Help planning suprise 25th anniversary party for my parents.?!
Help planning suprise 25th anniversary party for my parents.?
It needs to be indoors because we live in WI and its in January. I am working on a budget, and am paying for the whole thing myself. My parents dont like real fancy stuff, so I am going to go simple and fun. I need ideas for food, decorations, pretty much everything. They didnt have a big wedding, so I would like them to really remember this and have a great time. Any ideas would be appreciated!
Answers:
Hi Holly,
Twenty-five years is a real accomplishment in this day and age. I'm glad you are going to make it special. You've been given some really good tips so far. One of the ones I will re-emphasize is the suggestion that you set a little aside each week so it isn't such a big expense when the time rolls around. Even if you don't actually buy the items that week (some things may be perishable), set a certain amount aside for certain items.
What I find quite simple and fun is having fondue at a party. It really breaks the ice with everyone. You didn't say how many people you were having, but if you are doing it yourself, you could prepare most of the dipping items ahead of time and simply make the fondue on the day. It is really easy. There are delicious chocolate fondue recipes at http://www.chocolate-candy-mall.com/choc...
Although chocolate is my personal favorite, there are other types of fondue, too. You could make cheese fondues, or hot oil fondues for dipping cubed meats, etc. I did one of the chocolate fondue recipes a few months back and everyone loved it.
Have you thought about a party favor? My sister got personalized chocolate bars for my brother-in-laws birthday and they were a real hit. You can order them or DIY if you want to save a little money. There is info. on doing that and also some other party favor ideas at http://www.chocolate-candy-mall.com/choc...
I think they may be about a dollar or two each for the candy bars, but you could opt for cutom Hershey's kisses. I suspect you could get about 100 for under $30. They are a really cute idea.
If your folks like coffee or hot chocolate (which would be great in January in Wisconsin), you could make your own chocolate candy spoons as a party favor. Sooooo easy but really cute. Here are the directions http://www/chocolate-candy-mal...
A game we like to play at anniversary parties is a Q&A where you give everyone a paper and pen and ask questions about the anniversary couple. (They write down their answers, too). At the end you go over the questions again and let the couple give the correct answers. The person who gets the most correct wins. You could just get something little as prizes like a calendar for the new year or something else inexpensive from the dollar store.
Hope it is a resounding success.
Take them to Disneyland.
use old photographs of them (wedding, birthdays etc.) and laminate them. Use them as drink coasters or make into placemats to decorate tables.
send them to Chippendale's your mom and dad would both like it because your dads gay
For my parents 25th wedding anniversary, I had the party at the church where they were married. I invited the preacher who married them and friends who attended. We had chicken salad finger sandwiches, cake, punch, nuts and mints. My uncle came to town and pretended he was taking them to dinner, but wanted to drive around town first. He stopped at the church and made them come in with him. They were very surprised and love it!
buy rotisserie chicken done and from grocery store it takes like 6 mins to reheat if u put in fridge for a day or buy one already refrigerated and reheat serve with garlic cheddar mashed potatoes and steamed green beans or broccoli
dessert vanilla ice cream with rasberry sauce which is rasberry and sugar heat in a pan till melted down and its pretty much like using rasberry jam
have a single table with white table cloth and a radio play music in the back and plates and candle light set up in center and flowers and u should be good
have a mock wedding. Have friends / relitives dress up as a bride & groom ,a man for the bride and female for groom. Not Nice wedding attire something funny. Go to GoodWill and look for something cheap. Have someone be the preacher ( someone who they would least expect) Practice a funny wedding skit. have the father of the bride show up with a shotgun, things like that. We went to a party where they did this and it was hilarious. For something to decorate with sneak some old photos from them and post them on a board so everyone can see them. spell check doesn't work here at where I am employeed please excuse any mistakes.
Decorate with silver decorations, because 25 is the Silver Wedding. Are you 18 or older? If you are you can go online and a get a certificate that enables you to conduct wedding ceremonies. Surprise them with a beautiful renewal ceremony. Have your siblings or their friends do a prayer or reading. If you know someone musically talented he/she can accompany them down the aisle. Invite just family and close friends. Have a recreation of their wedding cake made and just serve cake and champagne, and maybe fruits. Don't forget to write a toast! Or even better if they are still friends with their original wedding party invite them to do it. Other than that make some mixed cds, play music and have fun!!!
Okay I will tell you what I did and hopefully this will be helpful my parents did not have a big wedding either and they had it in someone's backyard they did not even have a wedding song or anything and I just threw them a surprise 25th aaniv. party also paying for it by myself on a low budget so this is what I did.
Well I had it at my house which is kinda big and I also have a bar in my house so that worked out good for me for the food to be et up on and stuff so what I did was I set up a small round table with two chairs and I put a silver table cloth on it that I bought from the dollar store then I went and found one of there wedding pictures and had it blowen up to an 8 X 10 and bought a fram and put that on the table and then I went and bought silver plates and I also went to BJ's and bought white napking and clear plastic utensils as they are less money there I also went to the party store and bought two plastic wine cups and wrote on them and put them on the table then for the food I made everything my self it comes out cheaper that way so what I did was 2 big trays of baked ziti and I used jar sauce and then I made 2 trays of sausage peppers and onions and I made in the crock pot meatballs one with just jared spagetti sauce and one swedish meatballs the meatballs are pre made and you can buy them anywhere and they are not expensive at all. Then I hired a DJ which was one of my friends so he only charged me like 100.00 I decorated with stuff from the dollar store I tried to stick with silver bells and stuff like that and then I also wrote a speach and I picked a wedding song for my parents and the dj played it and they danced I picked Through the years by Kenny Rogers. As for the drinks I just bought 1 keg and then I had bottled soda and the other thing that I found that helped me ALLOT was every week when I went and did my weekly grocery shopping I would buy something for the party and put it away and then you don't feel it as much and you don't have to come up with a huge amount of money all at once. I am sure what ever you will do will come out nice and your parents will Love it just as much as mine did. Have fun and I hope I helped
We had a great time planning my parents 25th. We had a dinner for the family and asked people if they would be willing to bring food. We played the newly wed game with 3 couples - one of which was my parents. You can get a cake decorated with of one of their wedding photos or early photo of them as a couple. We had it at our church and weren't charged for the use of the hall area. Other alternatives are local community centers. We decorated with table clothes and centerpieces with photos of the couple over the year. My sister made up CDs with music that progressed from the time of their birth to now. You can even put together a slide show of old photos or show old 88mm tape/videos. We made a giant poster of them and had all the guests sign it.
why don't you ask your mom some questions. Pretend you found an old photo album or get out old photos and get your mom to reminise about stuff. I did that with my mother for her 60th birthday. I got stuff out and asked her questions like"when you were married what was your top 5 moments", what kind of music did you like to dance to, how did you feel when.......Not only will you have a great time hanging out with your mom, but you'll get some insights.
For my moms party I made scrapbooks of her. I also had everyone write her a letter and what she had done to inspire them. Maybe you could ask people to do that for them and put it in a notebook for them to read together. It is always nice to see how people view you and I always knew my mom was a good woman, but she was soooooo much more that I didn't know about. I got pictures blown up and made tons of CDS of songs that I know she likes. Can she still fit into her wedding dress? Steal one of her dresses and have her dress refitted for her and have a renewal ceremony. You could get a champagne fountain and a chocolate fountain. They are fun and not too expensive or fancy. You could make a cupcake tree in the shape of a cake and use your parents favorite colors. Put fresh flowers on the cupcakes. Simple and pretty. If they don't like super fancy have yummy rolls with deli meats and cheeses, fruit plates, veggie plates, dips, go to Costco and get some of their huge platters of appetizers.
I would keep the decorations minimal like pictures of them, nice arrangements on the tables. My mother is a librarian, so I put books in the middle with a vase of flowers in between them. It is the personalization that will make the difference. good luck
i think having it in the church they were married in is a great idea, or the one with renewing their vows, but if they aren't an option, u could theme the party on the 80s when they got married. it was 1982 right so find a CD with all the music from that year and get everyone to dress up and make food from that era.