I am on an event planning team at my church SeaCoast Grace and for the past 4 months, me and a fantastic group of women have been planning a women’s event called {beYOUtiful}. Our event was meant to encourage women to be who God made them to be… not compare themselves to others… and love the ones around them for who they are. Ephesians 1:4 says, “Long before he laid down the earth’s foundations, He had YOU in mind, had settled on YOU as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by his love”. I believe that God made each one of us with a specific purpose… and I hope that after this special event women felt inspired to look inside and truly embrace the beauty that God created inside of them. Here was our flyer for the event…

It was a night filled with hope, inspiration, laughter, and yummy cupcakes! …ohh yeah, and of course my Dad’s wonderful photobooth; Shutter Nonsense.

We welcomed everyone with sparkling lemonade and little snacks served by our handsome husbands… unfortunately no pictures of that because my handsome husband is also my handsome photographer… thanks for serving Boo.

All of our beautiful decorations were leant to us by our planning team member Jaymi, who just got married two months ago! It was ALL from her wedding… her wedding that I will be blogging about in a month or two :)

Jaymi, her mom, and sister-in-law spent a year collecting and making all these fabulous vintage finds!

As women walked into the sanctuary they were handed muslin gift bags hand stamped with our logo. Inside they had chocolates, personalized pens, and a special craft for later. We had a rubber stamp made for us from Paper Cut Industries – they will make any type of stamp you want… I’m having a ‘Something Turquoise’ stamp made for me! Our muslin bags were from MuslinBag.com.

Yes, that is me up there speaking to over 250 women… welcoming them to our special event.

Our candle lit stage glowed beautifully through the evening as we listened to wonderful music by Andrea Hamilton.

Our guest speaker for the night was the amazing Bianca Juarez-Olthoff… a woman who loves God and is committed to speaking truth when it hurts, loving when it’s hard, and living Life out loud for the world to see. Currently she is chief story teller of The A21 Campaign, whose goal is to abolish human trafficking.

Everyone had a blast with the photobooth! For the background, we started with a professional white seamless paper background from Samy’s Camera. Using ModPodge Paper Glue we layered different old book pages until it covered our background. To avoid molding, it was set in the sun to dry for a few hours… then we hung burlap curtains on each side.

When our guests walked back outside for the end of the event… they were greeted by the gorgeous vintage cupcake trailer from Enjoy Cupcakes!

Ohh the cupcakes! Chocolate Caramel and Triple Vanilla… they were scrumptious!

Our lemonade stands were hand built by the insanely talented Vivienne from The Viv-Spot.

Our craft for the evening was decorating a clothespin… we had stamps, crystals, and ribbon of all kinds to adorn your clothespin with. Ahead of time, we glued magnets on the back of each clothespin so that after decorated, the women could place it on their fridge to hold a photo from the event and a special note that Bianca had each woman write to themselves.

Thanks to my fabulous planning team: Vivienne, Betsy, Christin, Jaymi, and Linda + Jack Sheets.

I hope that from this event you will be inspired to not only be you… but to love the women around you for who they are – not who you want them to be! I also hope you get inspired by all our fun decor and event elements!