Girls Ministry Event - Decorating Details

Yesterday I shared with you about our most recent girls ministry event and today I wanted to share some of the details.  Hosting an event like this doesn't have to be expensive especially if you use things you already have.  Before our big clothing swap we had a time of fellowship and refreshments together, just to give everyone a time to chat, get to know one another and plot our swapping strategies.  Another exciting part of the night was the door prizes.  We decided to put together some baskets for the girls to try to win.  We had a summer basket, hair care basket, spa basket, sweet tooth basket and college basket.

The Target dollar section has become a favorite spot of mine.  They have some really great and cute stuff that we used for these baskets.  I also love the ELF make up line at Target.  They have lots of $1 products, including make up brushes - it was perfect for this.  Nail polish is another inexpensive option and of course candy.

This was really an added fun element to the night.  The baskets and metal tub were also found in the Target dollar section.  The little buckets and boxes were a Target dollar find last month.  So like I said, really cute stuff.

Another fun detail were these tall colorful metal planters (also Target dollar finds - although they were $2.50, still not bad).  We just used some inexpensive colorful tissue paper, some easter basket straw and a pretty pinwheel to fill them up.  When I purchase decor items for these events I try and get things I can reuse later on and I can totally reuse these containers for different things as well as the pinwheels and even the straw. 

So as we were setting up for this event we stumbled upon a few things stored away on our church campus that we thought would work perfect for our event.  These little faux wrapped presents were one of those finds.  I actually made these 4 years ago for a mother/daughter dinner and we just happened to have saved them just in case.  Don't you love free decorating?  

On the tables we used things we already had - so not a dime spent on this.  We had previously bought these paper lanterns for our last event, the candle holders and then used more of the faux wrapped gifts we found.

We also made little conversation cards - all pertaining to our clothing theme and scattered them around the tables.

We had a really fun refreshment table filled with all sorts of punches and fruity drinks.  The smaller drink dispensers came from Target - they were $7.99 and are also stackable.  One again, something I can reuse over and over.

I also loved these little serving trays (Target Dollar Section) and we totally reused the plastic tablecloths from our last event.  And, we were able to give them a little wipe, folded them up and they are ready for the next as well.

We decided to make it easy and just serve drinks and cookies - we actually had a ton of cookies come in from all of our lovely leaders.  This also helps to save on cost - food can get super expensive.

So all in all it was a fun and springy event that really didn't cost all that much.  There is more to the story though and tomorrow I will share with you the details on the main event - the clothing swap so check back in tomorrow!

Girls Ministry Event - Clothing Swap

Last week I shared with you that we were busy preparing for our next girls ministry event and now I'm here to share a little of that event with you.  Last friday we hosted a Clothing Swap for the high school girls in our student ministry and it was so much fun!  I will be sharing some of the little details and prep work later this week but here is the overall recap from that night.  As before, I didn't want this night to just be an event but a night of worship and fellowship as well.  

So in thinking of the clothing swap theme we thought it was a perfect time to talk to the girls about modesty.  I wanted to not only talk about outward modesty but inward modesty as well since outward modesty is really just a reflection of who we are on the inside.  When we are confident in Jesus, when we are totally in love with Him and are following Him with every step of our lives, we will not doubt be modest dressers.  This is not to say that to be modest means you can't be stylish or wear cute clothing, it just means that your focus is on a higher calling.  So to do this we asked several young women who are closer to the girls age to come and lead break out sessions and discussions focused on these themes.  I loved that they were willing to come and spend their Friday night talking to the students about this subject. 

The night was really fun, we had a great selection of clothing - most of it was brought in by the students, some of it by college students just wanting to donate and some was donated by a local consignment store (clothing that didn't sell and the consigners did not want back).  It was fun to watch the girls "swap shop" and find all sorts of new outfits.

Each girl was given a limit to the number of items they could choose.  There was really no science to it, I just counted every item and divided that by the number of girls we had there.  I've also seen it done where you just give a bag and have the swappers fill up the bag.  I think either way would have worked in our case.

We had a fun time of refreshments and fellowship, we gave out door prizes, swapped til we dropped and learned about modesty and what it means to adorn our hearts in God's love.  Such a sweet time.

We have the best students ever.

 It was so much fun us adults are talking about hosting one for all of the ladies of our church.  So I'll be sharing more of the details like decorations, cost, break out sessions and such this week so check back with us later!  Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Have a great week!

Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.  1 Peter 3:3-4

Clothing Swap Inspiration

I'll be honest, there hasn't been a lot going on in the forms of house updating in the last week.  I have a big girls ministry event coming up this Friday and most of my free time will be devoted to getting ready for that.  I'm pretty excited - we are hosting a clothing swap for the girls.  I've never done an event like this so I'm learning as I go.  The girls were actually the ones who suggested this idea and I thought it was really great.  What a great way to get new free clothing and a fun way to meet new people and hang out.  I also think it gives a glimpse of the first church in Acts - where everything was shared and everyone had what they needed.  I totally had no idea how popular clothing swaps were but after googling and pinteresting (is that a new term now?) I came across a ton of info.  Check out some of these great clothing swap ideas:

Aren't these shopping bags adorable?  I absolutely love these, from the Hostess with the Mostess.

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Becky has some great tips on how to organize everything for your clothing swap over at Organizing Made Fun.

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Clothing racks are not cheap, believe me I've searched - I love these diyed ones from Design*Sponge.  This would even be cute for your home!

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And the mack-daddy of all swappers - The Swapaholics.  I had no idea something like this existed, but I think it's really cool.  These ladies host huge swapping events all over the place and their site is full of swapping inspiration, ideas and info.  If you are thinking about hosting a clothing swap - this site is a must read.

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So I'm busy in swap preparations this week, I hope I can share some more things with you this week that we are working on, we have lots of other ideas woven into this one night.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!  Thanks so checking in with us today!

Girls Ministry - Our First Event

Last week I shared with you how I'm currently on this new journey of beginning a more focused and purposeful girls ministry within our youth group at church and recently we had the pleasure of hosting our first big event for all of the girls.

In the beginning stages of planning for this event I knew a few things - 1. I wanted the focus to be about Jesus.  2. I wanted it to be something totally different and new.  3. I wanted to have as many people involved in the process as possible and 4. I knew that I wanted a theme for the night to keep us focused and centered.

Erin (my partner in all of this) and I quickly knew that we wanted to theme to be a look a True Beauty - this is one of the biggest issues our girls deal with.  We wanted to talk about insecurities but also talk about strengths.  We wanted to talk about lies the world gives us about beauty but also the amazing truth that God provides for us about beauty.  We wanted the girls be able to be creative, we wanted it to be intimate and we wanted it to be a a night of worship.

So how do you reconcile all of these ideas into one night?  We sat down with our group of girls and began brainstorming different ideas and came up with something that we felt could encompass everything we wanted to accomplish.

Ok, so one of the first things you start thinking about - after you have your initial event idea is budget.  These types of events can get costly fast - so you have to be creative. Since this was our first event we decided we needed to dedicate some time for just good ole fashion fellowship - so our cafe area was turned into a little coffee shop with various coffee's, hot chocolate's and hot tea's.  To help save on costs here I asked our lovely adults and girls to bring in desserts while we provided the drinks.  We also had the girls "bring their own mug" - which ended up really fun as the girls got excited about showing off their unique and different mugs - which in turn helped save a little cash since we didn't have to buy all of those cups.

I hit up the dollar store and one of my favorite spots -the target dollar section and picked up some great little items to help set the mood.  One of my most favorite purchases were flameless candles - found at the dollar store.  They had all different sizes and even had packs of 3 tea light flameless candles.  I love these bc I didn't have to worry about anything catching on fire - and I can reuse them!  I also picked up a few packs of glow bracelets at the dollar store - can you have a youth event with glow bracelets?  Ok, maybe I just can't.  They are just so fun.  I also found some packs of heart foam shapes to place on our little tables and then we just used candy to sprinkle around.  So to recap - each table had a foam heart, flameless candle, glow bracelets and candy.  Inexpensive yet really cute.

The majority of the night though happened in our gym/worship center/multi purpose whatever you want to call it room.  We wanted to create a worshipful atmosphere where the girls could spend some time learning about God, uplifting and encouraging one another and provide times of prayer.  So inside our large space we set up stations - everything from encouragement cards, to sharing verses, to what God says about beauty.  Each station had a large poster board with instructions and some sort of activity that they needed to do.  We let it be a free for all - we wanted God to lead them in this time and instructed them that this was a time for them and God and not a time of loud talking or silliness.  Since this was something new, I really wasn't sure how they were going to respond but I was so pleasantly surprised.  This turned out to be such a sweet and special time.  They took their time, stayed focussed and followed God's lead.  We had girls writing letters to every girl in the room, writing letters to their moms and sisters, praying together, moving past their insecurities, illustrating true beauty - it was awesome.

I just can't wait for our next time together.

Some things I learned:

1. I will never again try to take pictures while trying to lead an event - I maybe had time for 8 pictures - I will totally ask someone next time.

2.  I should learn how to brew coffee the next time we do something like this - turns out none of our adults knew how to brew large amounts of coffee...but we learned and it was funny.

3.  Highschool girls have great ideas - I want to make sure I'm always hearing them.

4.  When God takes control, just sit back and praise Him.

PS - if you are a youth leader, pastor, girls ministry leader and you want more details about what we did, please shoot me an email.  I would love to help in anyway I can!

Thanks for joining us today!