I know I missed posting to the blog last week, but here’s why: Prominent Night.
Each year, our church, First Pentecostal Church of Jackson, hosts a formal affair for the high school seniors. The annual event began in 1989 under the direction of Rev. David Reever, who was the church’s first youth pastor!
By the way, they were doing balloon arches back then, in case you thought those were a new thing.
My daughter is one of eight graduates this year. We popped up a photo backdrop frame that I’d purchased for child #1 three years ago, used a plain black backdrop cloth that I’d purchased for child #2 last year, and displayed poster-sized prints from her senior photo session with the illustrious Lexi Hales of Lexi Drew Media.
My one big splurge was an antique French leather suitcase that I found at a local craft fair a few weeks ago. My sister made the glitter monogram that is nestled in the fern in the suitcase.
My daughter’s big deals are books and Bible Quizzing. We artfully arranged a variety of her favorite (and prettiest) books and put her BQ tournament ribbons in plastic apothecary jars from Michael’s.
As a graduation gift, I bought a turquoise KJV journal Bible on Amazon and highlighted all the verses that she’s memorized through Bible Quizzing. It’s been her favorite gift so far.
I used one of Mixbook’s graduation templates to create a personalized yearbook for her, which includes the story of her journey from Pre-school to Graduation. It’s the third time I’ve used Mixbook’s templates, and I was so happy with the results!
We tried to encourage visitors to the table to sign the book by providing pens wrapped in her book-made roses.
The pièce de résistance was hubby’s grandmother’s pink velvet chair, the perfect reading spot–and posing spot, evidently.
As the mama of one of a large senior class of homeschoolers, I’ve heard a lot of hubbub amongst the moms about how to create a worthy table. The examples on Pinterest just don’t even compare to the ones created at FPC Jackson! I’ve included a few more below just to show you what I mean!
After hors d’ourves and browsing the tables, attendees are ushered into the tastefully decorated fellowship hall for an amazing (Mama Sharon) meal served by our youth staff.
After all that, the highlight of the evening: each of the seniors make their way to the podium and give speeches that are sometimes laugh-out-loud silly, deeply emotional, and sometimes just very frank.
We are blessed to have such a caring church family to ceremonialize and celebrate the achievements of its high school seniors!
