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50th was a success!
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Posted by Deb on June 20, 2000 at 03:41:31:
My sister-in-law & I used this board as a resource over the past year in planning our in-law's 50th. Thought I would share what we ended up doing. These will likely be random (rambling) thoughts, so please excuse me. My main suggestion is to start early. We began about 1 1/2 yrs. ago, but the serious work began right after Christmas for our 6/3/00 party. Our options were: a reception at the church fellowship hall for about 450 people or a sitdown dinner for 75-100. We decided on the dinner for a couple of reasons - For a reception we were going to have to do most of the food preparations ourselves because of the cost of finger food caterers - ARGHHHH. We were capable of doing it but it would have been extremely difficult. Also, we were concerned about the age of the people attending and them having to stand for 2-3 hrs. But, with the reception, we were going to be able to invite everyone. With the dinner, while we had to pay for a room to hold it in, and had to severely whittle down the guest list, we were able to make it very elegant. INVITATIONS: We mailed our invitations (RSVP) around the 3rd week of April, requesting a response by May 1st for the June 3rd party. This gave us time to finalize the menu, party favors, etc, after receiving the RSVPs.
TABLE DECORATIONS: We used white vinyl lacy-looking placemats which had gold accents. The tablecloths & napkins & dishes were white. We placed silk rose (yellowish-pinkish) topiaries on the tables and used tall white tapers (be sure to use good candles that don't smoke or drip - they'll last for hours) in clear "crystal" candleholders (from the Everything's A $ store). We also used placecards. I bought the "mini-fold cards" at Office Max and printed them on my computer. Used a large enough font that was fancy but readable. (Remember, these are older people and many of them have failing eyesight.) I then hand-embossed them just to make them a little fancier (embossing supplies came from JOANNE'S - the only place I could find them) FAVORS: We used as favors plastic wine glasses with gold bows at the bottom, and irredescent tulle filled with gold Hershey's kisses(10 per glass)placed inside the glass. We also had 2 granddaughters hand out bookmarks as people were leaving. These were ordered with the invitations and had a thank-you-for- coming poem and the couple's date & names. CAKE: We had a 3-tiered "wedding" cake which was done in all white and used a china music box as the topper (Ivory china hummingbirds with gold trim). We ordered the cake from Ingle's grocery store. It was fairly inexpensive and delicious. We had to pick it up at the store and then set it up ourselves, but it was not hard to do and was much cheaper than a caterer. The cake table was very elegantly decorated with ribbon flowers live ferns and lots of netting/tulle. REGISTRY: The registry table had a display of candid shots of all the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. We placed a basket on that table for cards that people brought and also that is where people left gifts (even though we requested no gifts). The register was also a sort of family history/current events record that my mother-in-law will enjoy filling in later. RE: HEAD TABLE We placed the honorees, 3 sons, 2 daughters-in-law, and the 2 other people who were speaking. We had a 2' wide (but not tall) centerpiece at the center of the table. At each end we place white ceramic cherubs on mirrors. We used ferns and babysbreath and yellow rosebuds to place around the cherubs and the candles. Behind the head table we placed what we considered to be the one splurge of the event - 2 urns of yellow roses - 50 of them. We had decided that we really could not afford it, but 3 days before the party decided that it would be a marvelous statement. It was gorgeous and we're glad we did it. PRESENTATION: We had a collage of their wedding picture, an invitation, napkin & the bookmark framed in gold with a black silk mat on display on an easel. We kept it draped until everyone got there and uncovered it just before we began the buffet line. It was placed so that people could look at it as they went through the line. PROGRAM: It was very informal. Each of the sons spoke a little, the brother of the "groom" and the sister of the "groom" each told funny stories and the pastor of their church also spoke. My in-laws each spoke. PHOTOGRAPHER: We used a relative who knows what she is doing, so we didn't have to hire someone. We also took about 13 rolls of film ourselves. Surely we will have some good pictures out of all that. It was a great opportunity to get family pictures. We also had one of the grandsons video-tape. OTHER STUFF: Outside the entrance we used large ferns and lots of white and gold bows. When we ordered the invitations we also ordered thank you cards and had my in-laws return address printed on them - it was not very expensive and was a nice touch. It took about 3 1/2 hours to set all of this up. Allow yourself plenty of time. Finally, once it is set up, relax and enjoy the event. Well, that's all I can think of right now - hope it helps someone to have all this in one place. Be sure to enlist all the help you can get and be prepared to spend some money. We were as frugal as we could be and it was still expensive, but we saved A LOT of money by doing decorations ourselves and by shopping around. GOOD LUCK
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