50th Wedding Anniversary

[CraigB]

Not mine, ha! But I figured I’d tap into the “collective” on some creative ideas for ways to celebrate a 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Bottom line, my parents are celebrating the big 50 is about 3 months. Which is awesome, but my brothers and I are still trying to figure out how to celebrate it. So, I figured I’d see if anyone here had some good ideas.

A few things to know, my parents are pretty “simple” people. They’re not big on material gifts, but they do appreciate gifts that are more personal and “have memories”. Myself and my brothers are willing to spend some money on whatever we do, within “reason”. So, if anyone here has ideas on doing anything that costs tens of thousands of dollars, I say “HA!” Ain’t happening.

Okay hive mind … GO! My parent’s anniversary is counting on y’all for some great ideas.

[RedKittieKat]

I’ve done family picture videos for milestones and left most in tears and laughter … especially when you have the perfect song for each section. Possibly “their” song. Videos are great for parties lol … seriously

Also if you have anyone at all crafty … a family quilt with pictures and/or embroidered squares with names and dates and family events is precious.

The decorations for the 50th are typically gold in nature … so that’s really personal choice … but a couple other things I’ve seen that I love are recaps of “the way it was” type posters and life size cut outs from family pictures. That one is a little more pricey I’m sure … but loads of fun.

I’ve done a few picture boards as well with dates and writings on it. Just using foam board … easy peasy to decorate

Good luck and keep us posted on what you decide I love stuff like this

[CraigB]

All good ideas. Thanks RKK! I like the big cutout of their original wedding picture. And all of the other ideas are good too.

[Mojo]

For my parent’s 50th I collected and scanned ALL the family photos. My mom had started scrapbooks in the 60s, but they had fallen apart. Some had acidic pages that damaged photos, and the glue she used back then didn’t hold up over time. There were 3000+ photos, but I used a camera, copy stand and strobes, rather than a flatbed, so it went pretty quick.

I made retouched versions of ones that were severely damaged, then I had everyone pick out about 40 of their personal favorites and write a small caption or story to go with it. Put that in a hardcover book and had it printed through Blurb and gave everyone copies. There were also appendices for the family tree, our fav family recipes from when we were growing up, annual school photos, and a DVD that contained all the photos.

It was a revelation seeing all those photos together, and reading the different stories. The book was a big hit. It gets pulled out every time there is a big family get together. And it’s now in a format should last at least 100 years.

[PrintDriver]

I got nothin’ beyond gold decorations, lots of food and cake.
Only 50th I ever went to was for my grandparents back before they had home computers and print-on-demand services. I’m kinda glad for that, in a way. No staged show. No frills. No heavy expectations. Just friends and family, having a good time.

[CraigB]

Thats a good idea too Mojo

And PD, trust me, with my parents and my family there won’t be any big production. We have a small family anyway. If you count my parents, their siblings, their nieces and nephews (none by the way, I have no first cousins), their grandkids, kids, children-in-law, sisters/brothers-in-law etc. the grand total comes to 16. So, whatever we do will be pretty low-key. My parents are “no frills/low-ket” sort of people.