It’s been several weeks now since I was in charge of our Relief Society birthday celebration, and a week or so ago I asked if anyone one would be interested in seeing what I did. The response was in the affirmative, so I’m excited to share with you today.
If you’re wondering what Relief Society is, it’s the women’s organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and each March we celebrate the organization’s birthday. This year, the theme I chose for our ward (congregation) was A Worldwide Sisterhood.
I loved the thought of women all around the world uniting to help increase faith, strengthen families, and help one another and wanted to expand on the global aspect of the organization.
The invitations were cute little boarding passes created using this template and I love how they turned out. I used a perforating blade to make it so the ticket stub really tore off, and it was pretty fun. Of course, I forgot to take a photo of them all completed, but you can see how they printed.
I wanted to use globes as my theme, so I pulled out my watercolors and started painting. Once I got the globe how I wanted it, I turned it into an image and added it to poster for around the church.
I also used it to create a printed handout for everyone to take home with a quote I used in my presentation. (You can download it here for use in Relief Society only–just save and print the photo that pops up)
For decorations, I borrowed lots of globes as the main part of the centerpiece. These were laid on pages from an old atlas to carry out the globe and map theme.
I also wanted some daffodils in mason jars to carry on the aqua and yellow theme that comes from the globes. I love how the colors carried through and really made everything look nice.
Finally, I made pennants from the atlas and stapled them to baker’s twine for two garlands that went on the wall behind the food tables, which I forgot to take a photo of since I was frantically running around last minute.
For dinner we had a delicious panko chicken with lemon sauce, rice pilaf, salad, and rolls. And for dessert we had lemon cupcakes that my friend graciously frosted for me (since I’m frosting challenged).
For the program, I talked about my experiences and love for the Relief Society and invited a couple of other sisters to share their experiences as well. I intended to show this video about the Relief Society, which really tied everything together, but wasn’t able to view it at the last minute (i.e. you can’t watch YouTube at the church, so download it to your device beforehand if you want to share it during your event). But it still turned out alright.
I won’t lie, the Relief Society birthday celebration was a big event for me and I loved the decorating part, but the food part of the evening stressed me out a LOT. Thankfully, I have a wonderful support system and fabulous ladies who stepped in and carried everything through.
I'd love to hear your thoughts–leave me a comment!