stay, etc.) since they were already going to get my parents an anniversary gift either way and of course this seemed more convenient for all!

It went something like this:
Aunt and Uncle & Cousin & wife paid for their hotel stay at the Encore (by Wynn)
Other Uncle & Grandmother paid for their round-trip flight tickets
My sister, brother and myself paid for the La Reve show tickets, along with a 5-star Dinner at one of the best restaurants - "Sinatra" AND Dinner the following night (the actual night of their anniversary) at the Eiffel tower Rest. In the Paris hotel (plus little things here and there like Limo service for certain days/nights, room set up properly with champagne and all that)
And last but not least: 2 couples (my other two cousins and their wives/husbands) are going to give them some cash to spend any way they like--most prob. To be used for other things needed there!

Now, (finally) We have been racking our brains trying to come up with a brilliant scheme to put this all together, but present it to them SEPARATELY!
One thing we came up with is for each person to come with just a simply wrapped square (not too big) gift box--each persons gift inside but obviously in some sneaky fun unique way, cause they're obviously not actual gifts to be unwrapped... somewhere along those lines you know? Or we could fill one or some of the boxes with travel items (cotton swabs, hairbrush, razors, mini shampoos, soaps.. etc.) and or fill it or another box with vegas items like dice, vegas shotglasses and souvineers we have... stuff like that. Still, I don't know how to really pull it together!
I'm sorry this has been such a LONG e-mail, but please I'm desperate for any suggestions-just really crazy unique fun ways that'll REALLY keep 'em guessing! Any help will be soooooo appreciated... PLEEEASE!!
Thank you SO SO much,
Joslin

OK I have a few suggestions.
1. a scavenge hunt. Place a trail of things around they'r house in boxes (like you said) and each box will lead them to a new clue.at the end put 1 ticket. Then get a little kid in the family to give them the other one.

2. put the tickets in obvious places. When they find them they will be clueless and wonderig where they came from then you act all sweet :D

3. last one... give a ticket to your mother when she tells your father he'll think she's going on her own then surprise him with his ticket.

Not great suggestions but I hope they help

Thank you SO much for those suggestions.. they actually are unique :)
Stupidly, what I failed to mention though is that when we are giving them their gifts we will actually be at a rather loud restaurant (seriously-middle-eastern music in the background most of the time), AND we have a HUGE number of family and friends coming... so it's going to be one LONG table with people crowding over themselves just to see! I know I know, I'm making this next to impossible ::sigh::
But now I don't even know how to keep it simple! I'm so lost because we don't actually have the show tickets, or plane tickets... it was all done online or by phone!
So, if there is anybody out there still reading this, I have sort of a new or additional, lets say, question: how do I give them tickets that we don't actually have yet?

One idea would be to create a book for them. You could have each family member decorate their own page and wrap it. As they open the package, they will have the separate pages of their gift, and once they have all of them assemble them into the book. You might think of a 3 ring binder as it would be easy to assemble. That way they will have a lasting memory. You could even have blank pages where they could post pictures from the party and their trip.

My sisters and I did THE Same THING for our parents on their 30th anniversary! - we set them up to see the Blue Man Group, made reservations for dinner (to be paid by us),and had them stay at the Belagio. Like Just Looking suggested, we had it presented to them in a way that they would be able to 'walk down memory lane' with it whenever they wanted.

We prepared the trip as a 'secret mission' - we gave them a folder marked 'top secret - confidential' (it worked out great, we actually mailed it to them, we all live in different parts of the U.S.) and basically gave them instructions to keep a particular 4 day weekend clear (we gave them the folder about 6 weeks before the actual trip to make sure they would have the time off) and to be prepared to be picked up at a specific time (shuttle van to the airport) and had the shuttle company hand them another folder when they picked them up, also marked 'confidential', with the flight and hotel information.

On the flight, we had the stewardess announce a congratulations on their 30th anniversary. When they checked in at the hotel - we had the tickets for the show at the front desk for them, in a manila envelope with a note giving the dinner info and a card that read 'Conratulations! You have completed your mission!

We did this 5yrs ago, and they still talk about it to anyone who'll listen;) I know you are presenting it a bit differently - I hope I've given some ideas for how all the components of your gift (the dinners, the extra cash, the show, etc) could be presented separately- how much time do you have before the loud dinner and the actual trip?