My husband and I had a realization this year. We aren’t getting any younger, and neither are our friends and family. He actually had a very good friend pass away from cancer at only 60 years old this year.

And my father passed away in March…granted the man was almost 99 years old! But there were people who we saw at his service, like my nephews who I literally last saw at my mom’s memorial service in 2018.

I said, “I’m tired of only seeing people at funerals”. Add to that, since my husband has lived literally all over the country and world, he has collected friends from all walks of life. Yet he will sometimes say, “I don’t have any friends!”. Really? You DO, it’s just they don’t live next door!

This sparked a really interesting idea- a ‘program’, if you will, we call “FriendTrips”; a little play on “Friendships”. It’s a way to see friends and family that works for everyone’s schedules and creates lasting memories- something we really believe everyone needs more of. We only live once!

Here’s how we developed the FriendTrip Program/

Create a Flyer. I love this little flyer/announcement/invitation that I created on Canva.

We are pretty frequent travelers (check out our travel themed wedding), so I used a few of our traveling photos here to make a cute theme. We selected a list of friends and family we don’t see too often, who are in driving distance, even if it’s 5-6 hours.

Keep in mind, you have to be willing to do your part with regard to driving. It’s up to our guests to decide when they’re free, what they might want to do, etc. We then check our schedules, and it’s on the calendar! If you do not take this step to get dates on your calendar, trust me these trips will never happen- and we do not want that. 

A Little Gift. I must always bring something small for people welcoming us to their homes. For our first trip to NJ, we brought our hostess these adorable flowers for her porch.

It worked out perfectly, because she had a charming little sunporch where she was able to enjoy them while giving them a little sun.

After we brought the flowers to our first hostess, I had a cool idea. I had made these wine bottle labels for Christmas a few years ago (it’s an excellent idea to keep a few bottles with these adorable labels lying around during the holidays. Take them to a party- or have on hand if you receive a gift and didn’t have one to give in return!). 

So I used the same concept to make a little thank you wine label. We go to the Finger Lakes NY often since it’s the perfect day trip from our home. So I get a case of my favorite riesling (see my upcoming post on Cayuga Lake wineries).

On zazzle.com, where we designed and purchased all of our customized wedding supplies, you can easily create your own wine labels (and many other things). I just copied the design from our FriendTrips flyer, and replaced the wording with “Thank you”. Done. Didn’t this turn out cute? 

Activities. We leave this up to our host to decide. There may be interesting festivals going on in their town, or maybe a favorite restaurant or coffee shop they’d like to share with us. If we’re traveling fairly far, we will definitely offer to stay in a local hotel, but if they’d like to offer a room for the night, that’s great too!

For our first trip, our hostess presented the prettiest little charcuterie with wine out on the porch. Then we had a lovely lunch with chicken on the grill and fresh corn on the cob, played a fun game of bocci ball, and chatted with some great music. This, to me, was a perfect Friendtrip. Low key and conducive to meaningful conversation.

There are many of my husband’s friends who I do not know well at all. I see them at our annual lake party and they all talk about their college days or whatever, but I don’t have much opportunity to get to know them better. Same with some of my friends and their spouses. So another purpose of these trips is for us to get to know them, and vice versa. 

Thank you notes. I loved using the notes from our wedding, since they already captured the travel theme. I always think a hand-written card is a nice touch, and is meaningful to your hosts. We also send them a shared folder with photos of the trip!

We are looking forward to our next trip to Connecticut later this month, where we’ll be staying with friends and attending an Oyster Festival! We’re also planning trips to NY, Maryland, and Virginia; as well as locally.

Even friends and family who live half an hour away can qualify for your list. In my experience, you can go what seems like forever seeing them too. We have yet to see my sister-in-law’s new condo that she’s been in now over a year now.

We thought we would limit this program to the summer, but the summer has filled up fast for us with a lot of concerts (see my post about these soon!) among other activities. We’re going to leave it open-ended for now, and let people schedule time with us when they are able.

Do you have any ideas for making special memories with friends and family? Leave me a comment and let me know!