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

Class reunions are really exciting events. You can meet up with classmates you may not have seen for 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 graduating.

Maybe you’ve lost touch with a lot of your old classmates, even if it’s only been ten years since you graduated. Many alumni may only see their old classmates at a class reunion, 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 old classmates now that you’ve been out of touch for a while.

1. Find some former classmates to help with planning a class reunion. Planning is 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 old classmates through social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Classmates.com, for example. And with the help of Facebook and free websites, you can do much of your planning online, too. Once you find some enthusiastic classmates with some great meeting ideas, start assigning tasks like…
   • find those elusive classmates and get email and physical addresses for invitations.
   • have someone find a venue that’s big enough so you don’t have to worry about the size of the guest list later.
   • plan an entertainment format such as music, games, etc.
   • making name tags for her classmates. This can be helpful if people have changed as they age.
   • plan 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 center it on a theme like the year you graduated from high school.
2. To lease! To lease! To lease! Choosing where to have your meeting is extremely important for a couple of reasons:
   • Your former classmates may have to travel a long distance to attend, so you want a place that is close to hotel accommodations for your long-distance friends.
   • Size matters when it comes to planning a high school hangout, especially if you had a large graduating class and get most of them to attend. And if you’re bringing your spouse, significant other, significant other, or whatever, it’s twice the size of your class, so you want to make sure the room or space is big enough to comfortably accommodate the number of people you’re bringing. expect them to attend.
   • The price plays a role in the place you choose. You don’t want to price anyone out of attending, so your high school reunion ideas for choosing a venue should definitely include shopping around for the best value. For example, if you find a hotel with a nice big room that is often used for wedding receptions, they might give you a discount if you book it early or give you volume discounts if X number of guests book a room for Stay overnight at the hotel. Same time.
3. Plan months, if not years, ahead. Do you think you need to give enough advance notice to the wedding guests? The exact “rules” apply to a high school class reunion. So one of the high school reunion ideas is to make sure you set the date far enough away for long-distance classmates to plan their schedules accordingly. Some may have to take vacations, hire babysitters, board pets, and save money for the trip. Invitations to high school reunions should be fun and, well, engaging. Add a list of all the classmates you’re inviting, and if you have their permission, include their emails as well. Add a list of alumni you haven’t been able to locate through normal channels, and ask guests to contact you if they know where any of the missing ones can be found.
4. Use social networking sites like Facebook groups to help your classmates stay on top of the next reunion and to help locate your long-lost high school friends. You can even set up a free website or forum to get started and ask for more high school reunion ideas from future attendees.
5. Ask for donations. High school reunion planning can get quite expensive, probably almost as much as a wedding reception if you think about it. But don’t be nervous about asking your old classmates for a little monetary help to do what needs to be done to make the reunion a success. One of the most helpful high school reunion ideas to help defray start-up costs is to make sure the reunion is “by invitation only” and sell tickets well in advance. These funds can be used to pay for decorations, catering, venue deposits, entertainment, and favors or gift bags for guests.
6. Hire a photographer. You’ll 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 the photography classes would like to earn some money. You’ll get some really great photos and help another student in the process.
7. Roll out the red carpet. Just like celebrity entrances, have your guests enter on a red carpet with the photographer taking a picture of them as they enter.
8. Play music from your graduation year. You can do this in a couple of ways. When looking for photographers at your high school or community college, ask about music students or student groups that have a band that would be interested in playing at the reunion. Another option, if you have a local School of Rock, these kids would love the chance to show off their talents at an event like a high school reunion. My nephew attends the School of Rock in Exton, Pennsylvania and we have been to several of his “garage band concerts” and these kids are talented!
9. Make up name tags for your old classmates. This will come in handy for those people who really don’t look anything like their high school folks.
10. Gift bags or loot bags for favors. High school reunion ideas call for being creative and nostalgic as well as practical and fun. As with any party favor, you can put together edible gifts, useful gifts, funny or gag gifts, or things that will remind you of the year you graduated.

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