Even before the wedding anniversary invitations are planned, helping your parents or close friends plan their 25th or even 50th wedding anniversary can be exciting, especially when you decide to add a surprise dimension to the event. Being together for that amount of time means they have seen many people come in and then move out of their lives. A great idea would be to have a 'this is your life" scenario at the celebration and try to surprise the couple by inviting guests from their past who they thought would never be able to come or with whom they had lost contact (make sure beforehand that the couple both liked these people).

In order to do this you will have to volunteer to take care of the printing of the wedding anniversary invitations or alternatively make sure that any guests who know what you are planning are aware that it is to be a surprise. Organizing these guests may take some discreet detective work. You will probably need one of the couple's old photo albums and then try to get names and what happened to the people. Or you could sit down over a cup of tea or drink and discuss 'the olden days' and ask about friends from back then.

Once you have this information you can start to search the internet and phone books and see what you can come up with. Surprisingly some of the other friends or family may be able to help you. Buy or make an album in the same colors or theme as the wedding anniversary invitations and add the story of their lives together as you go from including their first meeting, courtship, engagement, wedding, birth of their children, grandchildren and also include any other relevant facts such as their first house, notable moves etc. Try to inject a bit of humor into it as well without offending either party.

If you can be in charge of sending out the wedding anniversary invitations you can include a note inside explaining what you are planning and that any information would be appreciated and not to mention this when they RSVP.