Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Graduation party etiquette
I'm looking for some advice on having a graduation party--
My boyfriend's daughter is graduating from high school. We are having it at his house (per her request), and only one party.
My only concern/question that I'm asking is: I'm putting together some scrapbooks, and posters full of pictures.
First question: Is it ok to include pictures of people that are, let's say, no longer in the family? I'm going through pictures, and I'm seeing some baby pictures with her relatives' and their former spouses, who are no longer around. Do you think it would cause any discomfort to include these pictures? I like them because it's a baby picture, includes her mom and dad, and her other immediate relatives (grandparents and aunts/uncles).
My second question: What do people think of a scrapbook guestbook idea? I'm putting these pages together, and I thought "it would be so nice to have all her relatives say something on each picture, things I can't say because I wasn't there". Is that too much on graduation day? Would I be ripping my hair out? Could I count on everyone to do it? I don't know if her mom's family likes me all that much, I'm afraid they won't do it.
Thoughts? I don't have kids, so I've never put together a graduation party together before. When I graduated, it was my mom who did everything.
p.s. the boyfriend is handling the food, so he IS helping out...he just has no clue about decorations or the pictures, so I told him to hand it over to me lol.
Re: Graduation party etiquette
I don't scrapbook, but my sister does. She has made several for gifts for many family members and friends, however, she doesn't fill the pages with photos, but only designs the pages. This allows us to put our own photos in. You could perhaps come up with another theme for the scrapbook - something in the future such as her first summer after graduating, or you can stick with the past and keep the book family oriented but leave out the photos. For example, for my mom, my sister made one titled "No Place Like Home" because her favority movie is The Wizard of Oz. Another theme could be friends or friends and family. This would take the burden of picking pictures off you, but still keeps the scrapbook gift idea, which I think is awesome.
No help on the first question... sorry! As for the scrapbook idea... I LOVE it! We actually did a scrapbook guestbook for our wedding and loved it. It will be a great memory for her to take with her to college. My aunt made me a slideshow and had those close to me write letters for when I was away at college.
I don't think it will be too much for graduation day. Why not have the party the day after? Have a few of her friends over? Make it a simple scrapbook and you won't need to rip your hair out.
If you let everyone know when they get to the party and have a sign/put in a prominent spot, I'm sure people will sign it.
As for decor... I would just do her school colors and maybe put up some pictures of her growing up (like the ones in the slideshow).
Have fun! I love party planning!
I think the scrapbook is a great idea. I would design blank pages and just leave it out and ask people to leave a message for the graduate in the book - and then you can fill in the pictures later (make sure you take a bunch).
I'm not sure about including pics of people and former spouses. That might be uncomfortable for people. Can you crop them to just have her and her relative in them?
I think it's very cool that you're doing this and that you are including pictures of her and both of her parents. Very very cool. have fun!
Thanks for the replies everyone!
I suppose as long as I'm thinking about it, I have another graduation party question: Is it ok to NOT have the colors at the party be the school colors? She really likes pink, so I thought to have tablecloths and decorations in pink, rather than blue and white.