Recording Your Family Reunion

A family reunion might take forever to plan for and successfully pull off so you will want to make sure to capture all the memories you can.
Some people are lucky and have a photographer or videographer already in the family and they have all of their own equipment. For the rest of us, there are a couple of options available. You could hire someone or do it yourself.

Hiring a professional to record your family reunion can save a lot of time and trouble if you can afford it.
Professionals know the right cameras and lenses to use for every kind of lighting and weather condition and it can make a normal picture look amazing.

Most people don't have the kind of special equipment laying around to do this. Of course, professionals cost quite a bit of money but if each household of the family pitches in a little bit, it won't be so bad. You could always just hire them for a couple of hours also instead of the entire day.

If you decide to do it yourself, it can be overwhelming if nobody helps. You will need to try to delegate others to help with pictures and filming. It can be easy to miss all the fun and be very disappointed later on if you are the only one running around with a camera.

Most people have digital cameras these days so just make sure there some reliable people operating them. Even 2 cameras can work as long as the people using them aren't always standing side by side.

Family reunions don't happen all the time so you want to make sure you are taking good pictures and movies that will be mementos for years to come. Read more...

Gifts for Family Reunions

Family reunions are the perfect place to incorporate a birthday, anniversary, or other event in your family's life. Naturally, gifts can play an important role at large family events.

Though this isn't necessary for family members you see on a daily or weekly basis, it can really mean something to those Cousins, Aunts, and Uncles you don't get to see as often as you like.
Younger family members and children love gifts and it's fun to incorporate them somewhere in your family reunion.

One fun idea for giving gifts that includes the entire family is the Secret Santa. It doesn't have to be near Christmas for this to be a lot of fun.
You assign someone to each family member making sure not to have doubles and allot a certain dollar amount like $10. The gift buyer gets something the family member would like or something silly and wraps it up.

Sometime during the family reunion, everyone gathers together and the names are read off and gifts are exchanged. This can be a lot of fun.

Some of the best gifts you can give are family pictures. If you rarely see some of your extended family, by giving or exchanging family pictures, you can be a little closer with each other.
Everyone has some picture of a family member that hasn't been updated for years so this is the perfect time to fix that.

Someone should also be the designated reunion photographer. They can be in charge of taking pictures of everyone all day long. Read more...

Family Reunion Tips

Family reunions can be very stressful and by the time you have it all organized and it's done with, you might realize you had no fun at all because you spent the entire time trying to make everyone else happy.

Sure you will have great pictures and everyone will say 'What a great reunion!' but you should be a PART of the reunion as well as just the organizer.

Here are some simple tips to help make sure all the work doesn't fall on your shoulders.

The first thing you should ever do is remember to stay ahead of the game. If you are having the reunion outdoors, have a backup plan just in case it rains.

If you are barbecuing for everyone, be sure to have extra everything. Coals, gas, plates, cups, food, and drinks. Even if nobody likes your barbecued salmon, you will have plenty for yourself later on.

Make sure you have people to help you clean also. Even a small family can annihilate a park with trash.

Don't organize the entire thing by yourself. Many people do this and it can really ruin the experience for them. If your spouse wants nothing to do with it, get a sibling or parent to help you.

If your sons and daughters have their own families, delegate some responsibility to them. You did make them after all.

Don't expect your family reunion to be absolutely perfect. When you get a big group of people together, there is bound to be an issue or two.

If you let everyone drink beer all day, by evening, odds are you will have to scrape at least one family member off the ground and get them home.

People are unpredictable so as long as you remember that, when something weird happens, you can laugh and try to resolve it easily. Read more...