Slumber Retreat

Last week I mentioned that I hosted a women’s retreat at the church the week prior. Well, I’m back today to reveal photos from it! The event went very well and we all had a great time. We wanted to do a retreat and decided to just hold it at the church so that we could keep the cost low for those attending. That meant that we all spent the night at the church! I called it a slumber retreat (slumber party + retreat). Two weeks ago, we all packed in our air mattresses, sleeping bags, and flashlights and headed to the church for an overnight stay.

Since it was a slumber party for women, I wanted the theme to be bright, colorful, and fun. The decor ideas all started with some plates and napkins that I saw at Target and it just went crazy from there. The following photos are from the main room where we ate and had our sessions.

It is really hard to get good photos in this room because there are no windows… so I just did my best :) We kept the tables set up the whole time for meals and teaching sessions.

See all of the confetti? I punched out four different sizes of circles with my punches in a bunch of different colors of cardstock. I punched so many circles that I actually developed 3 blisters! But they were worth it because it’s my favorite part of the table decor. And what is funny about it was it was totally an afterthought. I was ready to go to bed the night before and around 11:00 PM I had the idea for the confetti so I punched them all out. Sometimes last minute ideas are the best!

I am completely in love with the plates, napkins, and table cloths; all from Target. The neon plastic silverware are from the Dollar Tree but I don’t recommend them. They broke very easily. We had silverware pieces flying everywhere! But they look cute :) I guess that is the main point for me. Ha ha!

Each woman received a gift bag filled with things necessary for a sleep over like nail polish, a glow bracelet, journal, pens, ear plugs, and candy. They were really fun to assemble. I made the little journals for each one and I will have to post photos of those later because they turned out really cute.

The theme of the retreat was Dream Big. We explored what God’s dreams for us are. I created the dream wall using Frog Tape. The wall was supposed to say dream in large letters made from post it notes but we couldn’t get the post its to stick to the wall. Then we remembered that we had some frog tape in the storage room and we whipped it out. I actually like how this turned out better. Failed projects are always a failure :)

The idea behind the dream wall was for people to post God’s dreams for them on it with post it notes. We ended up having to tape them to the wall but it was really neat and I got to save all of the post its. I’m going to put them in a journal later.

Even the music stands got a little decor :)

You know how it is when you are at a party and you can’t remember which drink is yours? I put these stickers on the cups so we could write our name on them with no confusion :)

The food table. We had dinner, then dessert and snacks, and then breakfast the next morning laid out on this food table. I made the fringe garland from plastic table cloths purchased from Target using this tutorial. They were really easy and I love the way they turned out. For the garlands on the wall I used this tutorial. The tutorial calls for crepe paper but I had so much of the plastic table cloths left over that I used that instead which is why mine look a little different and aren’t so stiff. I still love how they turned out, and again, they were really easy and hardly took any time. I really wanted to keep them up for forever :)

I (along with some helpers) also made streamers for the tables. They are super cute and look ruffly. I used this tutorial for them. Man, I love Pinterest. It’s where most of these ideas came from. How would I plan a party without it?!

Obviously, this is a photo before there was any food on the table, but I labeled each item. I like to do this for people with allergies so they know what they are eating. Plus, it looks cute :) I used the neon post it notes to label everything. I found all of the cute bins from the dollar store and put the food in them. It made the table really colorful and plus, I can reuse them.

I’m thankful to the Lord for our little Dream Big Slumber Retreat and I’m glad it went so well. I’m already starting to think about the next one :) Don’t you just love parties?!