Prepare Your Theme and Color Scheme

You implement your theme by adding decor, music, talks, documents and other elements to your family reunion. Here are some things you'll want to prepare and use in order to present your theme. As you create the materials, remember the importance of using your color scheme, if you have one, as well as thematic materials.

• Posters and pictures. Images might portray an ancestor, an ancestral country or whatever else your theme includes. Frame some or all of them with mats in the colors you've chosen.
• Signs and documents. You need signs to show people where to go. They should include your logo and make use of your color scheme if you have them. You will strengthen your presentation if you use an image that ties in with your theme on each one. The same goes for any documents you distribute, such as name tags or schedules. For example, if your theme were based around a great grandfather, you might include a photo of him on each sign and document.
• Tables to display heirlooms and other items. Use table cloths or runners in the right colors and include small signs or placards to identify items. Make sure the items deal with your theme. Using the example of a great grandfather again, you might display a pair of spectacles, a diary, a walking stick or whatever you can scrounge that belonged to him.
• Menus. You may have already chosen menus that reflect your theme. Use the word processing software on your computer to create menus with pictures related to your theme and in the colors of your scheme. For example, suppose your theme is Ireland and your color scheme is green and white. Print the menu on light green paper and include a map of Ireland or a picture of a shamrock or a leprechaun.
• Text. Prepare slips of paper with excerpts from an ancestor's life or with words and their meanings in an ancestral language. Print them using your color scheme, then pepper the walls or tables with them.
• Other decorations. If you've thought of other kinds of decorations, whether they be balloons and crepe paper streamers or flowers or a collection of antique artifacts, buy them or gather them up so it's fast and easy to take them along. Be sure to buy things that use the colors of your scheme.

If you'll hold your family reunion at a hotel or resort, talk with the event planners there to discuss your theme and color scheme. They may be able to provide some of the elements for you and may also have ideas you'll find useful.