To celebrate the Relief Society Birthday in March, my presidency and I decided to create an elegant evening for the girls in our YSA ward. Every person in this world is going through hard times, whether it is family problems, health struggles, self-esteem issues, loneliness, depression, or many other struggles. We decided that we can no longer wait for the storm to pass but need to learn how to enjoy the rain! The theme "BLOOM WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED" is the reminder that each of us need to remember as we go through-out each day!
We used vinyl lettering to make the theme and also used vinyl lettering to decorate around the theme with flowers. This was placed right above our serving table.
We were so blessed to have a Stake Relief Society President who truly has anything that you might possibly need for a fancy dinner. We used periwinkle blue table cloths, gold flatware, goblets, and cloth napkins at each table. When setting up for 80 people or for an event this big, I suggest putting everything that you will need for each table in a box, so if you have 10 tables you will have 10 boxes. The Stake Relief Society President did this for us and it made it so much easier to set up the day of the activity.
One of my counselors made crate paper flowers to hang from the ceiling. She used one bag of crate paper per 2 flowers. She took 1/2 of the bag of crate paper and lined the sheets up. She then folded in about 1" and then continued to fold in the same way 1" at a time. When done with this part it should almost look like a fan when it is folded up. She then tied thread around the center of the crate paper and tied it TIGHT. She then pulled out each piece of crate paper individually and after doing this on both sides it created a flower! We hung these from the ceiling using wire and tape.
My favorite part was making the OREO POPS! I found this idea online, but I was not able to make them the way that it said to because it was too difficult. My creative roommate came up with a new idea for making the Oreo Pops and they turned out great!
I used 2 bags of DOUBLE STUFFED Oreos, a container of kabob sticks (long), 2 containers of vanilla almond bark (found by the chocolate chips), red/green/blue frosting squeezer.
First I took a small pot and filled it 1/2 way with water. I put it on the stove and brought it to a boil. While the water is heating up I took parchment paper and covered 3-4 cookie sheet pans. I also melted the vanilla almond bark in a bowl in the microwave.
This next part takes a little bit of time to get the system down, but once you do it works out great! The water is now boiling and so you turn the stove down to medium-low and then put a glass plate on top of the pot. Cover the glass plate with Oreos (about 10 at a time). Let the Oreos sit on the plate for about 10-15 seconds. Do not let the cream begin to melt, if it does it means that they have been on their for too long.
Take the Oreos off the plate and then stick a kabob stick through the stuffing of each Oreo. Let them sit for a minute to harden before dipping them in the vanilla almond bark. After each Oreo is completely covered, lay it on the parchment paper. Fill a pan of the Oreos and then put them in the freezer for 5 minutes.
Take them out of the freezer and now you can decorate. We decorated our Oreo Pops with flowers because of our theme, but you can decorate them with sprinkles as well. I let them sit over night and then they were ready to go.
At each table I placed 8 Oreo Pops in a vase to represent the bouquet of flowers. The Stake Relief Society President made bows for each of the vases to put it all together!
I also decorated each table with little flower cut-outs. (yellow and white)
The problem about being in a ward where almost everyone has roommates is that they tend to always sit with their roommates and aren't introduced to other women in the ward. As a presidency we made the decision to have each table represent a month and for everyone to then sit at the table with the month of their birthday on it.
I would not recommend this for every YSA ward because not all women would be thrilled about doing this. However, it worked great for our activity.
I had one of the women on the committee make cute signs for each table using different colors of card stock. We then leaned them up against the vases and the women came in and gladly went to their assigned table. Everyone had a great chance to make new friends and so it was a really fun night!
DINNER & DESSERT
For dinner we had a restaurant cater Chicken Alfredo with breadsticks and salad. We made Raspberry Lemonade for the drink.
For dessert we had Betty Crocker's Vanilla Cake, baked on the long cookie sheet pans. For 80 people we made 6 cakes. We then bought the frozen strawberry preserves (3 containers) and mixed them with fresh strawberries to create a topping for the cake. Each piece of cake had a scoop full of strawberry preserves and then a spoon of Cool Whip on top to make Angel Food Cake.
**SUGGESTION: Before doing an activity like this, I would go around and ask the women in the ward if any of them had food allergies. I did not do this and their ended up being a women who has Celiac Spru and so she was not able to eat anything besides the salad, and a bowl of strawberries. It is not difficult to compensate for people's allergies so if you have the time I would ask the women if they have any food allergies.**
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