We just had our Relief Society Birthday Party. The title of our party was "Look Up". Since I was assigned the lesson the first week of the month I based it on the conference talk by Carl B Cook It's Better To Look Up. That talk and was the perfect way to introduce our party. (This idea could be used for Young Women, Baby Showers, birthday parties etc.) Here's a video I took while we were setting up. It might give you a better overview. We decorated around the "Up" movie theme with houses and balloons. That theme was an easy one to implement. I love decorating with balloons because they pack a big punch for a small amount of money. Helium balloons are $.50 a piece at Walmart and $.25 if you supply your own balloons. We used 60 balloons. 5 per table and the rest on the food table, cake table etc. Let me tell you, Patty and I were quite the comedy act attempting to fit 60 helium balloons into the back of my car in the wind. Thanks to a kind stranger we got them all in the car and to the church safely with out even a single one popping. I had nightmares the night before the party of all the balloons getting away from us and floating up to the tall ceiling in the cultural hall out of our reach. To ensure this did not happen we prepared the balloons in a small room with a lower ceiling and then took one group at a time into the cultural hall. We chose the colors PINK and SILVER. We used hot pink and a lighter bubble gum pink. The pink was so bright and cheery and just shouted spring! It doesn't hurt that pink is my favorite color! As a party favor I cut these little house boxes with my Cricut. I cut the box from Tags, bags boxes and More 2 at size 6" and the roof from Sweet Tooth Boxes at size 7.5" I had to lengthen the slit in the roof a tiny bit to make it fit. I filled them with some iridescent Easter grass and a few candy kisses. I attached a tag through the handle on top. Print the tags HERE. I just attached them to a scalloped circle. The labels measure 1.5 inches so they fit perfectly with a scallop circle that is just bigger than that. If you don't have a Cricut...no worries. I made you a box you can just print out. Print it HERE. Just cut along the solid lines and fold on the dotted lines. Set the roof on top. To attach the tag and hold the roof secure you could tie your ribbon around the house so that the ribbon runs under the house and then ties on top. There you will also find the large house I used as the center pieces. Print 2 per house on to card stock. Cut them out leaving a little tab on the bottom where there is a little white edge left so you can use it to Attach the two pieces together. Place it around a basket or pail. We filled each pail with pink filler (basically Easter grass) added a "Look Up" tag and clipped 5 balloons to each house. I got the clips for free with the balloons. Print the tags HERE. We used wrapping paper for our table runner. Patty found the PERFECT wrapping paper at Walmart. We cut it in half lengthwise and crosswise so each roll became four runners. "WHAT"S UP" Patty wanted us to share our latest news with each other and came up with the title of "What's up?" This was a really fun part of our night as we heard everyone's news including a pregnancy announcement, a scholarship (we invited our Young Women), and Spring Break plans. I already had these cute pink pails. I filled them with these what's up papers and a few pencils and added a tag. Everyone wrote down their news and a representative from each table read them to the whole group. (Print tags and papers HERE) I put one of these programs on each table so that everyone could follow along, so I could give credit to everyone that helped and it was a great way to show the theme "Up" and how we implemented the word into EVERYTHING at this party. I've supplied you with programs, but since your info will be different than mine I made you a blank one and one with just the "UP" titles. You can print them HERE. "7-UP" I already had some pink polka dot bandannas that I purchased at Hobby Lobby for $.99 a piece. I tied them around the pitchers. I added a "7-up" tag. Cherry 7-up is the perfect color. We ended up using pink lemonade, but...whatever it was cute. You can print the tags HERE. Julie made our cake. I thought it turned out so cute. We served it with ice cream and everyone loved it! Our table needed a backdrop and it just so happens that I found this cute idea on pinterest a couple of nights before the party so at the last minute we headed to dollar tree. I love the way it turned out. It takes longer to braid than I thought it would so make sure you have time. "Eat Up" The meal was a taco salad bar catered by Taco Time. We fed about 75 women for $200.00. Dana and Kelli headed the dinner up and made all of the arrangements. It was a huge hit! Candice is amazing. She decorated the food table with table cloths, tissue paper and napkins. She created it on the spot with things I had brought with me. It was so bright and adorable. I was very impressed! Just look how cute that is! We placed these signs around to reinforce our theme and what can a little more decoration hurt? right? You can print them HERE. "Clean Up" We had three speakers. The first Presentation was by my friend Linda She took about 10 minutes and did a presentation called, "Why I Make My Bed." It was a great presentation and her visual aid was the talk of the party. can you believe that bed is made out of two long church tables? "Dress Up" Our next speaker was my daughter Hayley She spent 5 minutes showing us her favorite ways to tie a scarf. It was fun to see that many of the women wore scarves to church that Sunday. "Chin Up" Our keynote Speaker was Dr. Mark Baxter. He is a Family Practitioner who gave a 20 minute talk on depression and how to deal with it. He brought so much hope to everyone and did a great job! "Devel-up" My friend Dotty did the cutest photo"booth" She decorated one of those rolling chalkboards and brought the best dress up props. We din't have a set photographer. Everyone just took their own photos with their phones and cameras. We put this out in the hall as you entered the cultural hall.Because it was in the hall I have a hard time knowing how much it was used. It seemed to be used a lot, but I wish it would have been in the cultural hall with everything else. Also...my attempt at my play on the word "Develop" backfired a few times as people asked, "Devil up? What does that mean?" Sigh. "Cheer Up" Cheer up was a cute dance performed by some of the Young Women in our ward under the direction or Juleen. They danced to the song "Happy" from Despicable Me 2. Very cute! Sad picture, but the best one I had. PS: Another darling table decorated on the spot by Candice. I felt like the party was definitely a success. We had a great turnout of about 75 people and I think that is due in large part to great advertising by Nicki and Linda. Linda sent out emails each week including one the day of the party. Nicki made announcements each week and made darling posters and fliers. What I would do differently.-- 1. As I said before, I would have put the "Photo booth in the cultural hall with everything else so no one had to leave the room to take their photos. It was really bright and cute and would have added even more color and decoration to the room. 2. We don't always have the need for a nursery so we decided to call one at the last minute if anyone asked about it. That was pretty stressful to worry about while we were trying to decorate and pull everything together. next time I would set it up before hand and cancel if necessary. 3. Our party went at least 2 hours. I think a party should be no more than 1 1/2 hours long. The reason I feel this way is that time away from home and family is precious and I think it's helpful if the sisters know that they are not going to be longer than 1 1/2 hours. If they want linger a little afterwards that's fine, but I will try harder to keep it shorter next time. Whew! This was a long involved post! I've included everything I can think of. I would love to hear from you. Especially if you use this theme for any of your parties! Come back soon,