5 Tips for Planning a Family Reunion

Planning a family reunion, whether for four generations or just one or two, can be quite the logistical undertaking. You’ve got schedules, meals, and payments to coordinate. Good thing you’ve also got Cheddar Up. With features to sign up, pay (and sort and tally the money!), and communicate all in one website, our hope is to free up your time for what matters most — catching up with your people.

Here are 5 ways to help make planning a family reunion more fun, less complicated.

1. Create a free survey to get everyone’s input.

This time is for the family, right? So gauge their interests to help build a personalized, engaging experience for all attending. With Cheddar Up’s free, fully customizable forms, you can vote on date, location, and activity preferences, plus collect favorite memories and photos while you’re at it! 

The most helpful part: The Cheddar Up reporting center allows you to see which responses are “winning” without the need to sift through every form.

2. Collect RSVPs and reunion payments on a categorized website.

Instead of online payments going into (or being subtracted from) one mixed-use account balance, Cheddar Up allows you to create a single-use webpage, or collection. You create items with open or specified amounts, and your family members select their options — no more mistyping amounts or deciphering emojis in the description box. For instance, if you are asking people to pay for only the meals they are attending, instead of one catch-all RSVP ticket, you can create a separate item for each meal, and people will only pay for what they choose. (Here’s a family reunion RSVP example.)

Our reporting center automatically sorts and counts each item’s total and details who has paid for what. Need to follow up with folks who haven’t? The messaging center filters that contact list for you.

3. Make sign up forms for meals and activities.

At the very same URL you send people to pay, you can create sign up forms for potluck meals and activity registrations. People will see all the options in one easy glance — and no more going between browser tabs!

4. Communicate efficiently and effectively — to everyone or based on responses.

You can upload everyone’s contact info to the messaging center and communicate directly from Cheddar Up: share your collection, send reminders, contact people based on the meals and activities they signed up for. In addition, you’ll have your complete message history, so no more “Did I, or didn’t I send that very important detail?”

5. Tag-team organizing duties with a fellow family member.

At Cheddar Up, you can have multiple managers on the same account, so you can have more than one person managing the logistics. You may still decide to split the responsibilities — one person takes care of the finances, while another organizes the meals, and another runs the activities — but at least you’ll have one central dashboard to reference.

In short, before you go

Organizing your next family reunion doesn’t need to be stressful! Cheddar Up can help you streamline the planning process, securely collect payments, communicate, and create a memorable experience for all. Let the planning begin!

Collect for FREE

Whether you’re collecting dues and fees, fundraising, managing an event, creating a sign up, or selling something online or in-person, you can do it with a Cheddar Up collection.