2.16.2013

RELIEF SOCIETY BIRTHDAY PARTY {Super Service Soiree}

Last year I was in charge of our Relief Society Birthday Party.  For those who don’t know, The Relief Society is the largest women’s organization in the world.  It is the women’s organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Mormons, of which I am a member.  Every year, we celebrate the organization of the Relief Society with some type of activity/meeting for the women in our ward.  A ward is how our church members are organized into congregations based on geographical locations.

Anyway, I know a lot of ladies are searching the web right about now for ideas for what to do for their activity this year so I wanted to share what we did last year because it was a big success.

Our theme for the night was:

“SOUP”ER SERVICE SOIREE

“Buzz”ily Doing Something Extraordinary

I based that off what Emma Smith said to the sisters at the very first Relief Society meeting…that they would be doing “something extraordinary”.

Here is our invitation made by a friend of mine who is also a fabulous photographer. You can find her on Facebook HERE!

Birthday

So, we had a Bee theme for the main food table, which I did.  I made these cute as heck cupcake toppers that I was in LOVE with and put them on cupcakes topped with a beehive of frosting.  For those who don’t know, the beehive is a symbol of our church standing for hard work and industry.  We had several soups and a delicious salad.  We used beehive water dispensers.

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You can download these toppers for FREE by clicking the button below. In exchange you just need to share it on Facebook or Twitter for me

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Printable Bee Cupcake Toppers

You just need to add some bee stickers to the flowers and mount on a cardstock background.

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I made these food labels for our table.  I have a FREE PRINTABLE version without words for you!  Just click the button below.  In exchange you just need to share it on Facebook or Twitter for me.  Thanks!

Printable Bee Food Labels 

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I made this banner to hang above the table.

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The backdrop is plastic tablecloths stapled to the wall.  We used black tablecloths with yellow crepe paper strips across it.

I think the food table turned out so fun. 

I asked several sisters to each decorate one of our tables with a party theme of some sort.  The tables were AMAZING!  I was soooo happy that they had done such a fantastic job and that it saved me all the work of trying to decorate all the tables myself.  Take a look at these beautiful tablescapes.  These could be used for ideas for other parties as well.

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For the activities of the night we watched this short video to set the tone for the night:

 

We asked each sister to bring a “Birthday Gift” for another sister.  They were to bring something they made or a gently used item.  We used the gifts in a white elephant type game and every sister got to take home a “Birthday Gift”!

We also asked them to fill out these cards with a service they would like to receive.  You have probably heard of service auctions for a Relief Society activity.  I do not like service auctions.  I think they can lead to a lot of hurt feelings.  So we decided to turn it around and instead of bidding on a service you want, you write down a service (or two) you would like to receive.  Then everyone had the chance to look through the cards and find a service they wanted to perform.  They were instructed not to look at the back to see who was requesting the service but just to find a service they wanted to provide and take that card.  They had one month to carry out the service.  I think the sisters really had fun doing their services for other sisters.

This is the front

super service soiree birthday wish cards copy

This is the back

super service soiree birthday wish cards back copy

If you would like to use these you can download them for FREE by clicking HERE. In exchange, you just need to share it on Facebook or Twitter for me. Thanks!

 

After dinner and games we all sewed self binding baby blankets for a local charity.  They were soooo cute! I wish I had a picture!  That was part of the Super SERVICE Soiree!

Do you love the Relief Society as much as I do? I feel so blessed to be part of such an amazing organization that does so much good in the world!

 

 

40 comments:

  1. As usual, you amaze me! I really look up to you as the ultimate party hostess! The ladies in your ward did an amazing job with the table decor. I'm really glad you posted this, as our wards party is coming up & I'm in charge of organizing it. Thanks for sharing, Emily!!

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    1. Thank you Shannon! Weren't the tables amazing?! I was floored! It was a great activity!

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  2. Oh my gosh!!!! Will you come be in our Presidency!!!! You put us all to shame!! You are truly amazing!!!

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    1. No thanks:) Enrichment leader was enough work! It was never my intention to be over the top amazing, but I tried to make all our activities seem special and worth coming out to. They all had a spiritual undertone to them as well, which I think is super important. Thanks for the comment!

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  4. looks like it was a great party! there were so many fun details, but i especially love how you placed the beehive-esque drink dispenser on top of that wavy cake stand.

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    1. Thank you for commenting! Aren't those cake plates fun? I borrowed them from a friend but for Christmas my kids gave me a couple of them! I love them!

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  5. Did you have a big budget for this party or did you just contribute from your own resources? This is adorable. Wish I could have come. You are so creative and talented! Jealous!

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  6. Hi there,

    I am planning our wards activity for this right now and we are using a lot of these ideas so THANKS they are AWESOME!!!
    I am a new HUGE fan of your blog. :)
    Do you happen to have the soup labels in a digital/edit-able format that I could use? I woudl REALLY appreciate it. :)

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    1. Oh yay! I'm glad! I don't have those in an editable form. I could maybe make you a file where you could print one with no words and then you could just write in the food you are having. would that work?

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    2. YES PLEASE!!!! That would be SOOO awesome...and again..I am now your blogs biggest fan :)I am totally going to order your year of dates soon :)
      do you need my email address to send that to or will you post it?? THANKS TONS TONS TONS!!!

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    3. Ok, I put them up for download. Let me know if you have any problems with the downloads. I hope they work for you! And you are very welcome!

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    4. Our activity is this Saturday (March 16th), so if you could get them to me before then, that would be great...thanks!!

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    5. Jessie, you just need to click the Social Whispers box up in this post and share it to be able to access the download.

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  7. I have tried to do this a number of times...unfortunately, the first time it downloaded all sorts of things that altered my computer without me knowing :( I'm still trying to fix it...now my virus protection software won't even let me because it says it's some sort of internal scanner or something and that it's a threat to my computer :( I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but my hubby says I should stop trying before I ruin my computer :( sad days

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    1. That is terrible! I will have to look into that. I have noticed some weird pop ups on mediafire a couple times. You probably clicked to download something other than what you were supposed to. I know it can be confusing. Email me and I will send you the file. I am so sorry!

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    2. I've been doing research and MediaFire is supposed to be safe. You just need to be sure you only click to download the document and don't click on any popups or get a pop-up blocker.

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    3. Thanks so much for your help...it is safe, we got it to print, but it IS very tricky to not click on the wrong spot (it makes it seem like it's what you have to do to download the file). It was yesterday and it all turned out great. THANKS TONS again!!!

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    4. You are so welcome! I'm sorry again about the difficulties with the download site!

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  8. THANK YOU so much for your wonderful ideas. We use MANY of them at our RS Bday Dinner this evening. We did the tables as you did and all the ladies in the ward did such a great job decorating for each month. I feel so blessed to have felt the spirt so strong and your blog was HUGE help in that! Please Keep sharing and I will use your ideas again soon!

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    1. I am so glad they helped you! I am not in charge or enrichment anymore so I won't be posting any new ideas for it but I do have a few other ideas posted already on my blog.

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  9. Hi there. I just posted the required link on my FB, but I'm not sure how to access the printable for the service printout?

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    1. it should have taken you to the download site....mediafire. you can email me at remarkablehome@gmail.com if you are still having trouble.
      thanks!

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    1. Bailey, I don't know why your comment isn't showing up. If you can email me at remarkablehome@gmail.com I will answer your question.
      thanks!

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  11. Emily,

    I was able to download all of the printables with the exception of the birthday wish/service one. It just dumps right back to this blog once I click download.

    Lisa

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    1. Thanks for letting me know. I've added a link to the download for those. Sorry that wasn't working!

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    2. I would love to use your ideas! I can't get the cupcake toppers or soup signs to load correctly -Ellen

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    3. Email me at remarkablehome@gmail.com and I can send you what you need.

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  12. We love the video and want to use it for an activity we are planning! We are wondering where we could find that at or if there is a way to get a copy of it?

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  13. We loved the video and would like to use it for an activity we are planning. We are wondering where we can find that at or if there is a way to get a copy of it?

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    1. I'm not sure what you mean. The video is right here on my page. It is on YouTube. I used a projector from the church library and hooked my phone up to it to play the video. Or you can hook a computer up to your church projector. Well, maybe it was a stake projector.

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  14. This turned out awesome. Wow! I wondered if the invite was available as a download by chance?

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  15. Such great ideas! Thank you for sharing.
    One quick question. What if a sister doesn't get her birthday service card picked because no one wants or can provide the service she desires? I'd hate to see a sister left out. I'm sure there's some way to remedy this but I just can't think of it right now.

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    1. That was not a problem because I don't think anyone that contributed a service card would then not take one to fulfill. Also, because you write two possible services on your card that you would like to receive, there is less chance that no one would want to do either of your services. Mostly people put services that were very easy to fill, like a loaf of bread or fhe treats, etc. people don't really write "scrub my whole house from top to bottom". you know? I am sure it will all work out and if any cards were somehow left the RS presidency could make sure they got taken care of.

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    2. Thank you! I think we will put a poster board on an easel with some possible examples of small acts of service. I love your idea to have the RS presidency make sure each person receives a service somehow. Thanks for such a fun birthday idea. This is going to be great.

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  16. What a great activity! What else did you serve along with your soup, besides bread? And did you use round stickers for your cupcake toppers?

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  17. What a great activity! What else did you serve along with your soup? And did you use round stickers for your cupcake toppers?

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    1. We had salad. I can't remember if there was something else also.

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    2. I didn't use stickers for the toppers, I cut them out with my silhouette machine from cardstock.

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I appreciate comments so much! I love to hear your thoughts or answer your questions. Thank you for taking the time to comment! Some Firefox users have had trouble commenting. PLEASE email me at remarkablehome@gmail.com if you have any problem commenting. Thanks so much!