NWR: In-laws 50th Anniversary (would love ideas!)

For my parents 10yr anniversary, they bought out a pool bar/restaurant space at a local hotel. There was a specific pre-paid menu for the guests and all sodas and non-alcoholic drinks were free but alcoholic drinks were cash bar, and the pool/hot tub was open. This was maybe 14yrs ago and they paid $4k. No fancy decor, no vow renewal, only a sheet cake. Just the space and food with a pool.

We threw a surprise party of my parents. My mother couldn't speak for a good thirty minutes. We got tnthe help of several of their friends from church to help us. We got a room in a resteraunt and invited a lot people to join us for dinner. They all knew that they were covering their own dinner and we supplied the cake. One hint, buy decorations when you find them because stores just don't have much of that anymore.

@ItsGoodToBeKing, that sounds so fun. Yeah, vow renewal didn't come to mind. I feel like that's not really their style. They're a little older, and that's not really a generational thing for them.

@DisneyNut, good tip on the decor. I keep seeing a lot of "golden" stuff as apparently 50 years is the "golden anniversary."

I really want to get with some of the other ladies and sort of see if we're going to make it more intimate or if it's going to be like a BLOW out because my MIL (FIL some too) pretty much knows EVERYONE. Hundreds of people in this small town, so that's definitely how we'll decide where we need to hold it, what food we can provide, etc.

I think a awesome idea for something to do for the event would be send a letter to their friends and either enclose a blank (front and back-Other than a return address and stamp) post card and have people write messages to them that they can draw on the front or write messages on...

For my parents 40th..they had a big picnic bbq gathering and a blown up picture of them from when they got married and their dress and his shirt on maniqunes....

My parentsʻ definitely had a blow-out (300+ people) since mom managed the biker local bar and dadʻs nickname was Capt. Cannonball, hence the need for a pool. They got friends to do all the live music, they all took turns.

I like the pictures idea! Some fun pictures of them back from when they were just dating and in their early years of marriage would be super fun to have around

Are they still friends with the people from their wedding party? Would be nice to get them involved again.

DH & I renewed our vows for our 20th. Our MOH & BM stood with us again. But, it was much smaller than our wedding.

25th anniversary is silver

30th is pearl

35th is coral

40th is ruby (I recently officiated a 40th anniv. vow renewal and the "bride" wore deep red)

45th is sapphire

50th is gold

55th is emerald

60th is diamond

This was MANY years ago, but my grandparents got married SUPER young (teenagers in Mexico) so they never had a wedding. We (well my aunts and uncles) went all out for their party. It was the wedding they never had.

Sorry, guess that doesn't help. But I would suggest having their kids help and include grand kids as well.