Graduation Party Ideas

It is that time of year for Graduation parties!  Recently we held our annual grad party for our group of seniors in our youth group.  Its such a sweet and sentimental time.  We have shared the last 7 years with these students and have had the opportunity to laugh, cry and watch them grow and mature into young men and women of Jesus.  Its pretty cool.  So I thought I would share some of the details of the set-up for any future party ideas.

Since we do this on a pretty large scale I try hard to do things as inexpensively as I can.  Throughout the year I am always on the look-out for things on clearance that would work for us.  I also utilize the dollar store and the Target dollar section as much as possible.  I love little details at parties.  I know its not everyone's thing but for a celebration like this I love recognizing the Seniors in little special ways.  We set up their table special for them with little fun treats like these.  All of the little 2015 stickers I found in the Target dollar spot and the glasses are from the dollar store.

Flower arranging can sometimes be intimidating for people.  To make these bigger arrangements I chose hydrangea - they are the most simple way of adding fullness to your arrangements without really doing much.  I also literally just used a grocery store bouquet of flowers and added a few hydrangea to them - the key is to trim down your flowers to the correct height.  Don't be afraid to cut down your stems!  

The rest of the tables were really simple.   Either a centerpiece of balloons or a simple pail with one hydrangea.  I would say using balloons is an inexpensive way to decorate- but not if you are using helium! Filling a ton of balloons adds up.  I have been going to more ceiling decorations like lanterns and poofs because of the helium cost.  I constantly search the Target clearance section for lanterns because they are often there and marked way down.  

This year we went with cake and cupcakes for the seniors.  I love this little table.

For a little added bonus, here is a little bit of last years graduation party....

I try to change it up a bit every year with colors and the little details.  These little star balloons are from Oriental Trading company and the turquoise mason jars are from Target.

Decorating is one of my favorite things, its almost therapeutic for me and its all in the little details that make it special.  Hope you all have a great week!

PS - If you are looking for more decorating ideas here is another graduation party we did a few years back!

Senior Salute

Over the weekend, we had the privilege of honoring and recognizing a fantastic group of Seniors from our student ministry.  This weekend is always bitter sweet for us.  We have spent the last seven years getting to know this awesome group and it's hard to let them go.  We have cried with them, laughed with them, experienced God with them, worshipped with them, prayed with them and watched them grown into incredible young men and women of Christ.  Even though we will miss them being a part of our youth group, we are so excited to see how God works in their lives in the future!

Part of the festivities includes a lunch for all of the seniors and their families and friends.  The Junior class families always work so hard putting this event together.  Everything from wrapping gifts, decorating, setting up, serving the meal and clean up - they always make it a special day.  So, I wanted to share a few of the things we did, you know in case you have a graduation party looming in your near future.

The church always provides a gift for our graduating seniors but Justin and I like to leave them a little reminder of what they have learned while in youth group.  This year we focused a lot on being the light in the world and being the City on a hill: You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden -Matthew 5:14.  So, we got a little flashlight for each of them - the flashlights aren't anything fancy, just a little reminder.  We also wrote them a note of encouragement to continue shining their lights and being the City.

Thanks for letting me share a little bit of our weekend with you!  We've got the big Share Your Story series starting this Wednesday so make sure you check back in!!  Have a wonderful week!