Young Women in Excellence Shine your Light

Fabulous ideas for a special “Shine your Light” themed Young Women in Excellence. Post may contain affiliate links.

This event took place almost a year ago, the week following Thanksgiving. At that point, Christmas festivities were well underway and all the fun and craziness that comes with that! Then the new year came around and then baby was coming… Anyways, it was pushed to the back of the “to post” list, for good reason. 🙂 

So sorry this post is LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG overdue!

Shortly after we moved, I was asked to serve as an advisor in our church‘s Young Womens (group of 12-18 year old girls). I was super excited about this and very humbled after quickly learning what a stellar group of girls I would be privileged to work with!

A week or so in, I was invited to a planning meeting for “Young Women in Excellence”, an event they throw once a year to showcase the girls’ accomplishments in the Young Womens’ program.

Shine Your Light Outline

We decided to go with the theme “Shine your Light” and somehow I volunteered for taking care of the dessert table and the value table. 🙃 More on that later!

The program consisted of each of the girls sharing a project they had completed the past year and then receiving awards they had earned.

To open the evening, one of our leaders spoke on the importance of “sharing your light.” Following her remarks, we went through each of the values. A Laurel would introduce one of the values, like “Divine Nature” and then share a few personal thoughts on that value. All the girls who had worked on that value would then come up to the podium in turn to talk about the project she had finished.

After we went through all eight values, each of the girls took one of the balloons from their table. They brainstormed, with their parents, a goal they had for the upcoming year and wrote it on the balloon with a sharpie. Then they went outside running through a line of their parents with sparklers to release the balloons. They thoroughly enjoyed this part and ran through several times.

Values Table

To showcase the young women’s projects, I found these lovely young women value posters that I had framed and spaced apart on the table. Each young women would be sharing a project she had worked on, so I had each girl’s name in a frame. She then would place her name, along with her project, next to the value she had accomplished.

Our Laurel group, the 16-18 year old girls, were also involved in the planning meeting. They all voiced their desire to make the night extra special by having everything look really nice. These girls are amazing and were very eager to help. They suggested everyone bring a dessert and we could use different colored plastic table clothes.

As mentioned earlier, I was the new kid so no one really knew about my affinity for throwing parties. I certainly didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes and come across snobbish, but I really wanted them to think a little bit grander for this type of event so I interceded with my two cents by asking the question,

“You want this to look nice, right?”

I know I should have been a little more tactful! I just couldn’t bare the thought of seeing a table full of mismatched paper plates all filled, most likely, with chocolate chip cookies!!! Especially for an evening as special as celebrating their personal achievements.

So we started a brainstorming session on how to make this a more classy affair. 🙂

Shine your Light Gold & White Dessert Table

Onto my favorite part . . . the dessert table!

Keeping with the Shine your Light theme, the color scheme for the night was gold and white. Let’s just say, wrapping paper was definitely my friend! For the dessert backdrop, we tacked up this gold polka dot wrapping paper and reused the globe lights I had used in my BBQ party. Unfortunately, the cord of the lights was green but thanks to a little gold spray paint, that problem was fixed!

We dolled up the table with pretty serving dishes and used gold wrapping paper to cover a few boxes to give some needed height.

Mmmmm… these white chocolate covered truffles!!! They have been distracting me the entire time I have been constructing this post! I have been so tempted to stop everything to go make them! Although they don’t look perfect, they taste divine! They’re fairly easy to make and add a bit of fun and fancy to any treat table.     

To add a healthier option and a splash of color, we added fresh fruit which is always a fan favorite.

The girls came dressed in Sunday Best, along with their parents, which enhanced the ambiance. Everyone had a good time celebrating these wonderful girls and the amazing things they do!

Funny thing, I just received an email yesterday about the planning meeting for this year’s Young Women in Excellence. Hopefully I’ll get it posted sooner this time. 😉

Oh any good ideas for a theme???