How to Successfully Document your Family Reunion Without Missing All the Fun

The family reunion is finally happening!  You’re certainly looking forward to enjoying seeing everyone and being apart of the games and activities. It will be a great moment especially worth remembering. Everyone with a smartphone (which is everyone) will be taking pictures and videos. Think of all of the amazing stories that will be told (and caught on video).

What steps can you take to immortalize these great memories all while not missing out on enjoying your family reunion? Check out the suggestions below to effortlessly collect, share, and reminisce your memories for years to come.

Photos & videos: ask for help!

Doing it all on your own will quickly wear you out.  You can only be in one place at once, so find one or even a few team archivists or leaders that can help you with taking pictures and videos.  They can also help with making sure to get the shared media from all of the relatives post-reunion.  With you and some helpers going around the reunion taking pictures and videos, you are likely going to capture a large portion of all of the great moments being had.

Another option some forget to consider is hiring outside help.  Consider hiring a photographer or videographer if it is an option.  With a professional snapping the photos, you will be able to spare yourself from the task and assure that many of the pictures will be well taken in high quality and they can even compile and give them all to you digitally.  They can also take many more photos or videos than you can as they will be focused on the task for the entire event. Keep in mind though, this will obviously be a bigger expense than the DIY option.

Give your family attendees a voice

Getting your family’s reaction to the reunion in writing and videos is a great way to remember the great event even many years later. 

A simple guestbook can do, and will offer a chance for everyone to offer a small bit of their own take on the reunion.  You can also send out surveys on Facebook afterwards and ask for input or thoughts on how the family reunion went. Or you could send out a few questions with Messenger and WhatsApp to get some helpful feedback. 

Also you can consider getting some footage of the family either man on the street style interviews or a more private video booth.  Either way offers a great way to preserve everyone’s feelings and happiness on camera to watch and recollect on later.  The key is to get them talking about how they feel about the reunion, what they most enjoyed about it, and happy family memories.  If you want to know more about great ideas for a family reunion, check our other post: 5 ideas to plan and organize an unforgettable family reunion.

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Collect and Share Memories

In the social media era we live in, try to get connected to all of the guests’ social media since they may post memories of the reunion. Or get their commitment to share photos with you. You can also use Kumbu and send out links ahead of time to a collective shared collection that anyone can drop their memories into. A shared collection on Kumbu can also take away the headache of hounding relatives down through social media and email.

The next step in documenting your family reunion after gathering all of the media is sending it out to your family!  You can opt for the old school touch and share printed photo albums, or create a newspaper edition of the reunion, or do the easy thing and put it into a Kumbu collection and share it privately.  Try these tips to make your next family reunion a lasting experience!

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Photo credit: kennymatic on Visual hunt /CC BY