Rehearsal Dinner=Parents'' Anniversary

[alli_esq]

Hi, everyone! I have been lurking tons lately, and am LOVING all the photos of the weddings! You all have the most beautiful and creative ideas!

So I''m here again asking for some of your smartjuice! (actually, upon reading that, that almost sounds gross, though my intent was to be sorta cute. sorry for that.) My parents'' 42nd wedding anniversary is the night of my rehearsal dinner (one of the reasons I chose my wedding date!), and I would love to do something special for them that night--not only because they''re my parents and are just wonderful overall to me, but because they have been UNBELIEVABLY generous with all the wedding stuff, and have made this whole process such a nice one for me.

Other than things like having a cake wishing them a happy anniversary, and getting them a couple of little gifts (which is harder than it seems, since my parents are IMPOSSIBLE to buy for), I would like to make some big deal about them that night, and I really can''t quite decide what to do. I''m thinking about perhaps putting together a slide show of photos of them--but we had a 40th anniversary party for them 2 years ago (haha, duh), and at that point, I had put together a bunch of photos of them (and other family and friends) that I had made into a collage, which they now display in their home...so I''m not sure that a slide show wouldn''t be redundant...

Another idea I had was to maybe (possibly, depending on how much it would cost, which I''m going to look into) surprise them by having more of our out-of-town guests invited to the rehearsal dinner... see, my parents are paying for the rehearsal dinner, so we were keeping it just to the people in the wedding party, but about 50-75% of my wedding guests are out-of-towners. My parents (who live in NJ) have very close friends (who are essentially family) who live in Indiana...so I''m thinking that maybe I could invite those segments of the family to the rehearsal dinner too and pay for them as a surprise (it would be about 11 more people)...? I don''t know. I mean, they''re going to all be spending the weekend with us as it is, and I''m not sure a lot of them could come that early anyway (since my wedding is on a Friday, so the rehearsal is on a Thursday night).

I have over 5 months to plan for something (wedding''s not until November 20), but I figure I should start thinking about it...

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[cocolaw]

That''s so thoughtful and a good idea...but..something I would consider, in light of how generous and thoughtful your parents have been (it seems to run in the family ), would they feel embarrassed to be put in the spotlight on an occasion celebrating you and your fiance?

if not then sounds great

 

[prettylnpink419]

Alli - What a sweet thought! How about getting a picture from their wedding enlarged and put it on display and then make make a champagne toast (with cake or something) to them with a short speech about how you hope that you are lucky enough to have a marriage as wonderful as theirs, and what you learned from them about what marriage means and what you''ll be carrying over into your marriage, etc.

Just a thought. Whatever you do, I''m sure they will be super appreciative.

 

[alli_esq]

Thanks for your thoughts, coco and pretty!

My parents would be fine being the center of attention in that crowd, I think.

I like the idea about the photo from their wedding! I might try to grab one of those, though they do have a couple around their house already. Neither of my parents drinks, so no champagne toast, per se (haha, didn''t get THAT trait from either of them! teehee), but a toast will definitely be in order!

Actually, for their 40th anniversary, I wrote a whole speech about them that I had been practicing for days, but when it came to the party, I was so anxious, having everyone there and all the rush and commotion, I didn''t even get to do 1/4 of what I wanted to say. I hope I can keep it together better at the rehearsal dinner!