Any ideas for a joint husband and wife 50th birthday party?

Question

My sister in law and I are planning a joint 50th party for my husbands mum and dad in August this year.

I need some great ideas for a theme, that aren't too expensive for people to participate in and won't feel silly doing.

My in laws are fairly straight, although they have good sense of humour, so no 'dirty' ideas please (unfortunately!!)

We were thinking a colour idea for boys and girls, but any more exciting suggestions would be great.

There will most likely be at least 150 people, we will hire a hall or venue of some type, and seeing as though we are in australia August is generally pretty d**n cold where we are.

Its not a surprise so any ideas would be great. Thanks

Answer 1

Don't forget the professional photographer.

This only happens once, unless they can make it another 50.

Answer 2

everebody on a cruise to greece or alaska Beautiful !

Answer 3

How about a 60's party, have a bunch of peace signs and play all the music they like and set up a little drinking bar and give out some drinks.....

Answer 4

Since they have been together for 50 years you should have an 1958 theme, with music, they way everyone is dressing, doing that would take some research of the time, but yet take your parents back to the 1st year of their life's together as a married couple.

Answer 5

yes a theme would be awesome, for any age!!

medievil times, kings and queens , knights peasants !

time period - 1970 , 60's

Answer 6

Since you're planning to hire a hall, why not have dancing to music from your parents-in-law's teens and twenties?  You could also post pictures of them around the hall--a series of pictures from infancy up to the present.  You might put Mum's sequence on one side of the room and Dad's on the other, leading up to an end wall with pictures of both of them from their first dating days up until now.  Then here's something else I once saw at a fiftieth birthday party: the message "Happy SpeciaL Birthday" on the cake.  (The L was bigger and more ornate than I can make it here.)

Another thought: since August in the southern hemisphere is the equivalent, weather-wise, of February in the northern, you could give the party a Valentine's Day theme.  Explain on the invitations that you're figuratively going topside by having a cold-weather Valentine's Day birthday party.  You could encourage people to wear red, which might make everyone feel a little warmer.  (I've read that public buildings in Austrlia aren't usually heated.)

BTW, at their age, shouldn't they be having a silver wedding anniversary in the near future, or have had one in the recent past?   Does this party to some extent take the place of an anniversary party that for some reason you can't or couldn't have?  If so, that fact might also be something to factor into the theme and decorations.