Ladies Spring Conference

Working with the other ladies on the women's ministry team to pull this event off took a lot of time, meetings and preparations. But I'm so thankful I got to be a part of such a great night! And it was a good chance for me to get to know some other ladies in our church that I don't normally bump shoulders with. Our team leader, Kris, was always so calm and gracefully was able to keep those of us working right on track. 

I brought the chalkboard sign from home...you may recognize it?

The silverware was wrapped in floral napkins, a doily, and some raffia.

I found half of the bird cages from a combination of Hobby Lobby and Michael's (I got them all for 50% off). The other half were borrowed from willing ladies in the area. Most of the bird cages sat on cake stands (all of those were borrowed as well).  The fake greenery was all from Michale's. I bought about 10 bunches and cut them apart to use around the cages and had leftover to use for the stage decorations. The paper birds were cut out of double sided card stock (bought from HL) using a Cricut I borrowed from my MIL. Cutting out all those birds was not my favorite part....very time-consuming but I really wanted a lot of them, so it was worth it. I loved how each centerpiece was completely different from the next!

We had close to 150 ladies sign up for the event, so we set up enough tables to seat 160, but ended up having about 3 empty tables. It's better to over-estimate than under-estimate, and we guessed pretty well!

Greg's brother, Curtis, is one of the best chef's I know, and he and his team made this amazing Carribean themed menu. It was absolutely delish!

Our speaker for the evening is the author of both of these books. She primarily talked out of the book titled, "Shame Lifter".

Don't get me started on how good these desserts were either. You know it's a ladies conference when the line for the dessert table stretches across the whole length of the room!

I found the idea to make potted tree branches HERE. It was a very easy process and I loved that it filled the stage adequately for not a lot of work. The white pillars were sitting in a storage room at church (they mostly use them for weddings) but they were the perfect perch for 2 larger bird cages.

Our speaker, Marilyn Hontz is the pastor's wife of another church in our area. She was so down-to-earth, yet her message was able to reach almost every woman in a different way. Loved everything about what she said.

Kris was our official MC, and gracious women's ministry leader.

We gave away some fun door prizes at the end of the talk including 5 tiny bird necklaces that look like this...

as well as one of the larger bird cages on stage!

drummmrollllll please...........

Our bird cage winner! (Doesn't her outfit go so well with the cage?)

Lisa (on the left), brought her awesome camera and took all the pics for the event. Thanks to her I have a documented blog as well. :)

We made a craft at the end of the night. People brought photos from home (or we provided scrapbook paper if people forgot or wanted a different option) and were used to make a set of 4 tile coasters. They simply mod podged the photos to the tiles and then we set them in the sanctuary to dry for a week.

I'm telling you, those were the yummiest cookies ever!

And just when we thought the night couldn't get any better, Lisa and her camera made her way over to some commotion down the hall only to discover a young couple in our church had just gotten engaged! They stopped by church to tell both of their mothers (since they knew they were at the conference together). There was shock, and laughter, and crying and praising God. 

I'm partial to this story b/c the gentleman you see pictured above on the left  is Greg's cousin. So we are excited to welcome Lindsey into the Mulder family soon! (There are a LOT of us Mulder's that attend the same church).

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Thanks for making it to the bottom of this post. Geesh! But that's what the blog is for right? To record and remember :)

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I'll be posting my beach party tomorrow, so come back okie dokie?