Need some ideas

This november my parents will celebrate 25 years of marriage. My aunt and I have a huge party to plan, as well as a few other things..

what I need is help on ideas. I'm supposed to be in charge of how to break the big gift surprise to them. The gift is a family vacation to Walt Disney World, which we hope will be a 10 day trip (8 days in teh park 2 days of travel). This is a big secret and something we've been wanting to do since our trip in 04. My mom and my brother have never been. Dad and I have.

I'll give a bit of background on that. As most of you know, Duane was just a foster child while I was in high school and so his biological parents still had some control on what happend with him. His birth mother has never been a problem. She's the one that asked my parents to adopt Duane if it ever was possible. His dad, however, had 51% custody and had complete say in what went on. Top that off with a no good/lousy excuse for a human of a social worker (duane's first social worker was a jerk and was only in it for the money, thank GOD he left) and my parents were basically glorified babysitters.

Anyway in 2001-2002 school year, the high school band planned its spring break trip to Florida. It was going to be 10 days, and we were actually going to play at Epcot for Magic Music Days. My parents were all set to go and had even gotten a ticket for Duane when his bio. dad said no he couldn't go. Mom was not about to let Duane stay in another home while we all went, so she stayed behind. Dad didn't want to leave the band hanging without a male chaperone, so he stayed on.

My mom's only trips out of Alaska in the past 5 years has been for deaths in the family. So she's not gotten a vacation. And Duane's never been out of Alaska.

So we figured this trip would be great. My parents would have their own room at a resort... and I'd be with Duane in another room. my aunt and one of my cousins will also be on the trip.

I have a DisneyWorld vacation planning DVD that I know I'm going to show... but I want to be able to make the presentation so much more. We're also going to have Tshirts made, as soon as we figure out what to say so that they're really group tshirts (can't be the "Reitter Family Vacation" because my aunt's last name is Imperiale, and my cousin's last name is Metz lol) but we have a while to worry about that.

So what are some ideas to do? I'm not sure if we'll be at the house or at the church, but just throw out ideas... I think we're going to have a tropical kinda flare/theme... but again I'm not sure...

Why not go with matching Disney t-shirts for everyone?

Could you do a slide show with pictures of your parents all through the years of their marriage from start to present - pictures that really show the love & fun as a couple and family? Use 'their song' as the background music. At the end of the video, you could do a voiceover that says 'What are doing to celebrate 25 years of Marriage?' Then have a video clip of yourself and your Aunt yelling "You're going to Disney World!! A family vacation from Us! Happy Anniversary".

It'll really surprise them because they'll just think that it's a great photo montage until the end.

Then I would do a play on Piel's idea. Pass out t-shirts to Mom, Dad, Duane and cousin with the Disney character that's their favorite or most like him/her. On the back, you could use your idea and write 'I'm celebrating my ________ at Disney World'.

Then show the Disney Vacation planning video.

Can you tell I enjoy planning surprises?

Toni, are you planning to have a big party or just a small family gathering for the actual anniversary party? Just wondering, because it is so close to Thanksgiving - so, I wasn't sure if you were going to simplify and include the anniversary celebration as part of Thanksgiving.

I'm sure your parents will appreciate your wanting to send them on a trip. Of course, you could schedule them for a day/evening just for themselves (i.e. spa day, dinner for two at one of the 'better' restaurants at the resort, etc) while you and your aunt and cousin and Duane could do something else.

If you have your heart set on a family name on the t-shirts you could use "Duane's Family". It would include everyone and make Duane feel very special.

heyang said:

Could you do a slide show with pictures of your parents all through the years of their marriage from start to present - pictures that really show the love & fun as a couple and family? Use 'their song' as the background music. At the end of the video, you could do a voiceover that says 'What are doing to celebrate 25 years of Marriage?' Then have a video clip of yourself and your Aunt yelling "You're going to Disney World!! A family vacation from Us! Happy Anniversary".
.

Click to expand...

Toni, I like Heyang's idea. I did something like this for my mom's 86 birthday just last week. I didn't use slides but uploaded many pictures to a movie making program, added music and title pages. She loved it and my siblings were impressed with it.

Dee

thanks for the ideas!

heyang - we're not sure just yet, but it'll probably be fairly big with friends and family... but it's not set in stone yet... we're still in teh planning stages...

and mom and dad will have their day/night away from the family at DW... we've already decided that much lol

Piel - like the Duane's Family t-shirt idea...

Toni, you could also do a little button (big ones get clunky if you wear them all day) for every person. They could identify you by "sister, brother, dad, mom, aunt" and still have plenty of room for everyone's name. If you want to add a tag line you could do something like, "my silver anniversary, my first vacation, I paid for this darned trip, lol)

I never knew about your little brother. How cool is that. I'm sure you are all lucky to have been brought together as a family.

My only other advice is to make sure you save some time for the other disney experiences, Epcot and their other attractions are so cool and your brother is just at the age where he will be able to appreciate all the variety that the whole Mickey Mouse Universe has to offer.

if nobody told you, you're a doll for doing this

oh yeah we're doing the whole thing... we're going to have a 10 day trip... which would be about 8 full days for the parks... we're totally doing the water parks too lol

dad is just as much a kid as Duane so we have to keep the boys busy lol

and I LOVE the button idea... that just might work!!!!

you all rock!


ok this has nothing to do with planning or anything but Typhoon Lagoon @ Disney World has a shark reef where you swim with sharks! how awesome is that??? lol
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/parks/attractionDetail?id=SharkReefAttractionPage

You could make up a top 10 list. One of my daughter's did it for another daughter's birthday and it went over great.

I liked the slide show and T-shirt ideas, particularly with your photo skills. Maybe toward the end have a slide of Micky and Minny with their faces "photoshoped in" over the "mice's." Then drop the bomb? JAT

sean - neat idea... that wouldn't be too hard actually...hmmmmmm

I'm getting some great ideas from all of you, and one other board... the disneyboards were no help at all! :chorus: