Reunions for Dummies

[Cleasai]

Ok, so a couple of friends and I are going to arrange a mass reunion (encompassing multiple years) for our highschool. The problem is, I've never been to a reunion before. Everyone is kinda looking up to me because I'm sort of the one who keeps track of everyone and maintains a website for the alumni http://www.sdscpa.com

So I guess my question to everyone here is, what do you do at a event like this? Does anyone have any ideas on what we could do? Do you have any good/bad experiences you'd like to bring up? Any help would be ever so great right about now lol.

PS... we have looked into hiring professional organizers, but unless we can get enough people to attend, it just wouldn't be worth it.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

i've never been to one, but i've seen enough on various sitcoms.

i know they're usually in the old gym or maybe in a conference hall at a hotel. then there's a dj and all that stuff. plus, i know they usually give out prizes like most successful, the kinda crap that they'd do at prom or in the yearbook too.

maybe someone who's actually been to a reunion can help!

 

[Mr. BAW]

My last reunion was a doozy; I took BAW...we sat one table over from my high-school sweetheart former wife who planted her ass looking our way. Now, BAW and she are no strangers, since we have kids together, BAW's basically raised them for the ex-

It was wonderful seeing old friends, meeting new friends, introducing BAW as my beautiful wife (yeah, guys asked if she was my daughter! and having pic's taken with football and baseball buddies, it was great....That was my 30th reunion; my 35th is coming up! BAW's 20th is nearly on us, she isn't sure she wants to go....have a great time!

 

[dsmith2904]

I used to get together once a year with people from my college paper, there were only about 20 of us so it wasn't too difficult to arrange. We'd go to a restaurant and talk about old times, eat too much, drink too much (some people, at least) and just have a generally grand time. I've never been to a more formal reunion (my 10 year is next year and at this point I highly doubt I'll be going, unless I get a fantastic dream job and get engaged to Ben Affleck between now and then ) but think it's better to do some type of meal rather than try to get an activity together for a large group of people.

Maybe you could go into a chatroom on a site like Reunions.com and get advice, I'm sure some of the people on there have had experience setting up reunions.

 

[Cleasai]

Thanks Khan, Mr. Baw, and DSmith. I have been googling for places that offer any sort of advice. I think we're either gonna do a hotel ballroom, or a family picnic. Or maybe even both. I think we should just jump the border and drink lots of cervezas and eat fish tacos from questionable street carts I think that's what most of us did in highschool anyways lol

 

[cass]

I already had kids when my 10 year class of '78 reunion came around. I wrote to the organisers and suggested a family picnic as well as a formal dinner. Makes it easier for people with kids.
I didn't end up going to that one and I also missed the 25 year reunion last year, for a reason that makes me want to scream (maybe it warrants a ZC).
Good on you for being the organiser cleasai, it's a big job. Make sure you have a great time.

 

[cass]

I think we should just jump the border and eat fish tacos from questionable street carts I think that's what most of us did in highschool anyways lol

funnily enough even though I live in Australia, we did that too

 

[arw]

I went to my 10 year a few years ago. It was way overpriced and the people (class president and vice president) who did the book that I paid extra to get was poorly done. There was a girl who was killed in a car accident (as were her parents) just weeks after graduation and instead of a memorial page for her, they had her listed as living at her parents house. We all began to wonder who else had died that we didn't even know about if the organizers didn't know she died. That sort of set the tone for the rest of the night.

But in terms of how it was set up, it was really casual. No one dressed up too much. The dinner was a buffet put on by the hotel, there was a video playing of our graduation and graduation after party the whole night, no one danced but there was a dj playing song from the early '90's. It was decorated with small centerpieces on the table of our school colors.

I like your idea of a family picnic type thing. Or if you do go with the ballroom you should check the prices of having it catered by a restaurant rather than the hotel. It might be a lot cheaper to do it that way. Everyone was upset at the price we paid once the evening started. We all were kind of like "this is it?" It was great to see the old faces but other than that it wasn't that great of an evening.

Sorry....that probably doesn't help you out too much.

I should add....there was no program, prizes, speeches, updates done by anyone. The only updates you got about people were if you actually went and talked to them. We were all sort of standing around waiting for something to happen. It never did so a bunch of us left and went out for drinks.

 

[fah]

I've been to all of my high school reunions. The best one we held in our old high school cafeteria. We had a wall for photos of families, a buffet dinner, door prizes and a dj who played all those old songs. The one thing that we will probably do next time is the dinner/dance one day and a family barbecue/picnic the next. The only problem we had at the dance was that so many of us wanted to talk and the music was just too loud.

 

[tiny dancer]

I have never been to any of my high school reunions., but I always get together with the close friends I had in high school.

 

[Justified]

I have little desire to go to one of my high school reunions. I elected to not go to my 10 year one last year. It did not interest me.