Conference turris::womannotes-v2

    
    My grandparents celebrated thier fiftieth last year.  What we
    has done was to ask each guest to bring a photo of my grandparents
    and themselves.  It was great!!  We now have two books full of
    pictures which my grandparents treasure.  They were so surprised
    at the idea.  We were very surprised that it went over so well
    and that there were so very many pictures.  It was great!!!
    
    Michele
    

Neil's parents celebrated their fiftieth last summer.

The kind of gifts they appreciated were not the ones that had a lot of
money behind them but the kind that had a lot of what for lack of a better
term I'll call sentimental value.

A friend of theirs who does ceramic painting made them a lovely flowered
picture frame with their names and the date of their marriage on it.  Another
friend got them a nice photo album with the date etc. of the anniversary
party.  We all made them a quilted bedspread -- even Steven, who's only 5, 
stitched half a square -- with our names on it.  Neil's aunt bought them 
a VCR and some movies that were made the year they got married (The Wizard
of Oz and Gone with the Wind, I think).  And so on.

--bonnie

    
    
    Another thing that we had done was to go to a Hallmark card store
    and get a personalized copy of thier "Anniversary Times".
    It gave information relative to the year in which my grandparents
    were married vs today.  Such things like favorite songs, costs
    of loaf of bread, etc...
    
    We made copies and gave each guest a copy and presented the
    original to my grandparents.  That too went over very well.
    
    Have fun!!
    
    Michele

    In a couple of the many. many catalogs we get, there were the old
    newspapers you could get that were printed on a certain date. Usually
    they were promoted as birthday gifts but I thought it would be neet to
    get one of the major newspapers that was printed on that day they were
    married (or maui-ed) fifty years ago. Sound like a net thing?
    
    Ron
    
    P.S. Hi Karen!

You might need to be careful with the old newspapers stuff -- Neil's
parents got married right around when Hitler was invading Poland, and
since they and most of their friends are Jewish, we thought it better 
to avoid the topic altogether.  This year's anniversaries might have
the same problem.

--bonnie

    My grandparents were in a nursing home for their 50th (Granddad
    died 2 months later - amazing they made it that far as it was a
    second marriage for my Grandmother).
    
    Their daughter (my aunt) had taken all of the old family pictures
    and organized them into a photo album, including some which they 
    had never seen of the grand-children and great-grand-children. 
    Not only a wonderful gift, but it evoked lots of memories from those
    present.  (I wish I had gone with a tape recorder.)
    
    Alison

    A memory book.  Ask each family member or friend to write something about
    a favorite memory about the people celebrating their anniversary.   You
    can make a notebook with these writings, pictures of the celebration,
    copies of the invitations, etc.  
    
    You could also gather pictures of the couple taken with friends and
    family,  and make a collage to display at the party.  If you have a
    wedding picture, you could have it enlarged and framed, or pass around 
    their wedding album.  
    
    If you write to the President and they will receive a signed congratulatory
    greeting.  If Catholic, send an invitation to the Pope and they will
    receive a blessing from the Vatican.  Depending on their background,
    you may want to arrange for some special music, e.g. bagpipes, or a
    strolling minstrel to play Italian songs, or Irish stepdancers.  
    
    My brother and I had planned a large celebration, much like a wedding,
    with the original wedding party in attendance. 
    My parents loved line dancing, and we had arranged for their favorite duo to
    play at the party as a surprise.  They knew we were going to dinner to
    celebrate, but they didn't know there would be music, and all the other
    extras.  We were learning one of their favorite dances.  We also went to
    a music store for the sheet music to "their" song, Near You, which was
    to go into the memory album.
    
    Enjoy this time, it is a very special deal to reach a Fiftieth
    Anniversary.  My dad passed away a few days before the celebration,
    but my mom says she cherishes the "50thBook" with all the "memories".  
    
    You will have lots of fun gathering the information, it will not 
    cost a lot of money, and you will probably learn a lot more about your
    parents and how things were for them 50 years ago.  Congratulations
    to them.
    
    Linda
    
           
    

    If it's feasible, get the family to chip in and send your parents
    on a trip/cruise.  My parent's 50th is coming up next year. I'm
    planning on flying them to Hawaii.  I know it's what they've
    been wanting to do for a while.  
    
    kmw

    For my parents 25th we asked everyone to bring one photograph of the
    "anniversary couple".  These were displayed on a large reception table.
    Later we put all the pictures into a large album with the pictures we
    took during the evening.
    
    In the center of the pictures was a charicature someone had done of
    them - emphasizing their personalities.  The charicature was matted
    with a wide enough frame for everyone to sign.  We asked guests to come
    dressed in the fashion of the time my parents were married. We also
    purchased silver goblets with a special engraving.
    
    The whole party was a surprise - we started off by telling them we were
    giving them a night on the town.  Picked them up in a limo.  On the
    tape deck we had playing popular songs in the year they got married.
    When we arrived everyone jumped out and suprised them in their great
    costumes.  The had some great laughs looking at all the pictures and
    the wonderful charicature.  We bought mom a bouquet and dad a
    bouttoniere.  The band started playing the Anniversary waltz and
    everyone made a big circle around them and hummed along.  Later they
    cut a beautiful cake.  On top we placed the "Anniversary Couple" which
    is a ceramic couple doing a waltz, (it also is musical).  Later we had
    my two funny uncles do a "roast".
    
    It was such a memorable night for both of them - it was a wedding they
    never had coupled with lots of mementos for them to keep.
    
    When my girlfriend gave her parents a surprise anniversary party she
    wanted to get them out of her hair for the afternoon (while the guests
    arrived), so she hired a limosine to take them to the church they were
    married in, their old neighborhood where they had their first
    apartment, to the place they met, and  to their first house.
    
    Suzanne
    

    A friend of mine and her husband recently celebrated their 25th
    anniversary.  I went into "cahoots" with their children and from
    photobraphs had a video tape made that was set to the music of "Through
    the Years".  There was alot of laughing but not a dry eye in the house
    as many fond memories had been stirred up.  It's something that can be
    cherrished as well as passed on through the family.
    
    P.
    

    My ex-husbands grandparents celebrated their 75th last October.  As
    well as the President's message, their children sent in to Paul Harvey
    who announced the anniversary in his "Tournament of Roses".  They also
    organized a card shower by writing to everyone they could think of who
    had ever known these two wonderful people.  They don't care for a crowd
    of people, the noise and all, but they thoroughly enjoyed getting cards
    from all over the world with memory nudging notes to be read over and
    over.  They are still talking about how the cards started coming and
    coming and the mail carrier teased them and the neighbors were jealous!
    
    Dondi