After you confirm when your ceremony is, you should receive more information about the number of guests you can bring, in addition to information about the graduation gowns and caps for the ceremony.
I don’t know how it goes with most schools, but for my school’s ceremony, the gowns and caps are more or less “rented out” via a hold on our school accounts the day of the ceremony. We can’t keep them afterwards, but I think some schools give you the option to buy your gowns and caps to keep.
Most grad gowns have their own sizing, but they’re typically based on height, and you can choose between standard and plus sizing for the gowns. If you have any questions, I do suggest reaching out to your school right away because sometimes there’s a bit of a delay in responses or a bit of a time crunch between when you choose your gown sizes and the ceremony when you’ll need them.
Additionally, as you may see online, the grad caps do not make everyone look good. You can usually fix this by tucking the front under a thin headband to use, or tucking it under and using bobby pins to secure the cap to your head. If you’re going to do this, I do recommend getting some bobby pins ahead of time and looking at tutorials; however, not all schools will allow you to modify your hats, so please be advised! I plan to bring a bunch of bobby pins to try this out, and hopefully I can keep it like that, but if not, it’s not that big of a deal, I can just modify it for pictures and not the ceremony/walk itself.
Grad tickets are another item that you should confirm right away if you can. I’ve heard that schools typically only allow for 2 tickets total (the grads, of course, don’t need a guest ticket, but they have their own ticket to check in). After you confirm the number of tickets you’re allotted, you might want to think about sending out invitations.
I’ve seen some very fancy/elaborate grad invitations, so there are a lot of styles you can choose from to follow. I’m not making any elaborate invitations because I do live with my family, additionally, my school also has a live stream of the ceremony, so anyone living further away can watch it online.
If you are sending physical invitations, I do recommend sending them as soon as you know how many tickets you’re allotted, and after you’ve chosen who you want to invite. If you’re in Canada and graduating this year, I recommend making a phone call or sending an email invitation instead. Apparently there’s a chance that Canada Post may go on strike May 22nd.
Once these are completed, you can then look ahead to other things you’ll have to handle, or if you’ve already chosen them, take a break!
