Afternoon Tea Party

I am so pleased to tell you that our tea party was a smashing success. Really it couldn’t have been more of a delight.  The little ladies arrived in their pretty dresses ready to munch and chat, and fully determined to have a good time. They broke out into impromptu games of ring around the rosie, and they burst into cheers for each girl around the tea table, which may not have been polite tea talk, but it was perfectly lovely. And they all-around made the party worth all my trouble.

I did have one moment of doubt. Is this a good place to confess? About an hour before the party I still had flour all over the counter and hadn’t made it to the shower yet. Please tell me you’ve done this at least once when you’ve entertained. Somehow though, it all came together. I’m just glad I planned this over a week after our Mario party. That timing was just about right.

I’ve told you the invitations are my favorite part of any party. So of course we had to do something fun with them. We used glassine and my Divine Twine to make these. (Thanks for the inspiration, Sherry!)

We had three proper courses, and followed these guidelines to the letter as best we could. Of course our tea sandwiches had to have cucumbers to be legit. My daughter’s favorite part was going around the table, asking “one lump or two?” We did, however, also offered lollipops for stirring the tea, which make a colorful replacement for a sugar spoon.

Thank heaven for Krustez and Pilsbury. Without them there would have been no scones and no pretty sugar cookies to decorate.

Do you like the cake? I used this trick for making it smooth, and doodled on it using this trick. It turned out to be the easiest thing.

As the girls arrived, they each got to decorate their own pretty dress cookie. This turned out to be the perfect inexpensive craft. Plus it turns out that icing a cookie and designing your dream ball gown makes for a pretty good time.

I used this idea to make a cupcake with different color candies wrapped up inside. I made just one of these so we could use it for a game: I hung feathers from the ceiling that matched the colors of candy. Then we followed the rules for a cake walk. We played music, had it stop and had the girls run under a feather.  We found out who won by unwinding the surprise-ball cupcake (oh the suspense!) to reveal the next color of candy.

We decorated the front door, which doubled as our photo booth. The roof and walls of my patio are painted white, and I find I get pretty good lighting there. The shots turned pretty cute. It’s harder to get cuter than excited girls dressed up for a birthday party.

Do you like the chair favors? They’re my favorite touch. I got the idea from this version, which I saw online just days before the party or I would have considered buying them. Though these were pretty easy to put together.

We’ve had lots of our little guests tell us since that they’re just dying to have their own tea parties. Which I think is adorable, and which I figure makes for a good compliment. And truthfully I had a great time too, I think afternoon tea really could be addicting. So I think the next logical step is either to move to England or host my own afternoon tea for grown up ladies. Though I think I’d better give the husband a little break before I bring up either of these.

Tagged as: party favor ideas