Hopefully you are making your way through the planning guide for Thanksgiving . By the end of this week you should have the 8 week items checked off and moving on to the 6 week items on the list. If you haven’t, no worries there is still time but the sooner you get started the better. This week I’ve included a free printable Thanksgiving Guest List. Here is how I have gotten through the 8 week items.
8 Weeks before Thanksgiving
□ Set the date & time. Thursday, November 23rd, 2017 is Thanksgiving however actually for my family the date is Saturday, November 18th 2017. We started celebrating the weekend before to make it easier for some my relatives to celebrate with both their families. Dinner is at 3:00 pm and that is because some of the older members of my family prefer not to spend the night and have a little ways to travel.
□ Send out Save the Dates with date, time & location. I keep this super simple with just an email. Email works the best for my family, everyone uses it with the exception of my 98 year-old grandmother but that just takes a phone call to keep everyone in the loop. Some of my younger cousins don’t check their email regularly, so I will send them a text to let them know to check their emails. Here is my save the date email, short and sweet:
Subject: SAVE THE DATE Thanksgiving 2017.
Message:
Thanksgiving
Saturday, November 18th, 2017
Location (City, State)
Details to follow
Love, Lindsey
□ Make-up guest list This is really your invite list now. Later I make up a final guest list with everyone who is attending. It is a fun memento to keep of who made it each year. Scroll down to the bottom of this post to get your copy sent straight to your email.
□ Start making invites If you are making a paper invite to mail out then you need to start making them. I personally send out emails, because it makes communicating in my family easier. Like the save the dates I don’t do anything fancy. You can also do more formal email invite using a service such as Evite or Paperless Post . To be honest there is nothing better than receiving a real paper invite in the mail and if you want to go that route, more power to you, that is awesome. I’m taking the lazy way and sending out an email.
□ Choose the theme & color palette Thanksgiving doesn’t have a whole lot of variety when it comes to themes and colors but be creative. There are pumpkins, turkeys, vegetables, nuts, leaves, pilgrims, etc. Colors for the most part are the fall colors, reds, browns, greens, orange, golds, etc. However a blue and white Thanksgiving might not be traditional but it could be beautiful. I do a rustic, natural theme in the fall colors. I like woods, metal, leaves, nuts and cream color pumpkins. This something I have developed over the last few Thanksgiving and for the most part is the same every year. Every year I add in something new and keep it fresh by changing the centerpieces of the table each year.
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