| By :
Andy Grant
Planning a family reunion? Here are a few additional things to consider during your planning of this monumental event. The Budget Consider the majority of your family here (not just your own financial situation). Can folks afford to pay for admission to the reunion, and if so, how much? Again, this is a step where it would be important to poll family members rather than making assumptions. Once you have a general idea how much folks are willing and able to pay for their participation, you can begin to form a budget, to ensure that you plan an appropriate event. If it's going to be a high-ticket event (for example, a family cruise), be sure to give people plenty of time to plan for the added expense, and to begin saving. Remember that unless you use an email invitation service like evite.com and a free internet calling service like Skype, you will likely have administrative expenses for postage, invitation, save-the-date postcards, nametags, decorations, and long distance fees. Some families hold fundraising events for such expenses, while others simply build it into the cost of participation. The Food There are many different options available for this aspect of your family reunion. If you're hosting just a one- or two-day event, it might be easiest to ask each family to bring a few prepared dishes to share. If so, you'll want to make sure that everyone doesn't bring repeats of the same dish, and that there are ways to heat up food or keep it cool (as appropriate). One fundraiser idea might be to create a family cookbook from each person's favorite family recipe. It seems to work best to have just one person in charge of the cookbook project. If your event is longer, or your family members aren't much for cooking, then you can make arrangements with restaurants, or bring in a local catering service to provide meals. No matter which option you choose for feeding your reunion participants, this will likely factor into the budget in a significant way. The Memories Can you picture it? Tender moments shared between great-grandma and the newest family member, just a few months old...All the cousins playing volleyball in the sun...Nana and her sisters laughing right out loud...these are the images that we love to remember and cherish from family gatherings, and what better way to preserve the moments than with a photo montage at the event? Every family reunion deserves to have a nostalgic journey down memory lane, complete with photos of key events, family members, and memories of days gone by. You can put one of two committee members in charge of creating the video montage, and they it's easy to arrange for a rental projector to showcase the images at your event. You can either set your videos to music, or let the band or DJ play throughout the showing. If you're feeling extra-creative (or you have a technically savvy person on your planning committee), they can easily create a photo montage from images captured during the reunion itself. Schedule a showing towards the end of the event, and be sure to include candid shots as well as composed images. If you want to take it a step further, burn the montage to DVD and sell extra copies at cost (or build it into the cost of admission and send each adult home with a copy). It's a simple way to help the memories last a lifetime. Whatever options you choose, have a wonderful time and remember to take plenty of pictures!
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.articlesbacklink.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
