50th Anniversary Ideas

Ok, my parents are celebrating their 50th anniversary the end of September. I was going to have each of us write a letter to them and put them along with some photos in an album for them. I've having problems getting the letters from nieces and nephews, plus my brother and his wife.
I would love some ideas if you don't mind. I was thinking about going through all their photos and just getting pictures from different parts of their life together, such as marriage, kids, new home, 25th anniversary party and their 40th anniversary party. What do you girls think?

What a cool idea! I think it would be cool to do a now and then page--their wedding photo, and beside it a more recent photo of them together.

Also, a lot of gold would be a nice touch; isn't gold the traditional gift for 50 years?

Good luck and let us see how it turns out!

For my parents 50th I took pictures of them through the years and scanned and printed them real small. Punched out with a circle punch and glued them to the back of flat backed clear glass pebbles (the kind you find at the dollar store). We scattered them on the tables. Many people took them home as souviners. I put magnets on the back of mine and they are now on my fridge.

When my parents celebrated their 50th, they made copies of their wedding party picture (their brothers and sisters made up most of their wedding party), then they rolled the picture up like a scroll and slipped it through a gold wedding band finding for guests to take home. On each of the tables they had a variety of old family photos they had copied, and sheets of paper for the guests to try to guess who was who.

My Dad did a video slide show, and did a presentation about their life together, talking about her parents and grandparents, how they met, the places they lived, and some of the things they were proud of in each of their kids.

We are Catholic, and my brother and his wife, contacted the Vatican, and acquired a certificate signed by the Pope, congratulating them on being together for 50 years.

I've just started scrapbooking, and I'm glad of some of the things we did in preparation for the anniversary. One of the things I'm working on now is a scrapbook to commemorate their anniversary celebration (I know long overdue...it was 5 years ago), we had table cameras scattered around the room, plus a photographer, so I have oodles of pictures to put together in an album for them. All 9 of their brothers and sisters made it to the anniversary, and it was the last time they were all together for a happy occasion (my Dad's oldest sister passed away 3 months after the celebration).

I'm now saying better late than never, and I have lots of candid shots to work from for the album.

Hi Lynn, First I want to say that I think this is a wonderful idea! I have read aboout others doing this & haviing similar problems with responses. When you asked, did you just ask for their memories?? Some people will have no problem with that but some may think What do I write??? Send them a new one asking for 1 specific memory. Like-
What was the most fun place you went with them?
What was the funniest thing you guys did or they did? What was the most loving thing you saw them do? How do you describe their love in one word??

My idea is to send 1 different one to each person you are having no response from. Lots of times, once they start the sentence, they add lots more.
You could also ask friends too in advance. For those that send none.... You caould solve that by making the pages early leaving room for the writing. You could have the paper at the party so you could ask the ones who didn't reply to do it there. Does that make sense?? Another question- name 1 thing you remember about their love or marriage??

I forgot to add that some people did this but had someone take a pic of ea guest or couple or family along with the couple so you could put those in the album near what they wrote. I mean just a reg. camera, not a photographer.

That's a great idea! I'm doing the same thing right now; my parents' anniversary is in August. Instead of gifts they've asked all their friends to send letters and photos of memories they have about my parents, and they asked me to put an album together. I'm using a color scheme of kraft background paper with gold accents (ink, rub-ons, flourishes) and white flowers. I've done a couple of pages, and it's going to look awesome!

I think those papers, flowers, rub ons & album you showed look really nice!

Thank you ladies for the great ideas. We aren't doing a party, but my dad has an Alaska Cruise planned to celebrate as a surprise. They went there right after getting married.