When I was in Young Women's growing up (teenage girls ages 12-18; learn about it here), every May we had this Mother-Daughter activity called Trousseau of Dreams. It was definitely one of the most looked-forward to and loved activity we had each year. The whole point of the activity was to focus on temple marriage and being sealed to our families for eternity. It was always an all-out sort of activity. Our leaders decorated the room with wedding dresses, and to look like a wedding reception. We had wedding cake for dessert. We had speakers, usually a recently married couple that we all knew, who would talk about preparing to enter the temple with their spouse. And then the mom's presented their daughters with a gift, which was intended for the daughter's wedding day or for her future home as wife/mother.
Needless to say, I loved this activity, and I still have great memories of it. Lucky for me, I got to share my first 5 years with my sister as well. Sometimes we were given the same gifts, and sometimes we were given things a bit more individualized. My senior year, my leaders cancelled the activity, and I was pretty disappointed.
This is my fourth time serving as a leader in the Young Women's program in all the different places I have lived since I graduated from high school. I sure do love being with the young women. I have loved my girls in each ward. I definitely feel a significant responsibility from Heavenly Father to help His daughters come closer to Him and to reach their full potential. Like I said, I've been a leader several times, but this was the first time I had thought to suggest re-creating the activity for the girls I serve. Lucky for me, the other members of the presidency that I serve with were very excited about the activity, and we even invited the other ward to join us. It was very exciting for me to share this with these sweet girls that I love.
I only snapped pictures of the decorations, but that is better than nothing. As far as the program went, I ended up singing a solo called "What Heaven Sees in You." Tho I enjoy singing, singing solos is definitely NOT my thing. When I first started practicing, I was very overcome with emotion and sobbed for quite some time, just thinking of these sweet girls and how much love Heavenly Father has for them. Thankfully, I got my cry out that first time through, and the rest of my rehearsal time was a bit more productive. On the night of the activity, I didn't get nervous until right before I stood up to sing. I had kinda forgotten all about the nerves part. Unfortunately, they kicked in more than I would have liked. So it wasn't my best performance. And as long as I didn't actually look at anyone while I was singing (because moms and daughters were already starting to cry), I held my emotions and it all went fine.
After that, the new 2nd counselor of our brand new Stake Presidency and his wife (who are in our neighboring ward) were our speakers. We didn't have any "newly married or sealed" couples to ask to speak, so we kinda went the opposite route; I believe they have been married 50 years or something like that. The wife shared some sweet love letters that they wrote back and forth. It was really cute!
Alright, that's enough words. Now here's some pictures of the decorations, which we followed a White and Gold theme for, plus the wedding and temple dresses of moms and leaders, and temple and wedding pictures from all of us as well.
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| Entry Arch |
Series of Wedding and Temple pictures along the stage,
plus the Activity Girls' painting of the Salt Lake Temple.
Back wall with wedding dresses
Opposite wall of stage with more wedding and temple dresses. We ran out of lights for the last one.
We had large temple pictures on either side
Tables and centerpieces. Similar but all a little bit different
Napkins, prior to one of the girls getting all pretty-display with the napkins, plates, and forks.
And finally, the cake.
Looking forward to *hopefully* continuing this tradition with these girls next year, and after that.
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