Celebrate in a special way with an adorable tea party! We’ve got theme, menu, and decoration ideas to make your tea party unique and beautiful.
We’ve held two tea parties in the last year, and we’re dying to show you how they turned out!
Last year during the pandemic, we held a quiet, dainty tea party for Madison’s birthday. It was wonderful, but we were so bummed to not be able to be together with more of our family! So we decided to do another one once things were safer.
We had the opportunity to meet up with more family members this year, and we threw Maegan a surprise birthday party- this time, a This Blue Dress themed tea party. Check out this time lapse of us setting the table!
Ready to host your own tea party? Keep reading for tips, ideas, and product recommendations! We’ve added links to products we love or admire so the hard work is done for you.
***Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. We may get a small commission based on your purchases at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!
What You’ll Need to Host a Tea Party
Choose a Theme
It sounds redundant- isn’t a tea party a theme in itself? Yes. However, if you’d like, you can combine additional themes to make for a truly unique party. A theme will help guide your decisions for invitations, decorations, and food!
Theme Ideas
- Book or Movie Inspired- think Harry Potter, Hobbit’s Afternoon Tea, Chronicles of Narnia, etc.
- Glow-in-the-Dark
- Disney Tea Parties- think Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan (minus the cricket and the crazy Matchmaker)
- Garden tea party- include lots of fresh blooms and plants!
- Mommy & Me- Dress like your mini(s) and have fun together!
- Holiday Tea Party (For Christmas: Santa’s Peppermint Tea & Cookies; Halloween: Haunted Tea Party, etc.)
- Food theme- Pick one item and serve different variations of it, such as cake, cookies, breads & spreads.
- Book Club- Have a classic tea party, but everyone discusses a book over tea.
- DIY- Make your own hats and paint teacups as an additional tea party activity!
- Color themes- all dishes and decorations match a particular color scheme.
Delectable Food
At our parties, we focused on bite-sized finger foods, which made for a dainty and beautiful spread! Having small portions meant everyone could try a little bit of everything, too!
We’ve listed menu ideas below, and soon we’ll offer the recipes we used!
Menu Ideas
Savory Items
- Chicken salad on mini croissants
- Pinwheels
- Scones (Try pairing with fresh cream!)
- Cucumber sandwiches
- Homemade bread with butter, jam, or honey (You could even make this the theme of your party! Have each guest bring a specialty jam or bread to share)
- Petite vegetables and hummus
- Cheese, summer sausage, and crackers
Desserts
- Fresh fruit and whipped cream
- Mini muffins
- Mini brownies
- Mini cookies (chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, no bake, or wafer)
- Mini lemon cake truffles
- Mini apple pies
- Mini donuts
- Chocolate mousse cups
- Mini cheesecakes
MaLee uses her Pampered Chef handheld whipped cream maker to make fresh sweet cream for scones. We’ll be offering our recipes soon, but here is a sneak peak of MaLee’s Sweet Cream!
Fun Drinks
- Brazilian Lemonade
- Raspberry Lemonade Tea
- New Year’s Punch
Dishes & Decor
The star of a tea party is the tea set! Mariah purchased this blue tea set and used her Cricut Maker to design a custom vinyl embellishment with our logo for the tea pot. Isn’t the little dress adorable?
We also had eyes on these other beautiful tea sets!
This gorgeous blue floral set was almost the choice for our party.
Here is another lovely blue china set.
How can you resist these adorable teacups?
This simple white set is sweet and classy.
For the kids, we used these cute paper teacups. They came with matching saucers!
Pretty serving dishes and stands are decor all in themselves. Try using a variety of heights to make the space more visually interesting! Here are the links to similar stands we used. We love how versatile this are!
You won’t need a ton of decorations, as the space will be occupied by tableware and food trays. (If you lack space, you can also choose to set up a separate table for the food.)
Fresh-cut flowers are a simple but elegant way to brighten the space. Mom’s peonies were the perfect pop of pink in our sea of blue! We added a delicate “Happy Birthday” to the arrangement (also made with the Cricut) to honor Maegan.
A white lace tablecloth does wonders for adding that last classy touch.
If you are doing an evening tea party, add fairy lights or candles to your centerpieces and add some classy string lights!
Remember to add any personal touches! We added a This Blue Dress banner (made with the Cricut Maker) around the deck and set up a ton of Mom’s beautiful plants to surround the table. The bold greens were so fresh and relaxing.
Play some classical music to set the mood!
Tea Party Attire
For the ladies:
You must have a fancy hat! We donned some fun, large brimmed hats that proved to be both cute and functional in the hot sun. Try a straw sun hat or a fancier organza one.
Any cute dress would do! We wore blue dresses to match our theme, and surprised the birthday girl with this new blue dress from Amazon.
Pearls are a classic touch for an event like this.
If you really want to get fancy, wear some dainty white gloves.
For the gentleman:
Men can get dapper in gentleman’s clothing; anything from a suit and bow tie to suspenders and slacks.
Servers & Entertainment
Having service people and entertainment adds an element of fun to the tea party.
“Barty” (Madison’s husband, Alex), was dressed to the nines with an outfit selected by our nieces and nephews, and he provided excellent table-side service. He also introduced the guests by their “tea party” names as they arrived.
“Pavro” the magician (our brother, Dalyn), entertained our group by performing magic tricks. He even pulled stuffed animals out of his hat for the kids.
Thanks for checking out our post! Click here to see more!