Saturday Night Live: Fiesta Night

Our Saturday Night Services for five weeks are having post-service events. We're calling this series "Saturday Night Live." For five weeks in a row, we are creating a casual, comfortable environment with food, music, kids' activities, and program elements to help people develop relationships, enjoy hanging out, and have a great experience at church. Plus, lots of people from our community come and even attend our service (sometimes first time people come to church ever!). Each week has a different theme. Our first one was a fiesta night.Hannah Shin, our volunteer designer, created some killer graphics for all of our events. One was the overall graphic that we used initially to communicate the entire series of events.This was created into a backdrop for behind the stage, printed on coroplast.Each night also has a specific look. The fiesta one looked so happy and fun.Decor is huge for our experiences. I'm reading a book right now, The Experience: The 5 Principles of Disney Service and Relationship Excellence. Fascinating book. It says, "…83% of human experiential learning is derived from sight. The 17% is derived through other senses." If we put all this time into food, music, and activities but do nothing with decor, we are decreasing the overall impact of the event in a huge way!We are so blessed to have Caroline Cervantes, a professional event coordinator, putting in her amazing skills to make these events over the top. She excels at decor and this event was a great example. Our high top tables had really cute cactus centerpieces. They were made of paper and propped up in bowls with rocks.So cute!The team cut pieces of tissue paper and put them on a wall to create a photo opp. The paper was also put along our stage (see picture above).We have created generic signs as backdrops.  Then we print out 11x17 sheets of paper as signs that we just tape on the backdrops. There were signs everywhere so people knew exactly what the different zones were for.The tables looks great too. Food just looks so much better when it is put on different levels. Wooden crates can be flipped upside down and dishes placed on top. I love how Caroline got pinatas and used different pieces of tissue paper to add color.She also got little picture frames that sit on the table and hold little signs.Here they are setting up the dessert table.Every event also has a children's activity. This one was to make little sombreros. So creative and fun!The table had various supplies for kids to experiment. The sombreros were made of paper cups, plates, and decorations.We had a face painting table as well, and kids enjoyed going to get their faces decorated.On the stage, a live salsa band played. They were super! Later there were salsa lessons and the lobby was full of dancing people. We are really blessed with a salsa ministry that meets every Saturday night after our service. It has really grown and I can totally see why. Everyone looks like they are having such a good time!