Send Follow-up Invitations

Ten to fourteen days before the family reunion, you'll want to send a reminder to family members that the reunion is coming up. Otherwise, in their busy schedule, they may not remember.

A follow-up invitation adds importance to the occasion in the minds of family members. It makes them think you really mean business. In fact, the more follow-ups you send--up to a point--the more likely family members are to make a serious commitment to attend the reunion. So if the reunion is a year away or two years away when you first start planning it, you'll benefit from sending out more than one follow-up.

If you're sending just one follow-up message, all you have to do is include the key information about the reunion:

• Date, time and location
• What to bring
• Anything else they need to remember
• An assurance that it will be a wonderful family time together

For large reunions that take lots of lead time, interim updates on the progress of the reunion are helpful. Let people know some highlights of the reunion.

• Special guests or activities
• Changes to the itinerary
• How to order family bonding items such as t-shirts

A follow-up invitation as you get close to the reunion also lets you ask for a rough head count. You can say something like:

"Would you mind emailing me a rough estimate of how many from your family are likely to attend? That way, I can make sure we have enough chairs, food and so on."

Be sure to include your email address unless the follow-up invitation goes out by email.