A Grown Up Birthday Party

Last week the local Relief Society (women's organization) of my church celebrated its birthday (actually later this month it turns 170 years old!) and I was asked to decorate... happy dance!

I didn't get a ton of great pictures, but I thought I would quickly share what I did (with a small budget too)!

I pretty much had free reign as far as themes go, so I decided to go with simple, bright and colorful (while trying to avoid making it feel too much like a 3rd grade birthday party).

The majority of my budget went towards purchasing round vinyl tablecloths- why are those so much more expensive than rectangular tablecloths?!  We put contrasting tissue paper on top of the tablecloth, then filled mason jars with colorful tissue flowers. See how to make tissue paper flowers here (this is the approximate method I used).

I printed out "Charity Never Faileth" motto place cards which were then embellished with paper flowers.  I downloaded the free word art graphic here.

We had a soup buffet, and there were some amazing soups!  (Think clam chowder, chicken tortilla soup, taco soup, tuscan chicken soup, pumpkin soup, creamy tomato with tortellini.... Yes, I had like 5 bowls, thanks.)  We hung my reusable ruffled streamers on the walls and around the food tables.  Find the tutorial for ruffled streamers here.

Of course we had birthday cake (I'm sad I didn't get a picture of the cake.  I'm terrible at remembering to take photos at events like this.  I never even think of it most of the time. Wah.).

Besides the table cloths, I think I only spent about $2-3 because I used things I already had (i.e. I'm kind of a packrat and I save used pieces of giftwrap tissue for projects- perfect for these flowers!)

I just have to say that I love being a part of the Relief Society.  I am grateful for so many women who have become role models, sisters, and friends.  Yay for Relief Society!