Planning a high school reunion? Here are some meeting ideas to help you plan the perfect gathering, whether you’re planning a night of fun or an entire week full of adventure.

Class reunions are really exciting events. You get to meet up with classmates you may not have seen in years, as many of them have moved from the old neighborhood to different cities, counties, or states. Some of them may have even moved out of the country since they graduated.

Maybe you’ve lost contact with many of your old classmates, even if it’s only been ten years since graduation. Many alumni may only see their former classmates at a class meeting, so planning one that ensures these alumni keep coming back requires some good advanced planning.

So where do you start? Well, here are some planning ideas to help, starting with how to find all those former classmates now that you’ve been offline for a while.

1. Find some former classmates to help you plan a class reunion. Planning takes a lot of work, but it doesn’t have to be stressful, especially if you can locate and “hire” the help of your old friends. And with today’s technology, you can’t just find many of your former classmates through social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Classmates.com, for example. And with the help of Facebook and free websites, you can do much of the planning online as well. Once you find some enthusiastic classmates with good reunion ideas, start assigning tasks like …
   • find those elusive classmates and get email and physical addresses for invitations.
   • have someone find a venue that is large enough so they don’t have to worry about the size of the guest list later on.
   • planning an entertainment format such as music, games, etc.
   • making name tags for your classmates. This can be helpful if people have changed as they age.
   • planning a menu, keeping in mind that you may need a really wide variety to accommodate different diets such as gluten-free or diabetic. You want everyone to have good options for their meals.
   • high school reunion ideas for decorations. This can be in the form of banners, posters, streamers, balloons, table decorations, etc. You might even decide to focus it on a topic like the year you graduated from high school.
2. Rental! Rental! Rental! Choosing where to have your meeting is extremely important for a couple of reasons:
   • Your former classmates may have to travel quite a distance to attend, so you want a location that is close to hotel accommodations for your long-distance classmates.
   • Size matters when it comes to planning a high school reunion venue, especially if you had a large class of graduates and you get most of them to attend. And if you bring your spouse, significant other, partner or whatever, that’s twice the size of your class, so you need to make sure the room or space is large enough to comfortably accommodate the number of people you expect. assist.
   • Price plays a role in where you choose. You don’t want to price anyone for attending, so your high school reunion ideas for choosing a location should definitely include buying at the best price. For example, if you find a hotel with a nice big room that is often used for wedding receptions, maybe they will give you a discount if you book in advance or they will give you volume discounts if X number of guests book a room to pass the night at the same time.
3. Plan months, if not years, in advance. Do you think you should give your wedding guests much advance notice? The exact “rules” apply to a high school class reunion. So one of the ideas for the high school reunion is to make sure you set the date far enough away that long-distance classmates plan their schedules accordingly. Some may have to take vacation time, hire sitters, house pets, and save money for the trip. Invitations to the high school reunion should be fun and, well, engaging. Add a list of all the classmates you are inviting and, if you have their permission, include their emails as well. Add a list of alumni that you have not been able to locate through normal channels and ask guests to contact you if they know where any of the missing may be found.
4. Use social networking sites like Facebook Groups to help your classmates stay on top of the upcoming meeting and to help locate your long-lost high school friends. You can even create a free website or forum to get the ball rolling and ask for more high school reunion ideas from future attendees.
5. Request donations. Planning your high school reunion can get quite expensive, probably almost as much as a wedding reception when you really think about it. But don’t be nervous about asking your former classmates for some financial help to do what needs to be done to make the reunion successful. One of the most useful high school reunion ideas to help defray start-up costs is to make sure the reunion is “by invitation only” and to sell tickets in advance. These funds can be used to pay for decorations, catering services, on-site deposits, entertainment, and favors or gift bags for guests.
6. Hire a photographer. You will want lots of photos of your old classmates and even a new class portrait to commemorate this event. To cut costs here, check with your high school or community college to see if any of the students in photography classes would like to earn some money. You will get great photos and help another student in the process.
7. Roll out the red carpet. Like celebrity entrances, have your guests walk on a red carpet with the photographer by taking a photo of them as they enter.
8. Play music from your graduation year. You can do this in two ways. When looking for photographers at your high school or community college, ask if there are music students or student groups that have a band that is interested in playing at the reunion. Another option, if you have a local Rock School, these kids would love the opportunity to show off their talents at an event like a high school class reunion. My nephew attends the School of Rock in Exton, PA and we have been to several of their “garage band concerts” and these kids are talented!
9. Make up labels with the names of your former classmates. This will come in handy for those folks who don’t really look anything like what they had in high school.
10. Gift bags or gift bags for gifts. Ideas for high school reunions require being creative and nostalgic, while being practical and fun at the same time. As with any party favors, you can collect edible gifts, useful gifts, fun or prank gifts, or things to remind you of the year you graduated.

Custom laminated bookmarks make great favors because you can create them with different quotes on each one. Your classmates can share and exchange them for their favorite quotes and photos. You can find quotes for your bookmarks anywhere and some suggestions are song lyrics to the best songs during the high school era and quotes from the back of yearbooks. Add magnets to the back of the markers. Magnets are always useful and fun gifts for any party. In fact, you can even use us laminated bookmarks to mail Save the Date notices to your classmates so they know to “stamp the date” on their calendars and keep an eye out for invitations coming in the mail.

Hopefully, these high school reunion ideas will help you plan a high school reunion that all of your classmates will love and look forward to for years to come.