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Parent's 25th Wedding Anniversary
My Sister and I are getting a head start on ideas for a 25th Wedding Anniversary party for our parents next year, October 2012.
Right now we're just thinking of location ideas, what kind of atmosphere we want and guest list numbers.
Anyone have any experience planning a party like this? What did you do? Has anyone ever been to one? I've never... what do you do at parties like this?
My DH's Grandparent's are having a 50th Anniversary party in a few weeks and it's just casual, potluck style with their friends and family. That's similar to what we are thinking for my Parent's.
Here is what we know so far.
*Guest list of 150 (family & friends)
*We don't want it at my Parent's just so that it is easier to make it a surprise
*We will rent a block of rooms at a local hotel to make it easier for out of town guests
*It's just my Sister and I planning (no other siblings) with my H and her BF helping us with some of the heavy lifting stuff.
*Possible party locations are hotel banquet rooms (but we're afraid that may seem too stuffy and not so casual) or legion/VFWs
All advice or help is appreciated!!
Re: Parent's 25th Wedding Anniversary
My Parent's are very low-key people so we don't want anything fancy. What you described really sounds like what we want. The only thing is that we want to block some hotel rooms as well so that we're not accomodating people at my Parent's house. DH and I live about 45 mins away and we'd likely stay at my Parent's, or at a hotel nearby. I want to have hotels blocked because of the out-of-town guests. It seems logical to have it near the hotels just for convenience. A park sounds really great, I'd just want to have a back up plan as well.
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
We did one for my parents and we had the party at a local small town hall. It was nice because it was less formal than a banquet room but there was still enough room for dancing and hanging out. We did pot luck but provided the drinks (my dad is a beer salesman so it was all out)
I forgot to answer the part about what people do at parties like this. We had a couple tables set up with cards, if people wanted to play card games (my parents are big in to playing cards). But mostly people just mingled and talked. Since our guest list was pretty large, not everyone could be talking to our parents the whole time. A lot of people knew others at the party that they hadn't seen in awhile so it was a great time for everyone just to chat and catch-up.
We did my parents' 25th at a restaurant, it was small - about 20 people - and my grandma volunteered to pay for the food/drinks (I was 21 at the time and my brother was 18, so as a poor college students, we couldn't afford to pay for everything).
My aunt & uncle recently had a 40th anniversary party. My cousins hosted it at the barn at my aunt & uncle's farm. It was a blast. They had a very basic dinner - BBQ pork sandwiches, cole slaw, potato salad and corn muffins - plus cake from their local bakery. They had a bunch of sodas/non-alcoholic drinks and some kegs of beer, and told people to BYOB if they wanted something else. (This is small town Minnesota where that's totally acceptable). It was all fairly cheap food and easy to make ahead of time. One fun thing they did was have people write messages to my aunt & uncle on 3x5 index cards - it could be a favorite memory of their wedding 40 years ago, or a fun story from an occasion over the years, or something you learned about love or marriage from the couple during their 40 years of marriage - whatever you wanted to say. People really got into it and most guests wrote on multiple cards. After the party, my cousin put all the cards into a photo album for his parents. My aunt & uncle had such a fun time reading those cards, they admit to taking the album out regularly to look through the cards and it always makes them laugh.
Mr. Sammy Dog
Thanks for the responses everyone! I never thought about a restaurant's party room.
I appreciate it