YW New Beginnings: Bloom Where You are Planted

I realize that I talk A LOT about the young women program...

but I just can't help it.

The young women that I serve consume my thoughts, my prayers, so why not my blog?

Last night we held our annual New Beginnings program.

It was a huge success and thought I would share just a few ideas from the program and decorations.

As we were contemplating different themes this year for the New Beginnings program, 

the girls decided on the theme, 

"Bloom Where You are Planted."

I know I have said this on a number of occasions,

 but I am always so impressed with the youth and their creativity and submissiveness to the spirit. 

This year, they REALLY wanted to select a theme that coordinated with the mutual theme

("Stand Ye in Holy Places").

They thought about how when you plant a flower in good ground, 

that flower will not be moved, and will prosper and grow. 

We decided to decorate the gym with pastel colors and LOTS and LOTS of flowers.

All in all, it turned out really cute.

Below are a few close-ups and details from the night.

 I created these value tags to look like seed packets. 

My mother-in-law had a bunch of darling, colorful vases that she used at her daughters wedding.

We used the vases to hold the value tags that I created.

They turned out really cute and were SUPER easy to make.

We used some old painted doors as a backdrop. 

During the program, one of our young women created a slideshow 

with cute pictures of the girls at different activities, youth conference, and girls camp. 

It was a great addition to the program and way to highlight one of our young women's talents.

We also used a bunch of white frames to decorate the tables.

I created a few graphics to put in the frames that coordinated to the colors and theme.

 In preparation for New Beginnings, we created a bunch of flowers during mutual.

The girls made a bunch of "fan" floors that we used to decorate the doors.

They were SUPER cute and added a lot of color to the backdrops.

They also created a bunch of tissue flowers to fill the various vases.

 Another one of my favorite things that we did was created a close line with ribbon.

We pinned up a bunch of cute pictures of the girls.

For the refreshments, we served sugar cookies in the shape of flowers.

 I took a brief moment during the program to share my love for the girls and share my testimony.

I mentioned how in order to "bloom" we must nourish our testimonies and relationship with the Savior.

I challenged the girls to "rise" and "stand".... 

AND, not only be planted, but "BLOOM" spiritually through prayer, 

studying the book of mormon, and staying close to the spirit.

 We added some cute chinese lanterns to line the stage.

It added a lot of color and looked really fun under the projector.

 Finally, one of my favorite things that the girls decided to do was introduce the upcoming young women.

Each girl was assigned to a "new beehive" and were responsible to learn about them.

During the program, the girls stood up with their "new beehive" and introduced them.

It was fun listening to the girls talk about each other and share fun facts.

After introducing their new friend,

 the young women presented the upcoming beehive with a Gerber daisy and  welcome note.

Feel free to use and share any ideas and leave comments!

For downloads of the prints used for the event, 

click here!