Whether you have a girlie girl or not (like mine), a backyard full of little girls in pretty dresses with pastel hats and a table full of nicely decorated desserts is an event no one will pass up. So, when it was time for me to plan a party for my little girl in the spring time, I just had to do a tea party theme.
Budget
The first thing you’ll need to do is set the budget. I had a moderate to low budget, however, you can go as extravagant as you want. I already had a tent ($120), so I just had to order chivalry chairs from a local party rental (at $2 a chair) and a table cover for my 8ft long table and some decorations from oriental trading. We also spent about $30 in accessories for the photo booth but those accessories have been reused more times than I can count in our dress up area.
We used most things from around the house and added in some diys for a total budget of less than $500, which honestly is pretty cheap considering all the fun everyone had. So, set a reasonable budget and stick to it. One thing I would recommend, which we didn’t at that time (but would totally do it if I do this again), is to hire party help, especially if you plan to do most of the work yourself.
Guest List
Before we even discuss venue, Let’s talk about the guest list. Decide whether the event will be a girl’s only, mother-daughter event or a full family affair. We chose to do go with a mother- daughter event. This seemed the most reasonable for the age group I was working with since at the time of the event, I was caring for a toddler as well. Give out your invitation atleast two weeks in advance. If you are hosting it in your backyard, most weather channels will give you a tentative weather schedule for a 2-week span so you will have an idea of what to expect. Our weather was supposed to be clear then on the day of it showed heavy showers but thankfully we ended up with having just light drizzling before the guests arrived and heavy showers late in the evening.
This was a simple DIY invitation. Trace and cut out a teapot on floral scrapbook paper. Cut the lid portion of the pot so it is detached from the rest of the pot. Glue down all sides except where the invite will be inserted. The text of the invite is printed on a sheet of card stock and cut to the shape of a teabag. Measure and cut so that the entire tea bag fits in the pot. One end of the tea bag insert is glued to the back of the lid. Add a small rhinestone to the top of the lid and insert the invite into the pot.
Venue
Based on your budget and guest list, decide what venue would work best. You can do it inside your home, in your backyard, at a local community hall or if you are going for a grand affair, you may even consider a full service banquet facility.
Decorations
Here’s where the fun begins. Decide how much your much of your budget you want on food and how much to allocate for decor. A simple tea party would just include some nice dishes and a tea set, that’s it. But you could certainly do more by adding in a nice tablescape, some flowers, fancy chairs, fancy linen, etc etc. here are some ideas of what I did.
The main focus was the kids table with spring tea hats (from dollar tree) resting on the chairs for each of our guests to enjoy and take home. At the center of the table ran a white floral printed table runner and DIY mini cake stands made by gluing and then spray painting a dollar tree candle stand and candle plate. Each place setting has a 9″ pink floral paper plate with a matching pink floral napkin on top and finally a kid sized porcelain tea cup and saucer. A spoon rested to the right of the plate weaved in to a tea cup cut out. Also on the right side of the plate was a glass milk jug with a green striped paper straw. The front of the milk jug was customized with a label.
The mom’s table was a little simpler with a golden charger, 9 inch paper plates, the matching floral pink napkin, and a floral porcelain tea cup and saucer. Three small round glass vase with fresh cut flowers yellow and pink carnations were used as centerpieces for this table.
Above the tables hung three upside down parasols of pastel colors.
On the white fence was a backdrop made of paper fans of various sizes and colors. Next to the backdrop, stood a DIY cart with props for photographs.
Menu/Food
Now, let’s discuss the heart of all gatherings, the food. Tea parties are known for their delicate pastries, desserts and finger sandwiches. So, for this party, I kept the food choices exactly that. Since the event was timed after lunch but before dinner, serving a proper meal was not necessary.
Here’s a suggestive menu: 2-3 types of finger sandwiches, 1-2 types of tea cakes, and 1-2 types of pastries, cookies or scones.
For this party, I served everything homemade, except for the scones. Here’s what was on our menu: tuna, chicken & cucumber sandwiches, chocolate mouse cups, salted caramel macarons, lemon Madeline’s, mini vanilla cupcakes with a Swiss merengue vanilla buttercream, chocolate dipped tea bag shaped shortbread cookies, rose shaped tea cake, fruit tart and of course blueberry scones.
Since this occasion calls for it, be sure to invest some time in presentation. You can make DIY tiered stands to serve your treats. Check out the stand tutorial here.
The Drink Station
No tea party is complete with tea. So, here’s what our drink/tea station looked like. There apple juice in fancy floral tea pots for the kids and this cart (I used one of the writing desks from our home office for this purpose) was mainly for the adults.
Although, some of the kids found their way here and used the sugar stick and the honey stick as lollipops. Haha. Kids will kids. So, if you plan to keep those- have extras. The Drinks menu included: Pink lemonade, Apple juice, Iced tea, Indian chai, mint & lemon infused water and a pot of boiled hot water for making your own tea. In a wooden tray on one end of the table was a variety of different tea bags for guests to choose. Other accessories you can choose to add are: sugar cubes, cut lemon quarters, kashmiri chai, masala tea, turkish tea and other types of tea.
Activities
Since this is for little girls, be sure to have a couple small crafts or activities the girls can do. I kept a a few containers of pearl looking beads and bracelet elastic string for the girls to make bracelets and necklaces while they waited for all the guests to arrive.
We also spoke a little (in my fake British accent) about the etiquettes of tea pouring – something I myself didn’t know much about until I googled it, and lastly we had the photo stand for the girls to dress up get pictures done of themselves, with friends and with their moms.
