Blessed Beyond Measure: Hazel's Dedication: A Proverb's 31 Girl

Hazel's Dedication Invitation (Front)

Hazel's Dedication Invitation (Inside)

On Sunday, March 24th Hazel was dedicated to the Lord at our church. Our parents, Eric's brother, and my brother's family joined us for the service and the reception held at our house afterward...

Hazel talking to Grandma before the service.

For the dedication, the Youth Pastor (Pastor Eric) called our family up on the stage along with the family of another child to be dedicated. The boys were both pretty good up on stage, but Avery had a particularly tough time holding still and was more interested in waving to and pointing at everyone in the congregation.

When the dedication was over, we took a few family pictures in the church lobby before heading home.

Baby girl all dolled up! <3

When we were all done at church, everyone headed back to our place for a little lunch reception.

For anyone that has been following this blog, the fact that I was excited about hosting a party shouldn't come as a surprise. However, with three kids now I have little time for party preparations. Thus, I told Eric that I would be keeping it extremely low-key. For the boys, I hosted a simple party with some lamb decorations and homemade brunch. As I thought about Hazel's dedication party though I was reminded of Proverbs 31 and decided that there was no better theme for a baby girl's dedication reception. Not only that but the opportunity to throw a girly party was also a bit exciting to me, so while I still tried to keep things low-key, I am not entirely sure that I succeeded.

Proverbs 31: 10-31

The Woman Who Fears the Lord
10. An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.
11. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.
12. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.
13. She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands.
14. She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar.
15. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens.
16. She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
17. She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.
18. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night.
19. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.
20. She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.
21. She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.
22. She makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple.
23. Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.
24. She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant.
25. She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.
26. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:
29. “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.”
30. Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
31. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

For the decorations of the party, I wanted to keep things bright and cheery with a girly flair. Thus I stuck with traditional red and pink tones offset by some colorful 'bling' to highlight Proverbs 31:10. At the dining room table, I used a white tablecloth and some shiny red wrapping paper that I already had as a runner. Then I found some shiny hot pink and rose gold plates to set the table and wrapped the pink plasticware with a ring pop and some red ribbon. Then, I covered the table runner with some plastic jewels that I'd purchased from Hobby Lobby and some large paper gems that I'd cut out on my Silhouette Cameo and assembled myself. I also added a few colorful glass vases that I'd picked up at the dollar store with some cute paper flowers that I found at Joann Fabrics for the centerpiece.

Paper Gem Close-Up

At the dessert table, I used more glass vases from the Dollar Store with some lovely fake peonies from Joann's along with more plastic jewels and paper gems. I also added a couple of large tissue paper flowers that I found at the Dollar Store to the back wall.

At the back of the table, I covered some picture frames that I always have on this table with the same shiny red paper that I used as a runner and then laid another sheet of pink paper on top of that, followed by some flowery prints of verses from Proverbs 31. For the desserts themselves, I actually did keep things very simple and purchased a variety cheesecake and some bakery cookies from Meijer. The pink cookies were not a great hit, but they did look pretty on the table and added a splash of color. :)

Finally, I finished off the dessert table with candy gems (which I made by melting Jolly Ranchers into a silicone gem mold) and a wooden jewelry box that I purchased as a gift for Hazel. It came with a spot to replace the picture it came with (which was flowery with verses from Proverbs 31), so I chose a picture of our adorable baby girl and added some of the verses to it. As an added bit of perfection, the jewelry box is also a music box that plays You Are My Sunshine when opened, which is the perfect song for our Little Miss Sunshine and also a favorite song of my grandmother Hazel Piche, whom our baby girl was named after. <3

Like the desserts, I kept the food for the reception extremely simple as well. As mentioned above, for the boys' dedication parties we hosted a brunch and I made Paula Dean's Overnight French Toast and an Overnight Farmer's Casserole with cut up fruit and some pastries. While those are very tasty dishes and I love brunch, I realized that I had no time for that this time around. I went back and forth on the options but after talking with some friends, my mom and my mother-in-law, I ultimately decided that purchasing pre-made food was much easier and not much more expensive than making everything myself. Thus I bought a veggie tray from Sam's Club, some fruit that my mother-in-law cut up for me, some pinwheel sandwiches from Meier and then simply set out some chips and dip along with a salad that my mom made. It was a very simple but filling (and surprisingly healthy) meal.

Finally, I don't have any great pictures of this, but for drinks we simply offered pop, coffee and water along with some bottles of Sparkling Grape Juice that I thought paired with some plastic champagne glasses we already had would offer another surprise of girliness and also would be a fun, yet healthy drink for the kiddos (and myself...because I secretly LOVE Sparkling Grape Juice and used to have SGJ parties with my other alcohol-free friends in high school!).