The Campaign Trail: Vote for Excellence

At the close of every year we put on a program for the young women to show off the personal progress goals they've been working on. Every year it's a panic. Girls are furiously making things (because face it...they procrastinate) and the adults are desperately trying to find a theme and program agenda that includes as little work as possible.

I sat down to brainstorm and a patriotic/voting theme seemed quite appropriate this year, super easy too. So I whipped up an outline complete with decoration, invitation, speech, dessert, and program suggestions. I presented the idea to the president, she said yes, and everything was a go!

Above: The invitation. I designed the center "vote button" and we had the girls cut them out and add embellishments.

Guests were asked to dress patriotically...and you know I have nothing red, white, or blue in my closet? I ended up wearing a white shirt and tie of Adam's. He did a nice job dressing me don't you think? The bishop told me I should run for office. I guess people take you more seriously in a shirt and tie.

We served red, white, and blue cupcakes—I did the white ones which were lemon sponge cake with lemon curd filling and a buttery cream cheese frosting; all from scratch. So delicious. (The torch is the young women logo. It worked perfectly on these little flags.)

Our president had access to her parent's stash of office decorations. Now that's the way to go. We didn't have to spend much of our budget. Heck, I even have a large (casket size) American Flag that we hung on  the wall behind the desserts. And I learned a new word: bunting. Everything looked awesome!

As a finale we planned a slideshow of the girls "On the Campaign Trail"—photos of them throughout the year. (I spent SIX hours on it and we couldn't get it to play. Blarg! A disappointment...but hey— no party goes without a hitch.)

If you would like to use this theme: I have made the outline, invitation, and flag files available here.