Need 50th Birthday Party IDEAS! :)

[AshleyR]

Hey everyone,

Off topic, but I need some help!

My sister and I are planning a surprise 50th birthday party for our Mom on June 20th. Neither of us have ever been to a 50th birthday party before and are not really sure what exactly we need to plan.

We're planning on having the party at my house and will probably serve BBQ type food (there'll be about 50-60 guests). Should we buy the booze, or is it normal for guests to bring their own? We want the party to be really cheesey (gag gifts will be included!!) LOL, so any funny game recommendations or other ideas would be appreciated!

Our Mom is single and dating, so I'd really love to gag it up and make it funny.... I know she would love it! I also wouldn't mind doing something kind of sentimental for her too, though (in the form of a special gift or something).

ANY IDEAS???

Thanks everyone!

 

[Guest]

Sounds like a ton of fun . Gags gifts will be a lot of fun. I got a gorgeous floral arrangement on my 50th , I dried the flowers and it is my dining room table centerpiece. People had a blast buying the "older than dirt " cards and the gag gifts . I would have BYOB , with the cost of everything , that is the norm here.

Have fun..

 

[heyjude]

When I turned fifty I basically wanted to hide in a hole, but my family didn't let me!

I do have a few ideas which could help make the day special. For my daughter's h.s. graduation party last year, we framed her homeroom class photos and put them out as centerpieces on the tables. Everyone got quite a kick out of that. Perhaps, you could find pictures of your mom from baby year, 1st birthday, teenager years....up until the present and display them.

If you are a little computer savy, you could also put together a slide show on the computer. We gathered photos from family and friends, set the pictures to music and projected it on the wall. We had a mixture of funny, sweet and sentimental photos. Everyone loved it!

Depending on the age group of your other guests you might want to hire a local teen to be in charge of the music or get the guests up and moving....think macarena, shout, chicken dance, ymca...gives everyone a good laugh.

Our party was also a bbq. The chocolate fountain and cotton candy machine we rented were really popular.

We didn't really have more that a few six packs of beer. Not too many drinkers in the crowd and I didn't want to deal with liability issues. Byob would certainly save you some $$$.

What about having the guests submit a funny memory they've shared with your mom and put it into a scapbook? If you do that ahead of time it could be passed around at the party.

Just a few thoughts. Have fun planning!!

Jude

 

[Tabitha]

My brother-in-law turned 50 last year & his wife sent out the invitations w/ his baby picture on the front. If you have a cheesy one of her naked laying on a bear skin rug, etc, that would be perfect! She also had framed baby pictures on the buffet.

BYOB is fine, just make sure it says so on the invites.

You may want to encourage gag gifts & cards as well on the invites.

 

[studioalamode]

My friend had a 50th for her husband a few years ago - she did a trivia question sheet with questions about his life. It was a lot of fun because there were family members and friends through the years there. It took her a lot of legwork to call people and get some little-known facts. It was totally a surprise to him, but what happened is everyone got to talking about certain events and things long forgotten - there were a lot of laughs and it prompted even more stories to be told.