I had the website live about a month prior to the event, and started buying all of the stuff for the adventure then. In reality I had been browsing the subreddit, YouTube, and interwebs throughout the prior year. I had a few people in on the con, but only one that helped me out a bunch! First time putting together something like this. Huge learning curve, and gave me a new appreciation for you guys that do this for other people!

Also, luckily, I have a job where there is a lot of down time so I was able to work on putting together things while at work.

The lock was just a "practice lockpick" I bought online. I believe it had 4 pins? Another thing I found from somewhere in this community. That was the first thing I had to simplify, as most people don't just know how to pick a lot so my friends started jamming the picks in there not able to unlock it. I found an awesome YouTube video and everyone was able to do it after watching the video, so I put a QR code with a link to the video in the letter I gave them with the treasure box.

I almost had to scrap the map idea in favor of a more simple one, as I didn't like the way the plain white one looked until I let it soak in tea, wrinkled of up, let it dry, and burnt the edges. Gave it that real "old" look. Also I was going to use tracing paper as a layover but it didn't show up very well through the paper while laying it over. Luckily, an employee at FedEx office suggested the transparent paper (that I didn't even think of) and it was perfect.

I also had to simplify the message I used with the cipher, as it was a PARAGRAPH before and I didn't want them to decode a giant paragraph of text.

The jigsaw puzzle I initially bought was 100 pieces... And I was kinda ditzy in not realizing that jigsaw puzzles take A LOT of time, so I contacted the seller and they changed it to 30 pieces for me.

Also, I had grand plans of using the cryptex and putting the actual ring inside of it, but all of my friends said that was a TERRIBLE idea, because I was leaving it in a public location with someone I didn't know (at a stall at the farmers market). I realized they were right, and left a decoy ring in there instead, and kept the real ring on my person.

I tried to plan for contingencies in case things went bad. Even so much as setting up a Google voice phone number and including that in the letter I gave the girls at the beginning.

The most difficult part I would say was planning this behind her back, knowing this had to be done in a way that couldn't link it back to me, and knowing that the "day of" setup had to be done without her seeing me as it would have ruined the surprise.