Modest is Hottest

This was a two part project that one of our Laurels did for her Choice and Accountability value project. It was FANTASTIC!!

Part One: photo shoot

Invitations were given to all the young women to come and bring any great fancy dresses, or vintage clothes or anything fun to wear that was modest. We also brought lots of accessories: jewelry, shoes, bags, scarves, gloves, and props like fans, umbrellas etc...

We had some photographers from the ward come in and shoot the pictures, (we had three photographers there, and two were professionals.) We set up in the Cultural Hall. The photographers had the big white fabric background set up along with their professional lighting equipment. We also had a fan, for that windblown look. It looked so great.

The girls also had a "dressing room" set up in the other part of the hall. We grabbed the coat rack to hang all the clothes on. We had a big table set up with mirrors for hair and makeup. There was a full length mirror and tables with the accessories. And they made a little changing room with the rolling chalkboards draped with fabric.

The clothes were awesome. She wanted more of a fancy to fantasy type of show, so we had some great old prom dresses and oriental costmes, a wedding dress, and some great 80's sequined stuff. Some of the dresses were kind of victorian, some looked like they were from the music man. And there were lots of really pretty fancy dresses too. We even had a hippy outfit.

Each girl got to get their picture taken with about 3 outfits. During the whole thing we had some fun pop music playing in the background that she had selected. (I'm Walking on Sunshine, and other fun songs) Many of the girls said that this was the funnest thing they had ever done, it was truly a blast.


Part two: the slide show

Last night was part two. Again we had invitations for this night, and the young womens Moms were invited along with the 8-11 year old girls and their Moms. Everyone was asked to bring a treat to share for refreshments.

She had the projector and screen set up and connected to the computer. The night started with the presentation of the photo shoot. The pictures were compiled into a slide show and she played the same music along with it. The pictures were fabulous.

After the show, the Stake Young Womens president give a talk on modesty. She compared the look of the temple to the look of a Casino, and talked about how outward appearance depicts what is going on inside.

Then a Mom give an object lesson on modesty. She had the same idea and took a picture of the temple and said what if we wanted to get more people there, would we put all these flashing lights and signs all around it? (she added a bunch of crazy signs to the picture) She showed that we don't need to draw crazy attention to ourselves by dressing immodestly, and our inner beauty will always be all we need.

Next up was dressing for your body type tips. Myself and the YW president went through some printouts that our Laurel had compiled about what types of bodies we might have and the best clothes to wear for each type. We also went over some basic fashion tips.

Then one of the Laurels bore her testimony on dressing modestly and then our Laurel in charge talked about what boys think. She had previously asked the older young men in our ward to write down what they thought about girls modesty. She read their answers and they all were pro-modesty. She then bore her testimony on how Modest is Hottest!

We closed the meeting and ate all the yummy goodies.

Each girl got a handout of the YM responses and the fashion tips. And each YW got a cd of all the pictures. (I loved this, because there are some AWESOME shots, and my daughter was in it too!)

This activity is one of my all-time favorites too, and one the girls will always remember!