Posted by Jo on July 06, 2000 at 14:20:54:

We did a buffet dinner with appetizers for 65 people at a local club. Table centerpieces were old pictures blown up and matted on gold matte board, 3 8 x 10s on larger board then taped together in a triangle. We put 3 balloons coming out of the triangle- 2 gold and 1 white- then "filled" the triangular hole at the top with gold mylar paper. We put a variety of pictures on each table (all different- copied on a color copier). The guests and my parents loved walking around and looking at the old photos, and it looked great! We put white and gold tulle bags of gold kisses, with a gold ribbon and a white silk flower on each place for a favor. We used placecards made on the computer and then used the same list to print out self-adhesive name tags for the guests. This was nice, since many of the guests were from out of state and did not know each other. My daughter and niece manned the "welcome" table where nametags and table assignments were given. They also gave each guest a golf pencil and a list (on pretty gold paper) of descriptions of guests(both general-like this person has a blue dress on, and specific like this person is celebrating their 50th wedding anniv.)with the assignment to find the correct guest and get them to sign it. First one done won a "prize"- a disposable camera. It was a nice ice-breaker.
My brother was emcee, and he introduced special guests, and guided everyone through the activities. After dinner, members of the family told stories or read poems they had written for my parents. The grandchildren were especially precious when they did this. My husband led everyone in a "silly poem" dedicated to my parents where the guests had to shout out the ryhming word. He used facts from my parents life to write the poem, and got help from "Rhymetime" on the internet. (for those of us that are not very poetic) We had a DJ that played backgound music, and we had found several songs that were special to my parents that he played on cue at special moments during the evening. Like when they cut their cake, and at the end of the night- they danced and it was really neat! My brother hired someone to put together a video of pictures to music (their favorite music), which we all watched after the sharing time. I'm sure I've forgotten stuff, but this was how the evening went. We had a timeline for doing all the activities to keep it running smoothly. It turned out to be a wonderful night; the guests and especially my parents had a special evening. It was alot of work, but with everyone pitching in, it was manageable. It certainly was worth it- you should have seen how happy my parents were. Everyone was touched-many teary eyes!
Good luck with your party- it will mean so much to the couple!

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