Tips for planning a successful and fun class reunion
Planning a class reunion party does not have to be stressful or tedious. Start the planning process early to ensure that you have plenty of time to prepare and get help from your former classmates. Whether you are planning an intimate reunion in the countryside or a large ballroom event for 500 people, follow these simple steps to streamline the planning process. Start planning a year in advance. Decide on five to ten classmates who can serve as the reunion committee. Meet with the committee to brainstorm ideas and plan your event.
- Consider hiring a reunion planning specialist to help. Planning a reunion is a lot like planning a wedding. It can be a very daunting task, particularly if you don’t have experience planning large events. With a specialist at your service, you will be able to breathe a sigh of relief.
- Set a timeline for all the things you need to get done in order to plan the reunion such as creating a website, creating a database with everyone’s contact information, contacting your high school, finding a facility to host the event, finding a guest speaker, and hiring entertainment.
- Do some fundraising! Once the committee figures out what is needed for the party, and a timeline to achieve these goals, you must come up with a detailed budget. Organize fundraising events to pay for it. The most popular way to raise funds for a class reunion party is to sell tickets to the attendees. However, this won’t cover the initial expenses required in the planning stages so you’ll need to plan other events or ask for donations.
- Decide on decorations for your party. You can blow up photos from your old yearbook to the size of posters and put them on the wall. You can laminate old pictures from the yearbook or from personal albums of classmates and use them as place mats. You could also decorate the facility as if it were a senior prom.
- Your classmates will be most interested in catching up with friends they haven’t seen in years, but make sure you have a few entertaining party activities up your sleeve. Ideas for activities include passing out childhood photos and having each person guess who’s picture it is. You can also write the names of everyone in attendance on small slips of paper, put them in a hat, and have each person pick a name. That person then has to find out a secret from their classmate whose name is on the slip of paper. Then the person announces the secret and everyone has to guess who the secret belongs to.
- Create awards for the attendees of the party such as, “Most kids,” “Lives the farthest away,” etc. Keep it positive, friendly, and considerate of other’s feelings. A small awards ceremony can serve as a fun class reunion icebreaker.
Keep these class reunion ideas and tips in mind when planning your party. Organizing a reunion can be a lengthy process so give yourself plenty of time and team up with other classmates to make it as little of a hassle as possible. Most importantly, don’t forget to have fun!
Author: The Party Hound
Our favorite imaginary dog, 'The Partyhound', didn't write this blog post, as you probably guessed. We like to think he's a smart pooch, but he's not that smart!! 'The Partyhound' simply represents one or more of Partyhound Media's creative staff of researchers, journalists, writers, photographers, and cinematographers. These are actual real live people who are excited to share their thoughts with you. If you'd like to learn more about joining our staff, please throw us a bone! Email: ted@partyhound.com.
