Tea Party - need suggestions!

saravecinco

I'm throwing my first ever tea party.  Anyone have recipes for tea and/or snacks?  Invitation ideas?  Wardrobe, decorating, table setting, music?

TarHeels&Rebels

Can you explain a little more?  Is this a Sunday afternoon with the girls thing and you want to do something feminine and formal? 

Sara&Keith

Adult or child?

saravecinco

It will be geared toward adults, though may include a few children.  I'm not sure how formal we'll go, but it will definitely be very feminine!  Pearls, lacy gloves, fancy hats, etc.

I'm also not sure how many will be in attendance.  Probably anywhere from 4 to 12.  I don't know if we'll be planning on serving a meal or just snacks.

TarHeels&Rebels

Here are some invitations.

This is tea party to me, but it's from my region.  I don't know what says tea party in Hawaii.

6fsn

You'll probably get more help if you iron out some of the bigger details- formality, time of day, etc.

cwmoss82

I've been to a couple tea party themed showers.  We have a couple of fancy tea stores in the area where they got a few different kinds (of loose leaf tea... not sure if that's what you want or not).  The showers I went to had mini sandwiches (cucumber and chicken salad), scones or different kinds of breads, and fruit.  Both were bridal showers where we also played a couple of games that were bridal oriented.  One also had a variety of small, victorian looking frames and tons of dried flowers so as a craft we each made a frame with papers and flowers in it.  At the other we got a mix of different teas in a little bag as a favor, which I liked.  You could also scour some thrift stores and garage sales for older looking saucer/tea cup combos.  Hope this helps!

SA7206

There's a tea room I used to visit for lunch.

They always served scones with jam, butter and cream.Apricot scones are my favorite.

They also served a variety of tea sandwiches. Here are some recipes. My favorites were always the egg salad, the cucumber and cream cheese, and the Thanksgiving sandwich.

They also served mini desserts. Mini bundt cakes, lemon bars, bite sized brownies, etc.

Strawberries were used as edible garnish and they always gave a small piece of chocolate at the end of the meal.

I think a menu like that would be great and you can make almost all of it ahead.

I would serve a variety of teas (some black (english breakfast and earl grey), some green or white (plain green tea or green tea with jasmine), some herbal (apple and cinnamon, peppermit).  Be sure to get sugar cubes and offer milk, cream, and lemon.

wldktz10

Last weekend I actually wrote a blog entry about this:

Click me!

 Hope it helps.