Tea Party...Need advice

[Mickey02]

I am a leader for 3rd and 4th grade Missionettes at our church. For Mothers day I have decided to have my girls host a "Mother/Daughter Tea Party" I don't really know much about a formal tea party and was wondering if anyone has ever had one or been to one. I plan on starting the end of March to teach the girls etiquette and start making fun things for it.

 

[Bunchkin]

As my DD's Brownie leader we have held a Mother-Daughter Luncheon/Tea around Mother's Day. It wasn't a formal tea. And I'm not sure if you're looking just for pointers about formal teas or etiquette. But I can tell you about the table settings we made, we had a floral theme, and the flower center pieces my co-leader and I made using a paper technique called quilling. We had a scrapbook of photos for the mom's to look at, a drawing for small prizes for the moms, and the girls san a few songs they had learned for the occasion, and just the most wonderful food that my co-leader and I made. All tea sandwich sized, yummy salads, etc. It was a wonderful time.

I have also, just this past fall, given my DD a tea party for her birthday party. I have tons of recipes for this sort of thing.

Let me know if you are interested in more details or recipes.

 

[Mickey02]

Bunchkin- Thanks for the great ideas and YES... I am very interested in your recipes how sweet of you to offer!!

 

[mallcat]

I gave a formal tea party a couple years ago. It was a blast! I don't know how many attendees you will have, but I had a small gathering of eight. I had placecards for each person. I also sent invitations. I gave each person a "royal" name....Duchess of (insert name), Baroness of (insert name), Lady (insert name), etc. Their placecard also had that name.

I also had a scroll tied with a coordinating ribbon at each place setting with the history of tea parties and how they started.

Age specific party favors for mom and daughter in nicely wrapped packages would be pretty at each setting too.

Everything has to be in bite-sized portions. Use lots of doilies, etc. Also, I had sugar cubes instead of loose sugar.

I made scones and bought real devonshire cream at a gourmet shop.

Google tea party recipes and ideas and you will find lots of things.

Hope you enjoy putting together your tea party!

 

[Christine]

My son's 5th grade class just did this for Valentine's Day. They also go over etiquette during the tea (which takes several hours). They used a full tea service and everything.

You need to have:
Tea
Scones (find an easy recipe)
Devonshire cream (if you can find it)
Jam
Make some small tea sandwiches (The Grand Floridian Tea had some "to-die-for" tuna salad sandwiches). Another type was ham with a bit of may.
Then you can have some fruit at the end--or cookies.

Have fun!

 

[Mickey02]

I gave a formal tea party a couple years ago. It was a blast! I don't know how many attendees you will have, but I had a small gathering of eight. I had placecards for each person. I also sent invitations. I gave each person a "royal" name....Duchess of (insert name), Baroness of (insert name), Lady (insert name), etc. Their placecard also had that name.

I also had a scroll tied with a coordinating ribbon at each place setting with the history of tea parties and how they started.

Age specific party favors for mom and daughter in nicely wrapped packages would be pretty at each setting too.

Everything has to be in bite-sized portions. Use lots of doilies, etc. Also, I had sugar cubes instead of loose sugar.

I made scones and bought real devonshire cream at a gourmet shop.

Google tea party recipes and ideas and you will find lots of things.

Hope you enjoy putting together your tea party!

Mallcat-I LOVE your ideas!! Where did you find the history of tea parties for the scrolls? What type of party favors would you suggest??

 

[mallcat]

For the moms I would do a nice hand cream or even a single fresh flower in a bud vase (tulip, calla lilly - something springy), which could also be part of your tablescape until the end of the party. Then let the moms take the flower home.

For the daughters, you could give little girl make-up or jewelry. Anything they could play dress-up with, but yet is still small.

Since it is a tea party, you could also ask everyone to wear hats and gloves and floral dresses, etc. That may be going to far with it, but some may want to participate.

If you can't find devonshire cream, use a nice quality whipped butter and strawberry jam with your scones. Scones are very easy to make.

If you google "tea party ideas" or "tea party recipes" you will get lots of sites to check out.

Here are a couple to get you started:

http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/teaideas.html
http://www.chiff.com/entertain/tea.htm
http://www.sippingtea.com/ideas.html

Also, some nice Victorian or nice classical music in the background might be nice during your party.

I don't know what scale of party you are doing. But I used my best white linen tablecloth and napkins to match, tiered trays, silver trays, crystal, etc. for the food presentation. I also had two different sets of blue and white china that I used together that coordinated beautifully but were not the same pattern. One was a floral, the other a toile/transfer ware pattern.

Have fun with it! You can go all out, or you can go smaller budget.

 

[Mickey02]

I have been making a list since this morning with all the great ideas. Funny you should mention the dress up because I had decided to make the theme "Victorian Ladies" and have all the girls dress up. I think they will love it. I can remember when the my girls were little they LOVED dress up. I kept a big box of dress up clothes, hats and gloves that we would buy at the Goodwill, boy did they get worn out.

 

[Mickey02]

By the way what is "Devonshire Cream"??

 

[Mickey02]

Mallcat-Thanks for the websites!

 

[rockin_rep]

I am a leader for 3rd and 4th grade Missionettes at our church. For Mothers day I have decided to have my girls host a "Mother/Daughter Tea Party" I don't really know much about a formal tea party and was wondering if anyone has ever had one or been to one. I plan on starting the end of March to teach the girls etiquette and start making fun things for it.

Well, this may be a little off topic, since its for specific grades, but just wanted to tell what our church does.

Because there are many women / girls without mothers available for many reasons, we do an "All Daughter Tea'.

Think of it, even we don't have our mom, we're all daughters!

Moms and daughters still go together, but this way NO ONE feels left out or uncomfortable attending. Its always a well attended, warm and lovely afternoon.

Hope you all have a wonderful time, too!