Two weekends ago, three ladies and I hosted a cute tea party bridal shower for my bestie. We were immediately hooked on the idea of a tea party bridal shower before we even sat down to discuss it. As I said before in the previous blog, we went all out. Here’s how we did it:
- Choose a location
This was easy enough for us. We decided on her sister’s condo party room. It is located conveniently to everyone and there is enough parking. It also has an option to go outside to a patio area. The downside was that it required for us to rent tables and chairs (more on that later).
The option of having it outside was one, but then we changed our minds because we were concerned that it would rain, it would be too hot, or tons of bugs. I personally enjoy indoor venues as much as possible.
- Get the necessities
You’re going to need tea cups and saucers, tea pots, plates, and teaspoons. We headed straight to our thrift store to see if we could find some real old style china. Likely for us, we only needed to go to two places to find enough for all of us. If you choose to use paper plates and paper cups to avoid washing afterwards (or breaking), there are a lot of cute ones that we were considering using on the Indigo site. We also found (afterwards) that you can rent sets that come with three tier plates and sugar/milk containers. Luckily, we had all of that at home.
Other things that you’ll need to make sure there are enough of are: chairs, tables and table cloths. We opted so that everyone had their own spot to sit. We set the tables accordingly. We didn’t end up needing to rent the chairs… but brought our own tables. (and a few extra chairs just in case).
- Activities
Bridal showers always have games. We chose to have an age guessing game and a ‘how well do you know the bride and groom’ game. To make this flow better, I used the same border for everything.
On top of that we had a fascinator making station. The guests would come in and make their fascinators so that they could wear it during the tea party. We provided them a table of glue guns and a base for the fascinator.
Don’t forget to buy a prize or make a prize for the game winners. We had some make up bags with make up in it and some Hershey kisses in a mason jar.
- Décor
Flowers everywhere. White table cloths are contrasted by hydrangeas in mason jars and pink/white balloons. Again, everything with the flower bordered sheets, brought everything together.
Always have a backdrop. It can be small or it can be big but always have one. Some of the girls made paper flowers and made it into a backdrop. Then, they made a foam cut out of her name with a foam cutter and some glittery spray paint.
The food table will also act as décor because of the vibrant colours of the food. Make sure you put them on white plates or plates that look like the teacups to make it match the décor.
- The food table
There’s always food at a party. At tea parties, finger foods are served. We brought forks, but really, you should just use your fingers. Must haves foods at a tea party are: scones, cupcakes and macarons. Other than the tea, food is the second most important thing at a tea party bridal shower.
In the picture, you’ll notice the following food: macarons, tuna sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, scones, pineapple and sausage skewers, fruit plate, red velvet cupcakes, and cucumber and smoked salmon with cream cheese. Click on the food if you want the recipes for them. There’s no surprise here, but we made all the food ourselves! I prided on making the macarons for the first time on my own. (Will have a more in depth blog on the food later).
- Tea
This is a bit of a given, but make sure you bring tea that people enjoy to drink. We opted with Earl grey, summery berry tea and English Breakfast. We had each of them in a different pot and brought a kettle to keep the tea warm and continuously ready to drink. Another way you can do this, is provide people a box full of tea bags where they can put in their cup and pour hot water. This gives people more option for what they like to drink.
- Optional fun things
There were a few things that we went above and beyond for. The first thing is, we asked the bride’s future brother in law and cousin in law to be butlers. They served us tea, spoke in English accents and even brought us food. We didn’t ask them to do this for us, but they took the role super seriously. Halfway through, we sent them upstairs to watch TV while we continued our shenanigans.
Sangria. What sort of party doesn’t have alcohol in it? We made a white wine sangria. Here’s the recipe. It was delicious and went down well in the hot room we were in.
Making or buying a veil and sash for the bride. We opted out on the sash but made her veil instead. Good thing about this is that we can use it for the bachelorette party too 🙂
Pretty labels for everything – even the gift table!
- Something for the bride to take away
We did the make your own scrapbook page for the bride. We took pictures with the bride with a Instamax camera and gave them to the guests to use in the guestbook. This was super fun because people were able to customize their guestbook page especially for the bride.
- Favours
Other than prizes for the games, it is typical that the guests leave with a small ‘loot bag’ like favour. We found these super cute tea pot shaped boxes and put a tea bag in it and some homemade shortbread cookies that we personalized for everyone. We used some ribbon to tie it all together and put a small label on it to thank the guest.
- Future husband ‘surprise’ appearance
It’s pretty typical that the fiance shows up at the end of the shower. He usually brings her flowers. This future husband even brought her a little gift he had made. He then sat down and opened gifts with the bride. She was super surprised.
Well, that’s it. In total, we probably spent a month planning it but really three days putting everything together. It may seem a lot, but this will last in the bride’s memory forever. Plus, as a bridesmaid, wouldn’t you want to give your bride the best shower she will ever have? I mean, it’s an once in a life time type of thing.
Happy bridal showering!
flyawaylifeblog.wordpress.com 