<p>We’re starting to talk about our 40th (!) HS reunion and I’d love to hear about some ones that worked out well. At our last one, I thought it was a little too formal and more like a reception of strangers then a gathering of old friends. It was at a wonderful old place that one of my former schoolmates and his wife owned, but it was held outside with a DJ (loud) and a nice catered dinner. I have to be careful about making too many suggestions, as I live three hours away, but I’d love to hear what’s worked for other people. I’d sort of like a day time event.</p>
<p>Our 40th high school reunion was fabulous. It was a weekend long event. Friday was an informal gathering with appetizers and drinks. Saturday was a dinner with dancing… Band was a band from our class. Important…there was a lobby seating area outside of the room with the band so folks who wanted to talk could do so!</p>
<p>The thing that was fabulous was a website that the committee started well over a year before the event using Class Creator. It was similar in many ways to Facebook but was accessible only to members of the class. There were profiles, pictures, and a message board. Many folks actually connected via that site first, so by the time the reunion weekend happened folks felt in touch. </p>
<p>We also had a number of informal gatherings that weekend…brunches and the like. </p>
<p>The key was there was really something for everyone.</p>
<p>Our 25th reunion was in our friend’s backyard. Of course, I must mention she and her husband have spectacularly landscaped property with a great view of the city. There was a caterer and DJ. We all had a great time. Last year was our 30th and it was a formal sit down dinner and dancing at a hotel. It was too stuffy and not fun at all.</p>
<p>Our 40th high school reunion got a lot of participation because we set up a Facebook group for the class and enlisted everyone to get email addresses to help cut down the cost of the event.</p>
<p>So far, the FB element is really proving helpful. We have a private FB page. With the FB connection, I’m getting a much better insight into who people have become and have had some great private messages catching up.</p>
<p>Because I don’t live close to my hometown and didn’t stay close to any HS friends when I went to my 30th, I was a bit discombobulated. I hadn’t gone to the previous one or two and everyone looked SO different! At my husband’s HS reunion they had the HS picture on the nametag which was really helpful for him.</p>
<p>DH and I attended his 30th high school reunion last month and had a time. The setting was at a local bar/restaurant and they had food and a band. It is the first h.s. reunion either of us had attended. I knew a couple of people from his class as we socialized with them while dating during our college years. I’m not a shy person, so it was easy for me to strike up conversations with complete strangers, too. </p>
<p>There were only 86 people in my h.s. graduating class (small private Christian school) and, quite honestly, I’ve come to realize through FB connections that several of them are wound a bit more tightly than I, so I’m not sure how much fun they would be at a reunion, but I would definitely consider it.</p>
<p>My 35th hs class reunion was last summer. A lot of your options will be determined by how many people you think will attend. There were only 89 in my graduating class, so we booked the top floor of a restaurant that could handle around 50. Served heavy appetizers and mini desserts, loaded a ton of late 70’s music on an iPod that played all night, played a dvd of random class pictures on the 2 screens that were available, cash bar, and let people mingle. It was a lot of fun!</p>
<p>Our main problem was that with small numbers, the price we had to charge ($35pp)was considered high by some in this central IL town, especially since alcohol was not included. A few of us were sweating the numbers near the end, hoping we would break even. In the end, it all worked out, thankfully. </p>
<p>Good luck in your planning. We communicated via Facebook and email primarily, but still had about 15 people for whom we had to use snail mail. : (</p>
<p>Timely thread! My 35th, scheduled for August, was just cancelled this morning, via FB. Reason: lack of paid responses. Sigh. Much like Illinoismom, some of the locals at my midwest school considered the $30pp too much. Only 50 of our 400 replied. Feel bad for those that have spent lots of time and effort on this.<br>
Also disappointing to those of us who have purchased plane tickets…hoping that since I’m coming 2000 miles, there will be some classmates in the area…</p>
<p>Our 40th reunion year passed virtually unnoticed, but now a reunion is being planned as a 60th birthday bash (2 years after the missed 40th reunion).</p>
<p>I attended my 35th a few years ago. The first reunion that I or H had attended. It was in my hometown, and the organizers had just reserved a back section of the restaurant/bar
I don’t think they needed a deposit, & I went kind of late to the party, but it was really fun and I would do it again.
I found out about it through Facebook. It was fairly casual, they had picnic type food, salads and sandwiches. There was a cash bar, but also a better stocked bar in the front of the restaurant where there was also a live band. Fortunately in the back we couldn’t hear the band.
My H’s class has had a lot of reunions, often a daytime one at a park with family and then an evening one at the yacht club, but he was on the periphery in high school and didn’t think there would be anyone that he would want to see.
However, I was also, and I actually attended an alternative high school for a few years, but enough of my friends from elementary school and jr high, that it was well worth it.
A couple people even made the trip from Florida!</p>
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<p>I wonder what the correct price point was…</p>
<p>^^^good question! One reunion cost $25pp for a full sit down dinner with a dj in a hotel ballroom, and people complained then as well. When planning reunions, you need a thick skin and a realization that you can NEVER please everyone.</p>
<p>I figured the reunion cost was a once every ten year cost. I thought we got a lot for our money and didn’t mind paying. It was far less expensive than going out to a swanky restaurant. Since my family lives in my high school area, flying there would have happened at some point anyway.</p>
<p>My 30th is next weekend in Ohio … I went to the 10th and missed the 20th, so hopefully people will remember me! It will be an event with heavy appetizers and drinks, and not a sit down dinner, so hopefully that will allow for more mingling and re-aquainting with old friends. </p>
<p>I wonder if I should put “SnowflakeVT” on my name tag in case anyone recognizes me better by that!</p>
<p>Never went back to a reunion until my 40th–actually the organizers didn’t get it together until two years later, so it was the 42nd. I had a great time (it was last fall). The event was held at a restaurant not too far from out high school. Price was $35 per person for a buffet dinner and dancing (there was a live band). Very few people were interested in dancing. Most people wanted to chat and catch up with friends.</p>
<p>The night before, there was a house party at a home that several out-of-town classmates rented for the weekend. I enjoyed that because it was a group of people with whom I was close. There was also a breakfast on Sunday at another restaurant. I didn’t go to that because I spent the day with my brother and cousin who lived nearby.</p>
<p>I enjoyed myself and I’m glad I saw people. There are a few with whom I’ve become Facebook friends and wouldn’t mind seeing again. Two things surprised me. Five of our teachers (one was my favorite English teacher) were there. In high school I thought these teachers were old–turns out they were probably only 8 or 10 years older than we were. The other thing that surprised me–out of a class of 300 (about 200 attended) only a handful of folks moved away from our Midwestern city. In fact, as far as I could tell I was one of 2 who lived in the Northeast. The vast majority of people lived in the same geographic area as they did in high school.</p>
<p>My upcoming reunion costs $60 a person. I’d love to know what that money is going towards, other than the meal, but if I want to go, and I do, I have to pay it.</p>
<p>I just bought the tickets to my 40th reunion being held next month in a small Illinois town. For $25 we will get dinner, a class t-shirt, and a parade float. We ride on a large 18 wheeler flatbed on hay bales in the town’s Homecoming parade. It is one of the joys of small town Midwestern life. Typically, we all get super soakers, have barrels of water on the float and spray the parade watchers. Needless to say the reunion dinner is not formal as we are all pretty wet after the parade.</p>
<p>Some venues require that a set amount be spent on food and beverages to secure the space, regardless of the number of people who will attend. Add in decorations, postage, stationery costs, maybe entertainment, and the costs will mount. </p>
<p>I do know that if anyone suggested that my classmates should pay $60pp, they would be laughed out of the room! But I’m talking about central IL. In the Chicago area, it doesn’t sound unreasonable. : )</p>
<p>We were a small class and despite the fact that most have gone on to successful careers, we are all aware that some of our classmates have not fared as well and we try to keep the cost of attendance down to increase the number of attendees.</p>
<p>Tatin, that sounds great!</p>
<p>Originally, I did not like the idea of having our reunion at Homecoming because it means days off work for me to travel. However, our 35 th was in the fall, and Homecoming activities gave those of us from far away something to do between activities. I don’t have parents around, so between activities can be awkward. The locals hang out together, but I was not friends with them in high school. The local hotels are not exactly resorts. </p>
<p>I did have fun at the reunion ( I did the program), but I think I need to take hubby next time.</p>