My parents are getting ready to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in a few short months. While my siblings and I would like to have a party for them, we're all strapped for cash. My husband has been out of work for several months, and we live in another state from the rest of my family. Funds are tight for us all. My question is, what kinds of suggestions do you have for us to celebrate for our parent's 50th wedding anniversary, on a low scale? Many thanks in advance. May God bless you all greatly!
Terri from NV
At my parents 50th party, we laid a cheap white sheet on 2 tables and had all adult guests sign it and the kids 18 and under signed the other one. If you start the signatures add a small flower or smiley or something by your message and watch the others join in. After the party we had both sheets made into a quilt for their single beds. Mom and dad treasured them and took them out, often to look at. When they both passed on, it was handed down to the oldest granddaughter and grandson. We still love to look at them. The grand children that received the quilts both have them hung in their homes. So when we go to visit them, it brings back so many wonderful memories.
Another suggestion is to make a guest book and have it on the table when guest come in to sign. It has been 12 years since they left us, but they both gave us many wonderful memories. God bless you all as you plan for their special day. I also bought cheap white fat candles for the tables, scuffed them with sandpaper and sprayed them with gold spray paint. It certainly added a beautiful glow to the room! (07/22/2006)
By connie
Good luck planning your parent's 50th anniversary. How formal do you want this catered? Are you all doing the food yourself? Either way you can make it very nice and use all white and gold candles as centerpieces on the tables on top of mirrored glass. And maybe scatter white silk roses randomly all around the table or either clear flat stones or marbles. Hope this helps keep your color scheme the same and just be creative. If I can help you with any other ideas just let me know. I hope this helped!
Good luck and God bless.
(01/22/2008)
By Sue
There are some great suggestions here, but one thing I would like to add is that you can request the White House to send a special greeting for a 50th anniversary. I did this for my mom and dad's 50th and they were very impressed. (02/13/2008)
By June
If you have their wedding photo, scan it and use it as the front of the invitation with the date, time, place, etc. on the back. You can run off 4 on a 8 x 11 sheet of paper and cut them with scalloped scissors to give them a fancier look. Then for the food, we all have family members who make the "best" of something. I would contact them to provide their specialty dish and for the non-cooks, they can bring the paper products, soda, plastic ware, etc. This way the event can be a group effort and a joyous celebration for all. Good luck! (02/13/2008)
Traditionally, the parents are supposed to pay for their 50th party. Usually, they take all their kids and spouses on a trip somewhere. (03/05/2008)
By Jessica
First I am in the middle of planning my 25th and helping my sister-in-law plan her 50th. She's spending lots of money and having 300 guests. I'm having 75 of my close friends and family and trying to make it elegant and simple and you should do the same.
Do your on invitations or if you can't may be a friend will as a favor. Have it at home, keep the meal simple depending on the time of day. Chicken, veggies, a salad, and rolls and maybe some fruit. Use balloons they are cheaper or you can do hors d' oeuvres, only thing they are hard work and could get to be expensive Good luck. (06/07/2008)
By Anita
I am currently organizing a 50th wedding anniversary reception for my parents. I reserved the community center (aka "clubhouse") in our neighborhood for $100. It's large enough and has a kitchen with a refrigerator, 10 8-ft. long folding tables and 60+ folding chairs for us to use (or not - there is a storage closet for the excess) as needed. We're having it at 2pm so I won't have to serve a meal and can get by with hors d' oeuvres and cake.
I got 50 formal invitations for under $35 from Office Max and printed them on my home computer. They even have the reply cards and envelopes included. I saved mega bucks printing my own, let me tell ya, and they look like I had them custom made.
I started making a scrapbook using a program on my computer that inserts the photos (from computer jpeg files), adds the background color and/or print and text, and prints the 8-1/2 x 11 pages ready for embellishing and placing in the binder. Normally I do 12x12 pages the old-fashioned way, but for this project, I chose speed over quality and size. I had to take some time scanning photos into my computer, but now its easy to create the pages. I am including comments, well-wishes, and funny stories from friends and family, too.
I bought 2 antique-gold-toned frames (8x10) at my local Walgreens on sale for $2 each. I will print out 2 photos of my parents at their wedding and display them on a table with the finished scrapbook.
I plan to put a few disposable cameras around for folks to take some photos at the reception. I can then have Walgreens develop them and also make a CD rom to load the photos right into my computer. I can then easily add a few pages to the album as a memory of the actual reception, too.
I plan to use nice, but disposable plates and cups, etc. I found some large antique-gold-painted chargers (plates) at Hobby Lobby for less than $2 each. I will use those in some way to decorate or as accents under plates of food. I may use some large gold Christmas balls to decorate, too.
Hope this helps. (07/05/2008)
By Missy
My sister and I are doing a 50th this weekend for our parents. A few of us have decided to do a few skits with singers from their wedding year, like Sonny and Cher "I Got You Babe". Then two of us are going to do a skit about one of the stories we heard about them. My sister got my mother's wedding dress altered and my niece will be wearing it. The rest of us are wearing poodle skirts. Then as guests arrive I'm going to have them fill out a piece of paper with a good memory of them and put it in the jar of memories. They then have to read the memories in front of everyone. Hope this helps. (07/07/2008)
By Lori
Many families are cutting back this year on expenses in general, and some of the ideas people have shared here are perfect. Lots of love to show people care while dividing up the costs.
My sister and I (and 3 brothers) are throwing a surprise party for our parents, as they are already taking us on a cruise to celebrate. We are catering the event, but went with a caterer that allows us to "keep" the food, helping all of the families with the next week's lunches.
We're doing 1957 top 40s CDs for the favors (unoriginal, but economical and people seem to love these!). We've decided to not imitate the wedding event (we couldn't find their pictures in time), but to have the decorations just be gold-toned and tasteful in today's styles. We are setting up in the room a large section of wedding and life pictures so that people can look at them while they mingle.
Overall, it's about $700/kid (5 kids) for this party of 65, just to give you a ballpark. This includes location, caterer, servers, and flowers only. All else was free to us through friends. Many ways to do this more economically. We just couldn't due to location and surprise issues. (07/27/2008)
By Kate
With a digital camera travel back in time for your parents. Snap photos of different highlights of their lives. For example, the church they got married in, their first home, and any thereafter. The hospital your mother had you in, the church they attend, maybe a particular project they worked on together in the community, find a car that represents the first one they bought together, recent photo of their wedding attendants, etc. Then put the memory card into a digital photo frame for them to enjoy always.
You can buy, for about $90.00, a clock radio with a digital photo frame. What is neat about that is the day you give it to them (if it is on their anniversary) it will show their wedding date (2008 of course) in nice large letters and the radio also plays relaxation sounds. I promise I am not the owner of the radio trying to make a sale. It is just really cool. (08/12/2008)
By Karen
My siblings and I are also planning a surprise 50th anniversary for our parents. I organized a "This is Your Life" game and asked people from their past to write a memory and talk about it behind a curtain and have our parents try and guess who they are. This is not only going to be awesome for our parents, but it was awesome for me to talk to the people and hear the awesome stories they shared with me! (09/30/2008)
By Regina
My family is in the midst of planning my parents' 50th anniversary party. There are seven of us kids, so each one of us had a "duty". My oldest brother was in charge of the mass. My oldest sister was in charge of invitations and our overall agenda. My next brother was in charge of pictures (he had a digital camera and frame that will run all the pictures he put in, I think there is going to be about 300 or so). My next sister was in charge of family pictures. The cake to the next and flowers to the next. Lastly, I am in charge of the decorations.
I am planning to have the centerpiece be a bouquet of my mom's wedding bouquet and my dad's boutonniere. Along with that I am planning to have the head table set as it was at the wedding. For those who are deceased I am planning to have a candle and picture set up.
If I would have been thinking, I would have had a recreation of their wedding. I am trying now to put as much of it together as I can. We have 3 weeks left. I'm working on the bouquets and cake. The band is the same band that played at their wedding. I just wish we could have had the reception at the same place (wasn't thinking); it could have been done.
Hope this helps anyone. (11/07/2008)
By Kira
My mother had an exquisite dress when she and dad were married 50 years ago. My sisters and I all wore the same dress at our weddings. At their party, we are planning to put mom's bridal portrait in the center of a table and we will put our (smaller) bridal portraits around it. We have also arranged to borrow a female mannequin from a local dress shop. We are donning her with the wedding dress. We even found a wig that resembles mom's hair on her wedding day. We will place the "bride" next to the table with all the bridal portraits. We thought it was a great way to show the love that began on the wedding day and the way it has been passed down through our family. Best of luck to you in your planning! (01/22/2009)
By JWEIR
I recently attended the 50th anniversary party of a couple that was so wonderful. Their kids got a bunch of old/new pictures from the family album and used Smiling Snaps to compile them into a choreographed DVD show depicting their life together. It was perfectly synchronized to music and because it was professionally made, the results were awesome! It was so touching, the couple as well as many guests got emotional while watching those moments come alive on the screen. (09/04/2009)
My parents 50th anniversary is in 2 weeks. A friend suggested that their church have a covered dish luncheon after church. Free food plus we just have to provide decorations and napkins, plates, and cups. Will also invite relatives. This will be a surprise party for parents who do not want anything fancy. I thought this was a great idea. (09/23/2009)
By Jackie Smith
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
