Since the theme for this year is "Stand Ye in Holy Places", we decided that "Aspire Higher" could be our theme. We took part of the word Aspire and talked about the "Spires" on the temple. We decorated the room all white. The walls were covered with white plastic covers, which we got at "Party City". (The plastic table covers are on rolls.) We took white Christmas lights and placed them on the floor behind the white cover, which made the floor light up and look like a cloud. We placed a beautiful picture of the temple in front of the room. The room looked like a celestial room in the temple.

For the presentation part, we took a balloon (white balloon) filled with helium and tied a piece of paper which had a word that described some sort of temptation or sin that "weighs us down". To make the balloon "weigh" down, we tied a little bell onto the piece of paper. The balloon of course fell to the ground. We went around the room and asked each girl to untie a piece of paper off the balloon and read the word out loud. One paper at a time helped the balloon float higher and higher until finally when all the pieces of paper were off the balloon, the balloon flew to the ceiling. It was a great object lesson for the girls. The got to see how sins and temptations weigh us down.

We also talked about the air in the balloon. If we put our own air into the balloon, the balloon will not float. But if we use special sort of chemical called "HELIUM", the balloon can aspire. We talked about the word "helium" meaning "HE-LIft-sUM".

We gave each girl a white balloon with a little note tied onto it reminding them to "Aspire Higher".

We took the "Temple Hanger" idea we found on the Young Women's Connection website. And gave each girl a hanger to take home and put in her closet. For another decoration we had a Young Women leader bring her wedding dress and lay it out for the girls to see. All the leaders participated in bringing their own wedding day picture to display around the room.

The refreshments were a white wedding cake of course. A very, very, very simple white wedding cake.

(Note from YW Connection:  You might also consider a Testimony Launch)

SYIHP