Last Spring, we threw a party for my husband's mom, who was turning 75. She had spent many years in England during her youth, so I decided to revisit this part of her past, and create an English Garden Spring Tea Party.
Invitations
Start off by sending out beautiful floral invitations to your guests. You can specify that it's a Garden Tea party, and suggest that they wear appropriate clothing to go along with the theme. (Contact me to get this one!)
Decor
The typical colour that you would expect for a tea party would probably be pastel pink, but since we were also celebrating the beginning of Spring, I decided to add some brighter colours. I went with light pink, dark pink, coral and yellow.
The main focus for my decor was flowers, to give the garden feel. I created large paper flowers out of construction paper. This took some time, but was worth it because it was quite impactful. I found tutorials for these flowers from various Pinterest and YouTube posts.
I then gathered artificial flowers from various dollar stores and craft stores, all in the same colour family. I used these to make Spring arrangements on all of the tables. I also used pearl necklaces and sticks within the arrangements. We had a white teapot, so I decided to use this as a "vase" for an arrangement as well, which really tied in with the tea theme. If you have these, use them! I wish I had more!
To add more colour, I draped plastic table cloths as backdrops, in addition to covering all of the tables.
Tea Station
This feature station was quite popular. We gathered a variety of tea cups and saucers and laid them out on the table. We then put out a large variety of specialty teas (both bags and Keureg), along with sugar cubes, creamers and teaspoons. Guests enjoyed sampling different flavours as the evening went on. Remember to keep refilling your Keureg and kettles with water!
75 Milestone Tribute
Another aspect of the party that we wanted to highlight was the fact that it was a milestone birthday. We did this mainly with the use of photography. We gathered photos from friends and family, mainly from her younger days, scanned and printed copies of them, and used them throughout the space. I hung twine lines and used mini clothes clips to hang strings of photos to the walls.
I also created a HUGE number 75 collage, using bristol board. Sticking it to the wall was almost impossible, so we hung it from the drop ceiling rails!
Needless to say, the guests spent a lot of time looking at the photos and reminiscing, especially since they were in many of the pictures, themselves!
Another way we highlighted the milestone was with a canvas chalkboard sign. It highlights how the world was back in the year that the honouree was born.
For example, back in 1942, the cost of a gallon of gas was only 15 cents, and duct tape was first created and manufactured! I designed and printed it out, and then wrapped it onto a dollar store canvas board. (Contact me to order one!)
Guests
Encourage your guests to dress for the occasion, including large hats and silk gloves. My sister-in-law made homemade fascinators, and gave them out to the ladies to wear at the party.
We also made use of technology by getting family members overseas to record video birthday greetings for her, and we played them during the speeches/cake cutting, which was a heartwarming surprise for her (great idea for any family gathering!).
Giveaways
As guests began to leave, we had packages to give to them… ziplock bags with tea bags, individually wrapped tea biscuits and honey sticks. We labeled them with doilies and a thank you message.
Due to our weather in Toronto, we had this party indoors, but just imagine hosting a warm backyard version of this theme… stunning!
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