10 things we learned from "Out of the Nest!"
It's been a full week since Out of the Nest, so it is time for a quick recap!
About 180 people, including us hens, sponsors and musicians, gathered last Friday night at the Grace Center downtown Milwaukee, WI for a fun filled evening of fellowship.
We enjoyed six different hors d'oeurvres (there were six in case you missed that!), had a little wine, and mingled the night away.
We enjoyed listening to Mel, who shared a few laughs, gave a little advice, and reminded us that we are daughters of the King.
We soaked in the sounds of The Lutheran Ceili Orchestra and Amanda's very own song, Hope & Fire.
We ended up with two pack and plays overfilled with donations along with $500+ from ticket sales and donations that all went to New Beginnings, a home for single mothers!
Sarah from Fresh Frame Photography was a gem to photograph the entire evening and put together a fabulous photo booth. You can download pictures of you and your friends here.
The night was overall a great success! You guys were essentially our guinea pigs this year, and we were a little nervous about how it would go. We more than appreciate everyone who came to join us.
We are so grateful for all the sponsors and their generosity as well.
We learned a lot and have some tweaks for future events so they can be even better!
Experiences like these lend themselves to be educational, so I figured why not share with you:
10 Things We Learned from "Out of the Nest!"
- We hens are chatty! I guess we didn't just learn this but it was definitely displayed in our many preparations for this night out. It was not uncommon to find 30 some comments on a thread in our Facebook group (we use that to stay on top of communication, brain storm, share documents, etc.)!
- We can plan for more people! We originally were shooting for 75 guests for Out of the Nest! You BLEW US AWAY! We sold 160 tickets, and we had to stop because we were out of room!
- We were all able to glorify God with our voices. It doesn't matter if we sounded more like cackling hens or singing song birds, God heard us all.
- Many of us had the pleasure of relearning the muscles that are used for wearing high heels. Ouch! (It was worth it.)
- We have a great bunch of husbands to put up with us for all of the planning, preparations, and for actually attending Out of the Nest.
- In a room full of 180 women, we have to keep an eye on the toilet paper!
- We have yet to learn (which we learned the hard way) an efficient way to cut out 2,500 tiny paper circles...
- God is awesome! If you would have told us ladies sitting on the floor in Amanda's living room over two years ago how much we would grow, well, I think we would have been shocked. God rocks our socks off!
- Even with "mommy wars" running rampant these days, we were able to have a night of unity and support for each other without all the drama!
- This absolutely needs to happen more often!
From the bottom of our hearts, thanks! Thanks for the support, your kind words and compliments, and the motivation for this unique ministry.
