For those of you about getting married, this new gift registry could suit you like a 10-carat ring from Tiffany’s.

While it’s not the first online gift registry to let you add items from any store, nor probably to allow you to donate to charity nor even to request cash gifts (which is uh, difficult to do at the best of times), It’s My Gift Registry is the first gift registry I’ve seen that also provides free party planning features for hosting low-key weddings, bridal showers, baby showers, or birthdays at home, etc.

The Party Checklist lets your guests see everything from your gift (wish)list,  to checking off the food and drinks they’ll be bringing. Which certainly stops those awkward now-we’ve-got-7-barbecue-chickens-and-no-salads dilemmas and lets you know if your Nigella Lawson-level cooking buddy will be bringing her famous cupcakes or not.

Remember when you were a kid at Christmas-time and half the fun was finding out where your parents had stashed your presents (this is obviously a little after you’ve found out about Santa Claus)?

But then the surprise on the day was snuffed out by actually knowing what you were getting? (I won’t even get into not liking what you’ve been given.)

While as adults it’s unlikely (but not impossible) that your partner will go snooping for that anniversary/birthday/Christmas/Valentines Day gift you’ve been keeping in a safe place, there are four other ways that the surprise can be ruined.

1. Telling someone close what you’ve got planned. While most people don’t mean to spoil a surprise, the psychological pressure of keeping a secret can be overwhelming. If your recipient mentions how much they like X product/service, it’s all-too-human to “share” the news in advance to please them. It also happens when they mention that they plan to buy said item and your “helpful” gift ally wants to cut them off at the pass. Tell a Scorpio if you have to tell anyone. They can keep a secret.

2. Sharing an email address. If you and your beloved happen to share the same email address and you order online, the surprise will be no-more. Here’s an interesting example of how LL Bean gets round it. You might want to use your work one, or set up a free one at Hotmail (or Live as it wants to be called now), Yahoo or Gmail purely for online gift purchases.

3. Getting it delivered at home. Unless it’s absolutely massive eg a car, it’s pretty easy to get the gift sent instead to your work address (and they may have a locked address bag/PO Box to ensure its safe arrival) or to a helpful (Scorpio) friend’s or parent’s address to hold it for you. This beats racing your partner to the mailbox so they don’t see their present arrive. Even if it has been gift-wrapped by the company in question, it’ll still have their company address on the package which kinda gives the game away.

4. Credit card statements. If you go through your finances togethers, seeing “Mary’s Red-Hot Lingerie” or whatever on the statement is either a dead giveaway that your partner is getting lingerie, your (other) partner is getting lingerie, or hey, that you like to wear lingerie. None of these results is particularly pallatable. Buy using Paypal and they’ll be none the wiser.