Are you thinking about putting together a family reunion, but don’t know where to start the planning process? In this post, learn helpful tips for planning a family reunion that everyone will remember for years to come.
I spend a lot of my free time working on my family tree, which usually means I am thinking about ancestors or other relatives who lived a long time ago. It’s easy for me to overlook the opportunity that I still have to get better acquainted with my living relatives.
One of my favorite things to do is host family gatherings where my close and extended relatives can come visit from out of state. I’ve hosted smaller events of this type many times, but this year I have begun planning a larger event where I will invite everyone descended from my great-grandparents.
The idea for this article was formed after I had a long discussion with several friends about the family reunions that they attended growing up. It made me realize how impactful family reunions are on family relationships, and how many of my readers might want to plan an event like this for their own family.
Determine the budget
The first thing you might want to do is think about how much money you are planning to spend on this event, and whether your family members would be able to afford to attend the type of event that you have in mind.
One consideration that might help you decide how much you want to spend on your reunion is whether you think you will want to do a reunion on a regular basis. If you want to have your reunion become something you do on a yearly or every-other-year basis, you could want to focus on keeping costs reasonable.
Your costs for the reunion could range from $100 (covering a pavilion rental at a park for a potluck lunch, paper plates, cups, and forks) to several thousand dollars, especially if you want to pay for food and accommodations for your relatives.
There is no right or wrong way to plan your budget. Family reunions can be fun and memorable at any budget level, but it’s important to have a budget in mind before you get too far in planning.
How long do you want the family reunion to be?
Making the decision about how long the reunion will be is important for planning the next elements of your event. Most family reunions are multi-day events that span over a 3-7 day period.
However, if your family members are all local and see each other fairly often, a one-day event might suffice.
The more days that your family spends together, especially if you don’t see each other often, the more opportunities will arise for creating fun memories and stronger relationships.
Some people that you invite might not be able to come for the entire length of the reunion, and that’s okay. For example, you might have a reunion that is from Wednesday-Sunday, and many people might not be able to come on Wednesday, but they might be able to be there for the weekend.
It’s still fun to spend time with those who were able to make it to the reunion on the early side, and being flexible helps open things up to relatives who might not be able to come at all if you have a strict all-or-nothing policy.
Decide where people will stay
One of the most important aspects of your reunion is planning where your relatives will spend the night during the days that they are in town for the reunion. Making sure that you host your event in a location where your relatives have different options for accommodations will be key in ensuring everyone’s comfort.
If you have a lot of family who lives locally, you might be able to put together enough local family to offer to host most of the people who would come from out of town. Some people will still prefer to find their own accommodations, so you likely won’t have to find a place for every single person to stay.
Some family reunions are held in hotel event rooms, with the idea that those who do not live locally will stay at the hotel. While it all depends on your family’s circumstances and your personal budget for the reunion, most people attending will expect to have to pay for multiple nights at the hotel, which sometimes can be booked at a special group rate that you can negotiate with the hotel in advance.
Another popular option is to host your family reunion at a state park or private campground. Campgrounds are a great way to keep the reunion affordable, especially if your family members enjoy camping and already have camping gear.
Some people might have access to a family vacation property or land where families can bring their RVs, travel trailers, or tents, to set up and have a great weekend. These are also options that can keep things affordable for everyone, while still getting everyone together for family fun.
For my family reunion, I have chosen a few different state campgrounds to be on my short-list. They are all located near smaller local cities where some of my older relatives could find hotels, since they would likely be uncomfortable camping.
Give everyone plenty of time to plan
As soon as you know where and when your family reunion will be, you should send out something like a “save the date” announcement. This will help your relatives work out all of the necessary logistical and financial details and maximize the number of people who can attend.
For example, since I am thinking of hosting a larger event that I have in the past, I would like to plan it for next summer (the summer of 2026). While this might seem too far in advance, it really isn’t.
I’m writing this article in February, and many people already have their summer plans in place by now. If I let people know sometime over the next few months that I would like to host a big event next summer, I can feel pretty sure anyone who would like to come will be able to.
This also gives me plenty of time to iron out all of the details and make sure that the event goes as planned.
Enlist help
If you are feeling overwhelmed at the idea of a reunion, but you still love the idea of getting everyone together, you can try to enlist the help of other relatives. You can delegate specific elements of planning to different relatives so that way everything goes smoothly and it wasn’t too much work for any one person.
Some families use technology like Google Sheets or Google Docs to create lists and spreadsheets of responsibilities that will be delegated to the reunion organizers or attendees.
What will everyone eat?
How much food are you planning on providing for your relatives? If you are not planning on being responsible for all of the food for the reunion events, what is your plan for making sure that there is enough food for the meals that you will have together?
There are endless ways to plan for food for a reunion. Some people have catered or potluck meals for dinner every night, and some people plan out days of meals to the last detail and have spreadsheets where relatives can sign up to bring that item.
When my family has hosted reunions, we typically have one meal each day that we plan to eat together, and the rest of the meals are the responsibility of each individual person to plan. Sometimes it works out that we still eat other meals together, such as when the hotel we are all staying at offers a breakfast buffet – we might sit together, but planning/attending the meal was not the responsibility of the family reunion organizers.
For my park-reunion idea, I am thinking that we will have dinners planned at the pavilion at the campground. I am planning on providing the main course of the meal, but will suggest that my relatives bring snacks, drinks, desserts and sides if they can.
Choose one or two must-attend events
Something that is very common at family reunions is having at least one or two “must-attend” events, or main attractions, if you will. Typically, these events are planned for the days that most of the attendees will be there.
For example, if your reunion is Wednesday-Sunday, having some of the most important events of the reunion on Friday night and Saturday during the day will maximize the number of relatives that get to attend.
A main event could be something as simple as an official “1st Annual Smith Family Reunion BBQ” where everyone can officially celebrate being a member of your family.
How much structure will your reunion have?
Some people like to have reunions where they plan activities for each day that everyone can do as a group, where participation is usually voluntary. This is a nice idea because it gives everyone a fun option for how to spend the day.
However, when families get together at a fun place (such as a lake, beautiful park or exciting city), they often find their own fun things to do. The amount of structure that your reunion should depend on your family’s preferences and budget.
Typically, when my family gets together for gatherings, there are usually suggestions for each day about what might be fun to do. In the end, everyone just does what they want to with other family members, and then everyone gets together at night for dinner.
Plan to give your relatives some family-tree knowledge at the event
Would you like to share some of your family tree work with your relatives at the reunion? A family-specific reunion is the perfect time to do this, since the reason that you are all related is because of your shared ancestry.
Since most of the work that I do on this website is related to family tree research, I could never host a family reunion without giving my relatives a gift of some of the knowledge I have uncovered through my work on our tree.
One of my most cherished genealogy-related possessions is a write-up that my grandfather’s first cousin prepared in anticipation of a family reunion that he hosted for everyone descended from my great-great grandparents. He wrote the story of my great-great grandparents’ lives in Slovakia and their journey to the United States.
Since he had known my great-great grandparents personally, he had interesting stories about them to share. He also had insight into their lives that I would not be able to discover only with genealogy records.
Keep everyone posted on updates about the reunion
As you get further in your planning process, you might want to establish a line of communication for letting everyone know about activities, events, etc related to your reunion. Some families start private Facebook groups just for the purpose of their family reunion, but e-mail also works!
Conclusion
I hope that you enjoyed reading this article about planning a family reunion, and that you are inspired to get started planning yours today.
If you have any questions about something that you read, or if you would like to share how your family does reunions, I would love to hear from you in the discussion below.
Thanks for stopping by!