Keepsake or Souvenir for Parents' 50Th Anniversary

When my grandparents celebrated their 50th their children also hosted a big party like you're planning. We (the grandchildren) had a large gold-tone platter made that listed their names, wedding date, anniversary date, and something like "with love from your Grandchildren" and then listed all 15 of our names. It was something that they proudly displayed in their dining room and looked pretty among their most special dishes and glassware.

Another idea that I really, really love is puzzle piece picture frames...you can personalize these and put in photos of their wedding, you kids, their grandchildren and leave a spot open for an anniversary photo. The big piece that goes in the middle would be a perfect place to put a wedding photo and then later a photo from their party when they're all dressed up and photo ready:

http://www.personalcreations.com/puzzleoflife?productgrou...

Congrats to your parents and have fun planning!

ETA based on Diane B.'s answer - we also had the privilege of seeing both my grandmother and my husband's grandmother reach their 90th birthdays. For each, we did digital scrapbooks from either Shutterfly or Snapfish where I had everyone send me photos (either snail mail or via e-mail) and I scanned all of the physical photos (which took forever) and uploaded the digital ones. Once they were all uploaded, I created big photo books using the colorful templates that these services have and then had the books printed with embossed leather covers. So if you're not into paper crafts (which are awesome but can be really time consuming) then you can have gorgeous photo books made on-line. It still takes a lot of time, but you don't need to buy papers, scissors, stickers, glue dots, etc.

And yes on the video idea! My FIL put together a video for his mom's 90th birthday where he interviewed family and friends about her (and her husband, who had already passed away) and then interviewed her as well. How fun would it be to get your parents together on video talking about how they met, funny stories from when they were newlyweds, etc? Then someone in the family edited the clips together, added in some transition slides introducing the next clip, etc. They showed it at her party and it was HUGE hit. But we didn't really know the value of it until she passed away this past fall at the age of 94. We played the video at a luncheon after the funeral and it was really special to have her voice and her words and her mannerisms captured for us to remember.

We paid for a professional photographer to photograph my in-laws' 50th anniversary celebration. We presented the photos to them in a nice album and gave them (legally released) digital copies of the photos to share.

For my parent's 50th wedding anniversary a cousin had a china plate made with their names and wedding date and gold embellishments fired on it. They proudly hung it on their wall.

No good suggestions- I do remember, when my Aunt's parents hit this milestone, "grandpa" said. "For all you younger one's out there. The first 40 or so years of marriage can be hard work, but it gets easier after that."

Best to the married couple.
F. B.

For the 90th birthday of someone in my family, all of the kids and grandkids did a scrapbook. Everyone took a page or a double-page spread, and did something on what Grandma meant to them. Each one wrote a letter (a few paragraphs) about what she meant to them or a particular trait of hers that they admired, then took some favorite photos of memorable times, and put it into one entire book.

A lot of the work was done ahead of time, with some coordination via email. A scrapbook was purchased, the kind with plastic sleeves, plus a bunch of background papers and the little "embellishments" (stickers, etc. from the scrapbook section of the craft store). We also went on vacation together, and everyone brought their "pages", plus we had some card stock (to make little captions & titles), a portable paper cutter, some markers (to write on the card stock or directly on the background paper), some scrapbook-safe glue and tape, and a few of those fancy-border scissors. We finished the assembly as a group (hiding from the birthday girl!) and just put all the pairs of pages out on a long table or one of the beds, and came up with an order. Then it was quick work to insert each set into the plastic sleeves.

The end result had pages from each person or family, but also some very basic themes like photos/comments from vacations (a beach page, a hiking page), pictures of when Grandma and Grandpa fist met in college, a few of the old house and the pets, that sort of thing.

I would think you could easily do something like that highlighting great moments and everyday happenings over their 50 years together. It spreads out the work, everyone can do their own page without worrying what someone else is doing. We brought extra photos that other family members could use if they wanted to - it was cooperative but didn't require a whole lot of executive sessions or any fighting on the final look!

The super creative family members oversaw more of the book, while others were in charge of taking Grandma for a walk or otherwise getting her out of the house we rented so she couldn't see what we were up to.

I've also seen families put together a video diary or timeline on the computer - it can be put on a DVD for them to watch over and over too. Most of the teens know how to combine photos, movies, music and graphics, and it's a way to help cement their memories of their grandparents.

we got in touch with old friends and family members and asked them to write about a special memory, or share a favorite photo, then put 'em together in a book. it was a big surprise and they loved it.
khairete
S.