Everything You Need To Know About Planning a Friend's Get Away

As I talked about yesterday, Rich and I just got back from a weekend away with our friends for a nice friend's reunion out of town.  Finding time for a friend's reunion is really difficult.  I wanted to pass along my tips for organizing a successful friends get away.



1) Start EARLY:
People's calendar's fill up very quickly in this season of life.  Birthdays, babies, weddings, and vacation days keep our schedules overbooked and our spirit overwhelmed.  Send out an email to all your friends who you'd think would be interested with multiple date options.  Have folks use something like surveymonkey.com to indicate which dates they prefer.  It is important to know you won't please everyone, so go with the date that works for the MOST people.

2.) Vacation Rental By Owner (VRBO)
I know a lot of folks are fans of Air B and B, but I've had great success with VRBO.  You are able to see the cabin's calendar and book well in advance.  The site is easy to navigate.  I wanted to appeal to the masses so I sent out 3 options for our friends to vote for and booked the most popular cabin.  My cabin essentials were a fire pit, hot tub, hiking trials, and driving location for folks.  Our cabin came fully equipped with linens which is not always the case, so check for that.

3.) Plan for meals:
My largest goal was to keep the trip cost friendly.  It was important we could do most of our eating and cooking at the cabin and all chip in.  This is where Google Docs is your best friend!  I set up a document that listed every item of food we would need and each of the 9 folks could sign up to bring what they wanted from the list.  For dinner we divided into two dinner teams and the groups coordinated their own meal so I wouldn't have to do that.

4.) Communicate:
Like it or not, as the organizer of the weekend it is also your job to be sure everyone is on the same page.  Be sure each person has directions, cell phone numbers, and a good idea of what they need to bring.

5.)  Enjoy:
Take a moment to enjoy that you are surrounded by friends from all over.  These moments are fleeting and time is precious.  If you get overwhelmed, delegate a task and share the load with someone in the group.