Top 10 steps to help you build the perfect family reunion
A family reunion helps you to get back in touch with members of one’s family after a long period of time. While reunions are buckets of fun, planning a family reunion is hard work. However you will end up with an extremely pleasant experience as the rewards are worth any and all of the trouble. The reunion can be easily organized with the help of other family members. You can allocate the work among the group as per their interests and abilities.
Let’s get down to it: How to plan a family reunion?
1) Build a guest list. The first step in planning a family reunion is to make a list of family members and decide which should be called and invited. Do you want only close relatives, direct-line relatives or all relatives including first and second cousins? Call around all the people in the list and check to see if they are interested in the idea of a reunion.
2) Survey family. Try to take the time to talk to as many family members as possible to see how many are interested in your reunion plan. You should also do the rounds and find out what kinds of things your relatives would like to see at the family reunion. And make sure you find out the biggest likes and dislikes, this is key to throwing a fun bash that everyone will have a ball at. You can choose to send out a formal survey on paper or you can simply call around and take notes, it is up to you! Choose a date. Summer holidays are the best bet especially since the children are all out of school. Choose the date in advance so that others can accommodate and re-schedule their work if needed. What kind of reunion should already be decided, whether a weekend plan at a resort, or a meal at a restaurant or a picnic or BBQ at a park.
4) Choose a Location. The location and length of the event needs to be considered. It can be one-day party at someone’s house or a weekend at an inn or hotel. There are lot of outdoor places like national parks, church camps and fairgrounds but choosing a place that suits all is difficult. So, consider the view of the entire family. You may want to take a survey of the family to see what idea is the most popular. Just remember that whatever you decide on you need to make the reservation well in advance, I am talking months.
5) Create a reunion committee – Forming a reunion committee is a great idea for a smooth and successful family reunion. Select the team head or captain to split up the responsibilities of planning the family reunion. Arrange a group of people for finance, reserving tickets, printing invitations and sending them out, record keeping, arranging food etc. It has to be planned at least 6 months to one year in advance if you want everyone to be able to come. Even then be prepared for the odd no show.
6) Determine a Budget Decide the budget and decide how much each family has to contribute to it. If some family members live far away and traveling involves airfare this can be shared among all family members. High budgets can be avoided. Deposit can be collected for each member of the family before the date of the family reunion.
7) Choose a Theme. The theme of your family reunion is going to be the thing that sets it apart from any other party you have ever thrown. There are literally hundreds of themes out there for you to choose from and all you have to do is use your imagination. You can go with a Star Trek theme, or a Hawaiian theme or even a western theme. If you want to get really creative why not have everyone dress up as their favorite actor or actress? This is a ton of fun, everyone can spend the day guessing who everyone else is supposed to be.
8) Plan social activities. No family reunion is complete without a ton of family photos. You need to have plenty of disposable cameras on hand so that everyone can take a slew of pictures. You can also plan some swimming at the beach or the lake (depending on where you are having the reunion), as well as games. Some fun games are the traditional ones like the three legged race and the balance a spoon on your nose game or even the potato sack race. There are many of these kinds of games that will keep everyone in stitches all day long and well into the night.
9) Invite the guests. You simply cannot throw a family reunion without first inviting the family! You can find all kinds of great invitations online that you can use for free or you can buy them at your local card store. Many people are turning to ecards but I would not recommend this, as there are many people in the older generation who don’t have computers and who will not be able to get the invites this way. There is also a good chance that these cards will be marked as span and not seen even by those who have computers.
10) Fun Extras: If you want to add some real thoughtfulness to the family reunion you can do some research into your family history. There is no better time to pull out the trusty family tree than at a family reunion. Learn some about the genealogy of your family and you can share it with everyone at the reunion.
Another fun idea is to have special family reunion t-shirts made for the entire family to wear at the reunion. This is a great way for everyone to feel like one of the group, you will all be like one great big club!
You may even want to collect some photos from everyone before the reunions starts, weeks in advance, so that you have time to put together a great video presentation of them all. They can be sweet and cute photos or funny photos are even a little of both. Set it to music and you have a work of art that everyone can enjoy!
These 10 steps are just suggestions; the important thing is to enjoy the moment, share the joy and try to enjoy the planning. After all, the memories that come with a family reunion will last a lifetime and you can only do so much planning!