How to Throw an AMAZING Tea Party! #TBT

Brrr! It is cold and snowy outside today! So, for today's Throwback Thursday post, I am going to reminisce about a warm spring day when we threw the best tea party ever. Granted that is a subjective opinion, but I'm fairly certain that any of the other people who attended would agree!

My father-in-laws were in town from Georgia to meet Olivia for the first time. Anytime they are in town we have fun planning a dinner party at my house for the whole family to attend. We decided a month or two in advance that we wanted to have a shabby chic, Wonderland style tea party.


Paul, Gavin and I went to Goodwill to buy our tea cups. We had so much fun sifting through their large selection to find an incredible eclectic mix of different sizes and designs. We found mismatched saucers to set them on and we even got a really cool tea pot! When we got home, we soaked them in hot soapy water then scrubbed them until they were squeaky clean!

Luckily we had a lot of things left over from my BaByQ (just wait until I write a throwback post about that amazing party!) and that made up most of our decor. In addition to using a bunch of tulle draped around the house, we also had pretty pink plates and napkins!

The food was light and delicate, but incredibly delicious!!! For finger sandwiches we had egg salad and chicken salad. We also had BLTs and made trays of hot ham and cheese using Hawaiian rolls. There was a delicious fruit salad and a cheese tray. My personal favorite were the sweets! We had store-bought blueberry scones that were so much better than I expected them to be. Next time I would love to find a good homemade scone recipe. We also had mini fruit pizzas, which are basically sugar cookies with cream cheese icing and fruit on top.

Despite the fact that it was a tea party, there was a wide range of drinks available. My family thinks I'm crazy, but I can't stand tea! Serve it hot or cold, sweet or unsweet, I still think it's gross! So, I drank lemonade! Also, it was a warm day, so the tea that was served was iced sweet tea. There may have been attendees who spiked their tea with a little something extra, as well as a tea cup that could have been filled with beer instead of tea or lemonade. Maybe ;)

Everyone put on their nicest clothes and all of the girls wore big floppy hats. I even put Olivia in her floppiest bow!!!

The only kids who were at the party were Gavin, Olivia and my nephew Parker. We set them up their very own table with a platter of goodies and let them pick which tea cups they wanted to use. I can't even explain how much they enjoyed it. They felt so grown up with their glass tea cups and even practiced drinking with their pinkies up! I expected them to snack a little then head up to the play room but they spent a long time sitting at their table talking to each other about what a great tea party it was :) They even tried on the floppy hats!

I said it at the time and I'll say it again, tea parties are THE BEST! It was a co-ed party, us girls were actually outnumbered, and every single one of us thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. So just know that if you do decide to throw a tea party you should invite all the boys in your life too, no need for them to miss out on the fun!

Cheers!