Since human brains are naturally hardwired to learn more from negative information than positive information, we can use that as a life hack to learn to get started more quickly and be more successful when planning our family reunion.
But before diving into what can go wrong with family reunion planning, let’s look at why family reunions are highly celebrated.
Why Do People Give Time to Family Reunions?
Now I know that we all have work to do, errands to run and of course, kids to look after. The list of everything that needs to be done could go on for a long time. However, attending family reunions is more than coming together and giving life updates to relatives. It’s more than the talk.
Here are the top reasons why you shouldn’t miss attending your next family reunion and not make a mess in planning it.
- Celebration of heritage
Reunions are celebrations of family roots and traditions. Every family is unique and precious. Meeting with the family will revive the sense of belonging and pride in where you come from. And it’s fun to know where you have inherited some of your traits and features.
- Strengthen family bonds
Admit it or not, distance and the busyness of life sometimes take us away from nurturing meaningful relationships. Reunions will give dedicated time for families to mend broken bonds, strengthen relationships, and form new relationships.
- Introduction of new additions to the family
As families continue to grow, family reunions are good opportunities to introduce the extended family and welcome babies and in-laws. That’s why some families choose to hold reunions every other year. Oftentimes, it’s difficult since people tend to get nervous when meeting new people. However, activities at family reunions will help ease tension and can help create a new bond.
- Opportunity to unwind and relax
What better way to spend the vacation than spending it with families and relatives? A group vacation with the family is the perfect time to take a pause on everything, and just enjoy the moment with a company that genuinely cares about you. You can be who you are without any pressure or expectations.
- Memories bring back memories bring back you…
They say those happy memories from family are always something money can’t buy. As we get entangled with the busyness of life, one must not forget that people get older. It’s good to give time, share experiences, and show love while our loved ones are still here. And you’ll be surprised how far good and precious memories can take you.
- It’s literally good for your health
While one can’t escape some family dramas and traumas along the way, families positively improve wellness. According to Unite for Sight, “Having a close-knit and supportive family provides emotional support, economic well-being, and increases overall health.”
Furthermore, social relationships, such as those found in close families, have been demonstrated to decrease the likelihood of the onset of chronic disease, disability, mental illness, and death.
Now that we know all the goodies we get from reunions, let’s now look at how to easily and effortlessly fail to plan your family reunion.
Your 5-step Guide to Failure: What You Need to Avoid
1. Decide everything on a whim
You’re a spontaneous person. It’s just a small gathering of the family who won’t judge you for any food shortage or bad accommodation. They won’t blame you for it. They’ll love you for who you are. No need to plan, right? You can just put everything on your head and depend on your memory-enhancing pills taking notes of everything you need to do. This is the easiest and most convenient.
2. Don’t use any checklist at all
You’ve done it before, you can do it again– even without any tools at hand like a checklist. You can ditch pen, paper, and note-taking. You’re not an organized person, to begin with. You can do the purchasing, the reservations, and all that jazz on the precise date it should be done. You can manage the timelines easily and you won’t miss a single thing.
3. Do everything by yourself
It’s not a big deal. How hard can it be? You’re a one-person team. You can do everything by yourself and you don’t need any outside help. After all, family reunions should not involve the family. You shouldn’t ask for help with trivial matters like planning and preparing. You got it under control.
4. Cramming is totally okay
Late reservations are completely okay. You can contact the catering services 1 week before without any complaints. You can reserve hotel accommodations and your chosen venue anytime you want. You call the shots here.
It’s not even important to know that booking for nature park reserves should be done 4-6 months in advance and at least a month for hotels. But who cares anyway, right?
5. Don’t worry about a backup plan
Everything will go according to plan, you say. There’s no such thing as accidents or unforeseen incidents. You’ve precisely calculated every single detail and that is more than enough. What could possibly happen, right?
Now that’s a lot of sarcasm to take in. These are just some of the most common mistakes you can definitely commit. If you want your family reunion to succeed, it takes more than avoiding these pitfalls. You should know the basic fail-proof practices and steps in planning family reunions.
Helpful Steps in Family Reunion Planning
It doesn’t matter if you’re a first-timer or you’re working on a budget, these simple steps will help you plan and host a fun and memorable reunion.
Get started with planning as early as possible
If you want to make this family gathering as memorable as you can, then plan well. And when I say well, plan ahead of time. Some planning takes up to 15 months which depends on how big the family is. Reservations and bookings need to be done as early as possible especially if you’re doing the reunion during peak seasons.
Just to get an idea, here are some suggested timelines for reunion planning courtesy of our friends in AARP.org:
- 24 to 18 months: form the reunion committee, create a platform for communication and announcements (website, social media pages/group, start your registration system (you can partner with Event Smart to start accepting online registrations and payments), scout venues, visit hotels for accommodations and contact vendors, decide for any fundraising opportunities
- 12 months: finalize date and venue, inform attendees on the dates and some initial information, start negotiating with staff and service providers for costs, start fundraising if you opt to do this, meet with the committee
- 9 months: finish reservations and vendor deals, set the RSVP deadline, recruit volunteers and meet with the committee
- 6 months: finalize the entertainment and remind family about participatory events such as a talent show, craft show, trivia night, karaoke or story swap, order personalized swag from manufacturers (e.g., T-shirts, tote bags, hats)
- 6 weeks: do follow-ups (rentals, reservations, vendors, registrations and payments), remind attendees on what to bring, finalize name tags and swag bags
- 1 week: assign stations and specific people responsible for any problem that may arise (as in the case of any medical emergency or food shortage), check in with committees and volunteers and do the final briefing, give final meal count to caterers, test all tech and equipment that you’ll use, do a test run for the program
- Reunion day: Enjoy!
Hold a family meeting
Consult the family on their availability. This is a very important aspect of planning. The goal of a family reunion is to get everyone to attend the family gathering. Make a poll on their preferred dates and venues.
Set up committees
Now no matter how good of a leader and organizer you are, you need a team. And involving the family member makes it extra special and easy for everyone. Make the reunion a family project because giving tasks promotes belongingness. It makes people feel special and important.
Some of the committees you want to include are the planning committee, communication committee, registration committee, food committee, and program committee.
Decide on the date and venue
After you get everyone’s vote, it’s time to set a tentative date and venue. Some of the most common picks for dates are during summer vacation or winter holidays. If you want to have lesser costs for the venue, you can choose the backyard perhaps of a family member or an ancestral house.
Create a flexible budget
Precision is very important, especially in dealing with money. Create a realistic budget and decide on where to get funds. You can simply collect registration fees but getting sponsors is also one of the best ways to raise money.
You can further cut down expenses by asking the volunteers to bring in food. Whatever the case may be, it’s important to take into account the sponsorships and the overall costs.
Book venues ahead of time
While some may opt to cut down costs and prefer to meet on a family’s estate, some appreciate it more to meet with the family while basking under the sun on a lovely beach or sitting down surrounded by nature on a reserve park.
You must also arrange the hotel accommodations for family members coming from different states. List down all bookings and do it as early as possible.
Consider a registration and ticketing software to help manage attendees and money
You want to make planning and execution as easy as possible. You want to maximize your time with the family, not to drown in tasks to do. However, taking track of endless lists and payment transactions is surely a headache. The paper registration process may cost you your attendees.
Do yourself a favor by choosing a registration and ticketing software like Event Smart. Event Smart will enable you to accept registrations and collect family members’ payments wherever they are and whenever they want through online transactions.
They can pay through credit cards, PayPal, Stripe and Venmo. Funds will automatically be transferred into your merchant account with no service fees!
Plan the menu and entertainment
Reunions are opportunities to showcase family recipes and talents. It’s amazing how food can bring back memories, especially those from your childhood. Reunions will be more meaningful when we offer foods that are unique to the family.
Get the family recipes out. And for entertainment, you can do a talent show. Encourage everyone to participate regardless of their age. It would be more fun to have members from different age brackets to present.
You can also design some fun team-building activities and competitions. Challenge your family’s competitive side with some easy-to-do games. Go extra with your trophies and prizes. You can hand out some memorabilia like t-shirts and customized items.
Ask for feedback
Starting well is not enough. You need to end it well. And part of doing that is hearing their feedback and honest opinions. You can also ask for some recommendations, as in the case of the next family reunion destination, that you can use for the next reunion.
Still lost with your event planning, check this article for some quick and easy last-minute tips for event planning.
Questions to ask in planning a family reunion
Here are some questions that you need to be considering when planning your family reunion.
- Who will be attending?
- How many are expected to attend?
- Will they be bringing guests with them?
- When and where does the majority want it to happen?
- How many days can a working family member get off from work?
- Do they prefer doing it indoors or outdoors? Does the family prefer an outdoor adventure? Do they want a family trip somewhere in the tropics?
- What’s the best way to reach members who’ll be attending?
- Are there anyone with disabilities or allergies?
- How much are they willing to pay for the reunion?
- Are they willing to travel?
- What can we do to raise funds?
- What kind of family activities will the adults and the younger generations enjoy most?
- What would be the possible reasons why certain family members can’t make it?
Some Reunion Ideas for You
- Present family lineage: Get to know everyone in the family. Get a representative from every intermediate family and let them present their family tree, for example. Make sure to bring the old family albums. It will surely bring the entire family much laughter.
Not only laughter but also tears. Old family photos will help you remember and honor deceased family members. Introduce your deceased loved ones to the young generations by presenting them with photos with touching stories about them.
- Do a trivia game: Elevate the fun by doing a trivia game. Trivia questions should revolve around family history and family tradition. Not everyone knows Grandpa Joe and Grandma Susie’s wedding song, right? It’s one way to see who knows the family best.
- Auction: This is a great way to raise money for the next family reunion. Ask the family to bring in items to be auctioned. These objects could be something meaningful to the family. It could be Grandma Susie’s favorite canned beans or a handmade craft.
- Do a photo op: Reunions are not complete without any pictures. Preserve your lasting memories by taking photos of each immediate family and a collective photo of the whole clan. You can compile it to the family’s photo gallery and present it at every family reunion. Everyone will see how the family grows each year!
Plan a Memorable Family Reunion with Event Smart
We may not meet our family that often. And that’s why family reunions are very important. We give time to what and who we value. Planning a family reunion might be overwhelming. But if you follow this guide for the don’ts and do’s, you’re good to go.
Event Smart wants you to get the most out of this special occasion. Make planning and hosting events easier with us. Get right with your family reunion planning by starting our free trial.