The Launch Party: Preparations and Mission Completion!
Preparation for the launch party started several weeks early, and "the team" worked really hard to help out! I had a vision in my head for what I wanted to do for table centerpieces, and it all started with making tiny flags! 168 of them to be precise. Using all the flags from the books, I printed out the flags on cardstock, and we glued them around skewers that I cut to size using pruning shears.
The idea was to make a bouquet of Mary's and flags instead of flowers. We decorated some canning jars with lace and material, put some floral foam in the top, and then inserted the 28 flags. We chose the 5 Mary's from the front cover, and elevated their country flags a little to associate them with the Mary's.
Overall, I was very pleased with how they turned out, and my oldest daughter enjoyed helping me glue the flags and poke them through the foam.
Next, we focused on banners. We didn't end up using all the banners since we ran out of time to hang them up, but we still used several. Making them was very easy. I printed capital and lowercase letters on colored card stock and cut them to shape before glueing them onto twine with hot glue. We repeated the same process with a couple banners for country flags.
Since our venue was going to be downtown at a park that people could walk by, I wanted to get a sign up a few days before to increase the amount of attention drawn to our event. I spent a morning painting my kiddos' hands sooo many different colors and let them put handprints all over an old canvas curtain. Once there was no more white space, I drew a book (don't laugh at the mismatched proportions...I'm an author not an artist!) with the event name, date, and time. The kids helped me hang it at the event on the iron fencing just outside the park.
What made it even more special was that my great-grandfather welded these iron fences together for the city along with the trashcans in the park.
Decor taken care of, I turned my attention to the giveaways. There were 6 opportunities for guests to win free stuff! I did a Mary bingo featuring the Mary images in the book along with a fun "match the country name to the country map" challenge. It was fun seeing parents just as bad at geography as me! I also had two stations where kids could vote for which Mary or which country flag didn't make it into the book. (Those smart cookies compared the pictures to the challenges to find the ones missing!) I also designed, printed, and cut entry cards for three of the give-aways.
One particular day, the kids brought in a little box turtle they found on our morning walk to the mailbox. Shelly the "Shell-o-saurus" zoomed across the table and was an excellent manager making sure I cut everything properly. (We also learned how to tell male from female turtles...Shelly turned out to be a girl!) St. Francis, Pray for Us!
Lastly, I was going to do a giveaway with entires given for making purchases and entries given for posing in front of our banner to give us images to use for our social media pages. Which meant I needed to paint a VERY large Earth.
My oldest two kiddos had a great time painting the Earth with me. It turned into a great art lesson talking about depth and blending, but mostly it was just fun for them!
All the painting inspired the little artist in our family, and she painted her own earth to decorate the party venue.
With decorations done, I turned my attention to products. I wanted to offer more than just the books. My hope was having more products on the website would draw more attention to the books. I designed and ordered stickers knowing that all kids LOVE stickers. The Mary images came straight out of the book and make a perfect book companion!
I also thought it might be fun for parents to have prayer cards with some of these beautiful illustrations. Using the Mary images, I designed and ordered prayer cards from the seven most well known Mary titles from the book--Our Lady Undoer of Knots, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Our Lady of Good Help, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Mercy, Our Lady of Lourdes, and Our Lady of Fatima.
We printed them as postcards so when they came in, the team and I got to work cutting 700 postcards in half. In addition to selling them separately, I wanted to give customers the option to buy them as a set, so we made about 50 sets of 7.
Lastly, once the books came in, we asked our local priest--Father Edwin--to come over and bless the books for you all!
Then the day of the launch, we put all of our hardworking on display!
We had a display to get to know the author and illustrator along with more information about GravissiMum, upcoming projects, and gave parents and kids a chance to vote on which book we should publish next!
In addition to all that prep work, all the purchases we made (including 300 mini bubble wants and a 260 set of chalk), I made about 12 dozen cookies for the party. Although not pictured, I ended up waiting 10 smaller earths to serve as center pieces on white plastic table cloths. On the eating tables, we centered the Mary centerpieces along with some signs about the business. On the kids drawing tables, we put buckets full of bubbles and sprinkled abc stickers around the earth.
Kids drew Earths, parents made hopscotch paths for their kids, and some kids even tried to draw Mary's from the book!
(Our Lady of Cuapa)
I also purchased face paint and gave kids the option of drawing the first letter of their name on their face or on their hands.
It was a little hot and we didn't have that many people come, sadly, but the music was fun, the cookies were delicious, the company was great, and the kids seemed like they had a blast!
Once again, I want to express my sincere, sincere thanks for everyone that came to support our growing business. We are passionate about helping kids grow in their faith, and we know you are, too!
We have another event in the works with a tentative date in August at an undisclosed location in Lexington. It'll be a lot more laid-back but still give you all a chance to come out and celebrate the launch of this new and wonderful book. Already, we've heard from several of you that your children adore reading the book and getting to know Mary even more. There is something so precious about bringing our children to the arms of our mother knowing she is going to lead them to her Son!
If you haven't done so already, check out ABC: Where is Mary?, the Mary Around the World stickers, and all the prayer cards we now offer in our shop! We can't wait to meet more of you in the future, and we will pray for you and your families everyday!
Pax Domini cum spirito tuo semper sit.
