10 Year Reunion! Help!

I just planned mine this past summer. I kind of went all out and did a cuban theme so we had a cigar roller and spanish dancers. However what I found was that people did not want to sit down and eat a big dinner, we had food stations and not even all of that went. People mainly wanted to drink alcohol and talk to old friends. I highly recommend starting a website like on myenvent.com so people can start to reconnect in advance.

I helped plan my 10 year. The hardest part is getting in touch with all of the people, so I would definitely recommend the 2 websites. We had a whole weekend thing. It was not just one night. It was always tradition at our school to start your reunion at the homecoming football game. It gave us all time to stand around and talk, it is not like we watched the game. We also got to see a couple of old teachers, so that was nice. Saturday, we had a picnic/game of flag football for the guys (lunch provided). It was really low key and all of the kids came. I was surprised to see how many kids there were. Sat. night, we all went to a kid-free event for dancing, slide show and food. Overall, we had a blast. I think that there was even a big group that decided to go out for bfast on Sun. morning. Overall, it was not expensive, but that is because the last night, we did not have to pay for the venue, it was donated. Overall, I think that it was $40 per person and that was for 3 meals and 3 events. (I think that our school donated the food at the football game and we all got a pass to get into the game free). The great thing about the multiple events was that we had a higher attendance because certain people had to work, etc.
Good Luck!

Hi J.,
Bless your heart, and good luck!!
E. M

My 10 year reunion was very POORLY planed! The one thing they did right was registered it with “classmates.com” and sent e-vites through their link. Beyond that the whole thing was HORRIBLE! We grad from Fullerton High but the reunion was at a hotel in Irvine. The tickets were $90- EACH. This means if you’re married, which many are at their 10 year, it’s $180, for one night of dinner and entertainment. It was SO over priced that I don’t know even 1 person I was friends with in high school that attended the “official” reunion. About 20 of us plus spouses gathered at a restaurant we all went to during High School and had our own reunion. I still talk to a couple of my High School chums, and they talk to a few others, so it just webbed out from there. It ended up being about 30-35 total. We ordered a buffet and divided the bill per-person. It worked out to around $30 each. We still had a GREAT time! Granted, we only did word of mouth invites and there was no “Reunion Book” for us, so it didn’t cost as much to plan. But… Even my husband’s 10 year was $55 for one guest, $85 for 2. That wasn’t so bad either. It was held within 10 miles of the high school, at a somewhat upscale restaurant. They had a “pay your own tab” bar, so those whom wanted to drink could, but at THEIR expense, not EVERYONES!

It may not be as “Classy” as a 5 star, gourmet restaurant, but If I were planning our next reunion, I’d ask the school to use their gym and tables/chairs. Every movie and TV show I have ever seen has had their reunions in the school gym. If you do it there you could have a very nice catered meal, a DJ, and decorate yourself (w/ the committee) or hire a “Party Coordinator” to do it for you. You should be able to get everything done for about the same price as my husband’s reunion, maybe less. If you choose to go to a restaurant, choose one close to your High School, hopefully one that would have meaning to many of your classmates. Our unofficial reunion was at Angelo & Vinci’s because we could literally see our high school from the restaurant parking lot. We ALL went to their carry-out area called “Wappo’s” during lunch in high school, so it made sense.

I hope this helps~ J.

Hi J.,

I had a blast at my reunion, but the thing I liked most was that they asked people to contribute pictures ahead of time either via email or snail mail & then they had a slide show of all the pictures. There was a mix of old highschool pictures & more recent family pictures & they also used the pictures in a small memories book that they passed out.

My three friends and I planned our reunion in 2002. We went to school in a city south of San Francisco. We wanted a classy event, so we held it at a culinary academy in SF. It was $80 per person, and we lost money on that. We registered on all the reuinion sites (Classmates, Reunions.com), asked our high school to post reunion information on their website, and I created a site of my own with the information as well. We got about 100 people, which was maybe half to a third of our class. We got the people I wanted to see. We sent out really nice invitations to all the addresses we had. Many were not current, but we really spent a lot of time trying. We brought our yearbooks to the event, hired a DJ to play music from that time, and solicited donations from our parents for a giveaway. It really was just dinner and dancing, but what we really wanted to do was catch up with our old friends, and we did do that. Everyone said the food was amazing and the wait staff were amazing. I'd use them again. We left it up to the individual groups of friends to plan their own things for Friday night or whenever.

Everyone I ever talk to about reunions complains that they are expensive. It's a very tricky prospect because you have to book a lot of things before you know who is coming. We were unable to get to our guaranteed number, so we ate all that extra.

Anyway, best of luck. It was almost as stressful as planning my wedding, maybe more so, because our classmates had to pay, whereas wedding guests are getting it all for free and can't complain! (wink)

Hi,
When we went to our HS reunion one of the girls took a picture of everyone that came (ie:single or couple) and then during the reunion we filled out a questionaire with email, updated info and so on. We contributed 5 or 10 dollars. Then a few weeks later she sent out a year book with all the info. It was nice to stay in touch with people. If you need more info you can email me. Good Luck!

Hi J.,

I have a referral for you on the announcements. She has done a lot of my work and I love what she does. Her prices are reasonable too and she will ship anywhere in the US.

Crystal Invites ###-###-#### and her name is Crystal Underwood. I know she has a web site but I think that are in the middle of redoing it. You can try www.CrystalInvites.com

Good Luck with your reunion

L. C
Herbalife Wellness Coach/
Certified Nutritionist
www.Herbalmom.com