How to Plan a Family or Class Reunion

A class reunion is planned twelve months out and a family reunion six months out; both run three to five hours and cost the space plus food and drink per head. At The Museum at Hoppenville the room starts at $2,200 for a five-hour Celebration Half-Day, the Bank Barn seats about 150 with a lawn beside it, the Welcome Center holds up to 220, and the Cottage on site sleeps six for the organizing family.

Reunion committees make the same three mistakes: they start too late, they price it like a wedding, and they sign a contract with a minimum they cannot meet. This guide is written against those, for the cousin or the class officer who said yes.

Checklist by weeks out

Twelve months out (class) or six months out (family)

• Form the committee: three to five people, one of them good with money and one good at finding people.
• Set the date before anything else. A Saturday in summer or early fall, not a holiday weekend. For a class, the weekend of homecoming or the summer after the round-number year.
• Build the list. For a class, start from the yearbook and the people already in touch; for a family, start from the eldest generation's address books. Expect to find the last quarter of the list in the final two months.
• Decide the format: an evening with a buffet and a bar for a class; an afternoon with a picnic-style buffet and the lawn for a family.
• Set the per-head price (see the cost section) and keep it low. Schedule a tour of the room and bring two dates.

Nine months out (class) or four months out (family)

• Book the room and the window. Five hours covers a four-hour gathering with setup and goodbyes.
• Open the RSVP: a simple page or a group with the date, the place, the price and the hotels near Pennsburg list.
• Send the save-the-date to everyone you have found. Ask each person for two addresses you are missing.
• Choose the caterer's menu. Every event here is catered by Robert Ryan Catering & Design or Tosco's Catering; the bar, if there is one, comes from a licensed bartender or the caterer.

Three months out

• Send the real invitation with a reply deadline a month before the date.
• Book the music: a playlist of the class's years, or a DJ who takes requests; for a family, a speaker and a cousin with a phone.
• Plan the three things to do beyond eat and talk: a photo display (yearbook pages or the family tree), a memory board, a group photo at a set time, a lawn game for the children.
• Order name tags with the yearbook photo or the family branch on them. Everyone needs them and nobody admits it.

One month out

• Close the RSVP and give the caterer a near-final count.
• Collect the money if there is a ticket. Chase the maybes once, kindly, then stop.
• Print the name tags, the family tree poster, the sign for the door.
• Assign the day-of jobs: the door, the money, the photo, the music, the elders' rides.

The week of

• Final count to the caterer, rounded up by ten percent.
• Write the run-of-show with clock times and share it with the caterer and the committee.
• Confirm the rain plan. Every venue here has an indoor plan at no extra cost; the call is made together 24 to 48 hours out.
• Pack a box: name tags and markers, tape, the memory board, the sign, a lighter for candles, bug spray and sunscreen for the lawn, a printed timeline.

The day

• Arrive two hours early; social events here may arrive two hours before the start.
• Name tags and the sign-in at the door, with a committee member who knows faces.
• Take the group photo at a fixed time in the first two hours, announced on the invitation, before anyone leaves.
• Keep the program to ten minutes: a welcome, a moment for those who have died, the thank-yous, the photo.

Who pays and etiquette

For a class reunion, the people who come pay, through a ticket priced to cover the room, the food, the music and a small cushion for the no-shows, and never a dollar more; a reunion is not a fundraiser. The committee publishes the price with the invitation and does not change it. For a family reunion, the organizing households pay or a per-family share is agreed in advance, with the oldest generation covered by the rest, and children usually free or half. Either way the number is set before the invitation goes out, and nobody is asked for more at the door.

Invitations go out three months ahead after a save-the-date much earlier. Say the price, the dress, the time window, the parking, the hotels and the group photo time. Say whether spouses and children are invited (for a family reunion, obviously; for a class reunion, decide and say so). Gifts are not part of a reunion. A memorial moment for classmates or relatives who have died is, and it is one minute, by name, at the welcome.

The decisions committees argue about, settled:

• A place with lodging nearby and outdoor space. The two things a family reunion needs most, because people travel and children need somewhere to run. Look for a room with a lawn, restrooms that handle a crowd, and hotels within fifteen minutes.
• Attrition clauses. Hotel ballrooms and restaurant rooms often carry a minimum spend or headcount you owe even if people do not come. Reunions are the events most likely to come up short, because people say yes in March and travel in August. Prefer a published rental fee that does not move with the count, and let the caterer's per-head bill be the only thing that scales.
• Keeping it casual so it fills. A buffet, a bar with a cap, a short program and a price under what a dinner out costs. Formality is what keeps the quiet half of the class home.
• How early to start. A year for a class, because finding people takes that long. Six months for a family, because that is how far out people book flights and days off.

What it costs

The room at The Museum at Hoppenville starts at $2,200 for a five-hour Celebration Half-Day, which covers tables and chairs, outdoor lawn access, coffee and soft drink service and a photography backdrop, and the package is named for family reunions among other milestones. An Evening Event for a class reunion, five hours after 5pm, starts at $2,800 and adds the bar setup, dimmable lighting, round or long tables and coat check. Neither covers food, bar or rentals beyond the room's own; the caterer quotes those per person. Every rate is published on the event packages page, which is what lets a committee set a ticket price in January for an August date.

How to set a per-head price for a class reunion:

1. Room rental, divided by the number you are confident will come (not the number you hope).
2. Plus the caterer's per-person price for the buffet.
3. Plus the bar: two drink tickets per person, then cash.
4. Plus music, name tags and printing, divided by the same count.
5. Plus five to ten percent for the people who pay and do not come, and the ones who come and did not pay.

What moves the total: the food format (a picnic buffet costs least, a dinner buffet more, a plated meal most), the day (Saturdays in May through October and December are peak dates on the rate card; a Sunday afternoon family reunion is easier), and the extras (a DJ, a tent on the lawn, a photo booth, matching shirts).

Against a hotel ballroom, compare the minimum: a published fee that does not rise if forty people cancel is the one a committee can sleep on.

How long it runs and a timeline

Three to five hours for the main gathering. A class reunion takes an evening; a family reunion takes an afternoon and often makes a casual second day on its own at a park or a diner.

A Saturday afternoon family reunion in the Bank Barn and on the lawn, 1:00 to 6:00, 110 people:

For a class reunion, run an evening in the Welcome Center from 6:00 to 11:00: arrivals and a bar hour, the buffet at 7:00, the welcome and the memorial minute at 7:45, the class photo at 8:00, dancing to the class years after 8:30.

What to wear

For a class reunion, say it: "cocktail attire" for an evening in a venue, "smart casual" for anything daytime or in a hall. People fret about this more than any other reunion question, so settle it on the invitation.

For a family reunion, casual, and if the family made shirts, the shirts, at least for the photo. Shoes for a lawn. A layer for the evening, because the Bank Barn is open to the air. Hats and sunscreen for the children on the lawn.

Where to hold it within an hour of Pennsburg

The Museum at Hoppenville, Pennsburg. The Bank Barn is the family reunion room: a restored mid-1800s barn seating about 150, a string-light ceiling, sliding doors open to a lawn beside it for the games and the photo, and an indoor rain plan at no cost. It is not climate-controlled, so it suits May through October. The Welcome Center holds up to 220 with air conditioning, A/V for a slideshow, a patio onto the gardens and full accessibility for the eldest generation, and it is the class reunion room. The Cottage on the grounds, an 1850s schoolhouse with three bedrooms, sleeps six, which puts the organizing family on site the night before and after. Parking for about 100 cars. The four museum collections can be opened for your guests by arrangement, which gives the children and the uncles something to do. Rooms start at $2,200; the details are on the reunion page. For a reunion of 25, the estate is more room than you need and a park pavilion or a restaurant room will feel fuller.

A county or state park pavilion. Green Lane Park, a few minutes from Pennsburg, or Nockamixon State Park near Quakertown. The classic family reunion picnic: shade, tables, room to run, a permit through the park office, your own food or a caterer who will come to a pavilion. No indoor fallback, so it is a plan with a rain date, and restrooms vary.

A fire company social hall or VFW. Pennsburg, Quakertown and Boyertown have them. Low fees, your own caterer or a potluck, a kitchen, a lot. The right answer for a class reunion that wants the price under the cost of a dinner out, in a plain room you decorate with the yearbook.

Out-of-town relatives and classmates stay at the hotels in Quakertown, about 15 minutes away, or at the Cottage; the list is in hotels near Pennsburg. When you are ready to see the barn and the lawn, schedule a tour and bring two dates. If the same summer holds a graduation or a 50th anniversary in the family, the graduation party guide and the anniversary party guide follow this same shape.

The download

The Reunion Planning Checklist is this guide on one printed page: a twelve-month column for a class reunion and a six-month column for a family one, the five-line per-head pricing worksheet, and a blank run-of-show with the group photo time already on it. It is free and prints on letter paper. Give every committee member a copy at the first meeting.