Anniversary party - am I forgetting anything?

[looch]

Place cards/seating arrangement?

I would display their wedding album if you can, and also display photos of their wedding, your wedding, their parents, etc, if you have those photos. I'd also love to make a family tree type thing, maybe one of those where you can commemorate the guests that were there. There are a lot of ideas in blogland.

What are you getting for your parents, I am always looking for ideas!

[Chimichanga]

definitely do the tiered cake! and don't forget a little bouquet for your mom and boutonniere for your dad.

Thanks - I need to remember to order the flowers for my parents! Depending on where we get the cake, we'll just order the small flowers from there as well. My sister can pick them up (I'm volunteering her )

Place cards/seating arrangement?

I would display their wedding album if you can, and also display photos of their wedding, your wedding, their parents, etc, if you have those photos. I'd also love to make a family tree type thing, maybe one of those where you can commemorate the guests that were there. There are a lot of ideas in blogland.

What are you getting for your parents, I am always looking for ideas!

I was toying with a seating chart, but I think I'll leave it open with a "seat yourself" type of message. I'll have a reserved sign put on a table for my parents, my sister and my family. Plus, we thought we'd get a bigger vase of roses for our table.

I love the family tree idea... I can bring the album we gave my parents from my wedding and theirs. We have TONS of photo albums... Maybe I can sneak those out too. They are packing things up to try to sell their house, so I can offer to box those and keep them at my house so they are "safe". Heee

For gifts, I'm toying with two options. One: a caricature drawing of them in my dad's Vette with their three Chihuahuas. Or two: a family tree. A friend of mine creates them/frames them so it would be "nice." I know either will be a larger investment (not just a $50 gift or anything) and something they don't have but could display. And with spending the money on the party, I didn't want to go too terribly overboard.

[lil_geek]

Another suggestion for the bar. For our wedding we did drink tickets (3 per place setting, plus wine and champagne) and then we 'supplemented' the bar. So drinks were $5.75 and we paid $3.75 so the guests only had to pay $2. We had a fairly heavy drinking crowd (that sounds bad!) of 150 people and our bar bill was pretty manageable.

[twinnyme]

I love your ideas for gifts to your parents. That's what I was going to mention, too - though the party itself is a gift! It is so sweet of your sister and you to give them this party. Maybe also some sort of guest book? My sisters and I threw a 40th anniversary party for my parents a couple of years ago. Here is what I wrote at that time of what we got them:

"The 40th anniversary gift is ruby.

My sister booked the restaurant and they are doing a ruby-based flower arrangement for us.

I ordered and received personalized Yankee Candle votives as favors (using ruby as the main color),

I ordered a tile/photo from the pottery place of them that we can use as the "guest book" - similar to this (a square one), using a B&W photo of them from my wedding. (I tried to find one of them from when they were young but I don't have any and I don't have time to search the family for one.) I got a fine-point Sharpie marker for people to sign it.

For their gift, I'm going to get them two restaurant gift cards - to Ruby Tuesday and Ruby Foo's (only in NY), both of which are in Times Square. I'll put them in a white box and tie the box with a ruby ribbon.

One of my sisters is getting our parents a 40-year-old customized (with their name/photo, I believe) bottle of wine.

My other sister picked up a bunch of "1968" stuff from Amazon from all of us - some books, the Time magazine cover from the week they got married, a DVD about 1968 ("the year that changed everything", apparently), CDs with the top songs from 1968."

[Chimichanga]

twinny - you had some really cute ideas!!! I love the guest book. I was thinking of doing a Creative Memories book with the pre-made sleeves and leaving out some pieces of paper for guests to write a memory/wishes/etc for my parents.

Just ran the budget with my sister - we're going a bit over what we had thought (as is usually the case with wedding type planning). But, it's going to be a fun party. And that's not really considering the bar - well, I figured $300 for it. (which is much of what we're "over" - with a few others but that's the biggest). So if we can get my cousin's help and maybe an aunt, that would take care of that cost for sure.

[klanae]

Here are some things we did for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary that I helped plan:

- we made a program that had their wedding picture, a timeline of all the important things in their life. We also had a page with how much things cost the year they got married(ex. Milk, bread, gas, postage stamp, etc.)

- we played the "newlywed" game with them and my cousin and his wife who got married the month before.

- we displayed my grandmas wedding dress and going away outfit.

- we used the same kind of flowers that were in her bouquet as centerpieces. We also had her cake remade.

- my aunt knew someone who had the same type of car that they had back then and used it for the " get away" car. They loved this and it made for some great pictures.

Hope this gives you some ideas. Everything you have planned so far sounds great.

[ambula704]

Just wanted to add that you and your sister are AWESOME for doing this! I really wanted to do it for my parent's 35th and didn't - and now I regret it. So I am planning on doing something for their 40th and I'm getting lots of ideas!

[looch]

ambula, me too. I had too much going on that year to even consider it. I would like to get together and do something with the children of friends of my parents for their 40th. They were married on the same day, same year and their first children were both born two years later. They have the same group of friends, so it would be relatively easy to plan, I think. I would love to be able to get my hands on my mother's wedding dress, I don't even think she knows where it is!

[looch]

I was thinking of doing a Creative Memories book with the pre-made sleeves and leaving out some pieces of paper for guests to write a memory/wishes/etc for my parents.

I attended a wedding where this was done, the guests were all so creative, the book turned out great!

[Chimichanga]

Thanks everyone My sister and I had wanted to do something for their 30th, but I was pregnant and she was just out of grad school, so we had zero extra cash. Then we were thinking of waiting for their 40th but decided not to wait.