A 25th Anniversary Party To Remember!

Our 25th Anniversary Party may have been one of the highlights of my life! To begin with, the four kids planned it from start to finish and it was spectacular. They wanted to do a party but the guest list became out of control and they certainly did not have the monies to fund an extravaganza. So they put their heads together and came up with the most incredible 25th anniversary party idea. Follow along belong to see what they did..it was creative, thoughtful and truly filled with love.

Here we are with the 4 Fabulous 25th Anniversary Party Planners!

Step 1 They would hold a surprise party with just our extended family. (In our case, that is quite a crowd!) However, they would include all our friends and relatives in this celebration through the creation of a memory book! They visited both Michaels and AC Moore which are close to our home and chose a scrapbook. They purchased additional pages, scrapbook paper and stickers. These stores all have huge scrapbook centers and they found tons of goodies to help decorate the book that would be their gift to us. Going through our Christmas card list, computer contact files and address book, they compiled a list of all of our friends both local and across the country. They sent the letter below to each of them asking that they sent back a letter or card congratulating us on our 25th. They were hoping to get back about half...they got back almost all! Some came back in the self-addressed stamped envelope they sent. Others came via email. Day by day they were adding them to the memory book.. and we did not have a clue! This was such a labor of love.

Here's a larger version of their Memory Book Letter

Step 2 Working with the family. They put Grandma on a mission to find any wedding memorabilia. Sure enough, she had my wedding dress, veil and shoes in a closet and the cake topper in her china cabinet. She gave them the wedding invitation, favors and all the proofs from our wedding album. They had a treasure chest of goodies to work with. They added the invitation and favor to the memory book and scattered in some wedding pictures! Everything was taking shape. Grandma and Grandpa offered to take care of the food, so that they could save their summer earnings for school! They worked with my sister to have it at her house. We would be going over for a cook out that night! All the family from Maryland and Virginia drove up that day. These kids did a wonderful job orchestrating everything. Plus it was a great chance for the 4 of them to work with each other as well as our families.
Step 3 They gave an assortment of excuses as to where they were all going that night. So I made the salad and off we went to my sister's! Here I am coming into the surprise.. salad in hand!

Step 4 Dinner was great.. all of our family and extended family and even all the kids came! It was perfect!

Step 5 Dessert.. out comes a miniature wedding cake with our original cake topper! How clever was that!

Step 6 Entertainment.. in our family a MUST for a 25th anniversary party.. The wedding dress is pulled out along with all the rest of the goodies from Grandma's closet and then the gift was given. The memory book was fun for all of us. The kids learned all about us from our younger years in compiling this. We had a blast revisiting and reconnecting with old friends from coast to coast. It was a wonderful celebration.

Some photos of the memory book!

Step 7 Party favors, of course, for a 25th anniversary party.. the kids found the most adorable "heart cookie cutters" and made everyone bags of cookies with the cookie cutter tied with ribbon to the bags. The hang tag read : "Cut Out for Each Other". If you google wedding or shower favors, you will find these on numerous sites. It was a clever and creative favor.
Step 8 Movie poster celebrating our 25th anniverary party. They found a picture of us and went to BigHugeLabs.com and turned it into a great movie poster for us.. what a creative idea!

I think one of the nicest thing about this 25th anniversary party idea was that the kids planned it from start to finish and it was manageable for them. They were able to include all of our friends and extended family from all over the country. They did not have to grapple with who to invite and did not have to go to our family to ask for money to fund this party. The nicest compliment to them was that their idea has been recycled by numerous of our friends for their own anniversary celebration. It works great for any landmark year be it 10, 15, 25 or even 50! These kids took all the celebration lessons they had learned over the years and came up with a fantastic one all on their own!
We are so proud of them.

More ideas like this 25th anniversary party can be found at Family Fun
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