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Retirement Party Ideas.Planning Your Party - Beyond the Retirement Invitations.
Looking for retirement party ideas?
It is, of course, a once in a lifetime event - and this may cause you some "concern"
when planning your retirement party. Everything from the retirement invitations to making the event fun and memorable.
So, let me set your mind at rest - have a read over some of the ideas on this page and others -
and I think you will find the retirement party ideas that really appeal to you!
A retirement party is an opportunity to honour the retiree and a fun occasion for the participants. It celebrates the career of the retiree and
wishes them well for the next phase.
In planning the retirement party the following topics need to be considered:
- Location: Restaurant, pub, office, or private home?
- Food: Buffet, banquet or finger food?
- When: Week-end, week day, lunch?
- Theme/Tone: Formal or informal, activities and games?
- Invitees: Including family.
- Tributes: Have a look at Retirement Toast AND Retirement Party Jokes.
- Gifts: Have a look at Retirement Gifts.
- Etiquette: Timely invitations, notification of dress code, are individual gifts accepted, notice to speakers, RSVP expected?
- Guest book/card: For good wishes.
- Budget: How much do you (or others) want to spend?
Here's an example of My Own Retirement Party(s):
Just remember - the party should be a fun occasion for the participants!
It may be difficult to accommodate all interests in a single party. The answer?
In my own case I had several parties!
- I had a formal lunch with my fellow company directors and our spouses.
- I had a Friday night dinner, in the private room, of a top class restaurant, with my management colleagues.
The tone was informal, relaxed, and entertaining, group gifts were presented and warm tributes spoken.
- The MADMEN (my advertising friends) co-ordinated a wonderful dinner at one of my favourite Dublin restaurants.
Those in attendance were from the world of advertising, PR, promotions and research as well as my work colleagues
involved in marketing. More gifts and tributes!
- On the final day (Read About Butler),
which happened to be my 60th birthday, I had lunch with my management colleagues at an Indian restaurant.
- Finally, after work on my last day, everybody from the company was invited to a party at Barry’s Pub.
Finger food was served, and beverages of choice. This was a fun occasion and the party went on long
after the scheduled closing time!
As you can see I got a wonderful send off from a wonderful career and I hope my
retirement speech did justice to my sense of gratitude.
When you are considering your own retirement party - and the sentiments that you want to go with the event -
I urge you to consider what is really important.
 I think these important sentiments are captured, for me, in the words of the poet Seamus Heaney.
While not strictly a retirement speech, I find the retirement sentiments exquisite.
The following is an extract from Seamus Heaney's speech on the occasion of his 70th birthday celebration.
"...Much therefore comes full circle this evening. Friends whose work and whose company have helped me
across the stepping stones of life. Friends and family are here, all of you are here.
All of this is beyond expectation, but I no longer have mixed feelings, this is a totally luminous occasion.
And if the wheel has come full circle, that only means that the wheel is about to turn once more.
This birthday, in other words, isn't just about keeping going - it is about getting started again.
Tomorrow morning my inner Antaeus have to rise as usual to meet my inner Hercules!
So I'm utterly grateful for the tonic of the tributes and the proceedings.
They are not retirement presents, but ratifications and refreshments.
Thanks to them, thanks to you, I will continue to live obligated and elevated,
more happily than ever, ever after."
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