Any gift ideas for my parents' 50th anniversary?

I just did this for my parents. If this scenario is appropriate, contact the small hometown paper where they were married. Get a copy of their engagement announcement from the archives of the paper to present to them along w/ a photo album of their lives together. To make it more special, try to sprinkle w/ copies of pics from outside your immediate family (i.e. aunts and uncles) so the pics will be items that they haven’t seen a bunch of times over the past 50 years. Or just focus on pics of when they were dating, newlyweds, etc. if you have enough.

Get them a gift certificate to a “sex motel,” so they can go there and pretend that they are NOT married.

I know some couples in their 70s, that have actually done that, for real.

If you are technically savvy you can set up a simple website for them.
Check out something like this , this or this

I actually set up a hosted blog for my dad’s 89th birthday and bought his name for the domain. Only took a week or two to get all of his friends and family to post a message and some pictures.

get them matching watches and set the alarm for 1 year from their anniversary, so that it’ll go off on their 51st anniversary. that way, they’ll know that they survived another year together and that they can do it again.

I love Snoopy’s idea, but I would take it one step further. Contact friends and relatives from now and earlier periods of their lives. Ask that person to jot a quick anecdote or reminiscence that encapsulates for them their relationship with your folks. Collect those and include them in the album (with a picture from the period or of the person when possible).

It is a priceless tour of memoryland for them guaranteed to bring lots of laughter and tears. it is also fun for children and grandchildren to read about them as “people”.

For my in-laws, we found their wedding photo and enlarged it an displayed it next to the Guest Book at the event. We also printed and framed a quote on good marriage on high quality illuminated paper, which we read at the event, and then presented to them.

Have a wonderful time.

On my grandparents 50th anniversary, my whole family (children and their spouses and grandchildren) all went to their church and had a professional photographer take a group photo of us with my grandparents in the middle. Everybody got a copy. That was around 1998–2000. Since then, they have both passed away, but that photograph still hangs in our dining room to this day.

Good Luck with the rest of your planning :)

RE Marina’s idea. For our wedding, people wrote things on pages in a blank journal. Some people wrote quick notes and others wrote long, beautiful passages. It is fabulous. Very cool.

Congratulations to your parents. My parents have been married for 54 years and I don’t know how they did it. LOL! :0)

To celebrate their 50th, all of the children (five of us) got together out in Las Vegas (where my sister lives) and took them out in a limo for dinner and kind of had a reunion because we all live in different parts of the country. They said they didn’t want anything, so that was a nice surprise when we all showed up.

I don’t know how demostrative your family is, but, tell them how much you love them. Say it in words to them. Whether you have to say it in a poem or by singing a song or whatever… Tell them now because there will come a day when you no longer have the opportunity. And what better time than a time of celebrating fifty years of loving committment.

for my parents silver, I got them a silver platter engraved with their wedding song on it.

Without actually knowing your parent’s taste in gifts;

For my grandparent’s 60th anniversary (some years back) we had a huge dinner party, with all family members present. We held it at the U.S. Grant hotel in San Diego. All extended family members who could make it were present, and those who couldn’t sent video-grams. We presented my grandfather (an avid duck-hunter) with a custom-engraved Benelli shotgun. My grandmother received a Tiffany diamond neckace.
Each family member stood and spoke. My brother sang a song he composed for the occasion. At each table, we placed a digital camera, and everyone took pictures. All the pictures were placed into an album afterwards, and presented to them…

All had a good time, especially my grandfather, who is no longer with us. All to say..the dinner party is a great idea.

@aanuszek——Ours was similar for my grandparents.

We told them we were taking them out to a nice dinner. In reality, we’d rented our church cafeteria and had catered a bash the size of a wedding! All of the family that could make it came (75–100?).

My aunt (their daughter flew in w/her husband & son. So did my uncle(son) and his wife. All of their sisters and brothers came, lots of cousins-et.al. We had a nice dj and at the end took the GIANT family photo.

They were speechless when they entered and saw everyone. My garandparents were married just after the Depression in a civil service at the court house. So this was bigger than their actaul wedding!

Astro, what are the details of their wedding? Maybe you could take them back to a special place from then?

It wasn’t too fancy Astro so you have time to pull off a surprise!

I always like a timepiece for events that mark the passage of time. An hourglass or clock, engraved.

At my daughters wedding we had the videographer put together a video that chronicled the kids life up until they met, then their courtship. It was put to the music of Circle of Life, from the Lion King. They played it at the reception. Everyone was in tears. It included family members who have died and friends who had moved away. You could do the same sort of thing and modify it for a 50th. I’m sure after 50 years there is a story to tell in picture and song.

@judi——I do this on my computer (make a dvd set to music) for every event. My latest was for my son’s 3rd b-day. We showed the Wiz of Oz at an historic theater and invited all fam & friends. So, I made a DVD to have on the big screen prior to movie showing. All of my son from birth to now and all set to the soundtrack.

Astro, you could put one of these together for them in a day or less. Not too difficult.