Tea Party to Celebrate Royal Wedding--Budget Ideas?

[meway]

I remember how excited I was when I was 10 when Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married. I remember getting up crazy early to watch the wedding and evening holding up a tape recorder to the tv to capture the moment. lol

I would love to have a tea party for my 5 year old and the little girls in her class to celebrate the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton. Frivolous? Yes, probably. But, I think it would be such a special thing for the girls and even their moms who remember that royal wedding back in the 80's like I do! Having said this, I am a thrifty gal and am looking for budget ideas.

I've been searching online for little plastic tea cup and saucer sets for little girls and cannot find anything! My older daughter went to a tea party-themed birthday party years ago and came home with one, so I am sure they are out there somewhere.

I am thinking keep it simple: We'll have it in our dining room with (yikes!) our china plates, serve pink cupcakes, crustless sandwiches of some sort, fruit, and maybe pink lemonade instead of tea...? If any of you budget-minded folks can help me come up with some tea party ideas, I would so appreciate it!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Gigi22]

Have you tried the local thrift shops for tea sets? I am pretty sure that for the tea at the Grand Flo, they offer chocolate milk instead of tea to younger kids.
As for inexpensive tea sandwiches--most tea sandwiches are a bit fiddly, but not difficult. If you want to go whole hog, pre-order sandwich bread cut in horizontal slices from your supermarket bakery so you can make rolled sandwiches. You need day-old bread so the sandwiches don't fall apart. Butter the bread first. Then spread the bread with Cheez Whiz, and use sweet pickled gherkins lined up in a row along the short end of the bread--cut the crusts off the short ends, and just roll it up fairly tightly so there are no gaps. Wrap all the completed rolled sandwiches in saran and refrigerate. Other fillings for rolled sandwiches: cream cheese, rolled around a single line of red maraschino cherries (huge little girl appeal right there); and peanut butter rolled around a banana. Before serving, carefully cut of the remaining crusts--the cook gets to snack on these behind the scenes, and cut each roll into 5 to 8 slices. Serve.
My DSis used to serve her rolled tea sandwiches with cheesies and chips.

 

[tigger51276]

I threw my daughter a tea party for her 7th birthday last october and it was fabulous. We used plastic plates that looked like nice china and plastic ware that looked like silver ware. I actually let a bunch of 5-8 year old girls use my really expensive Royal Daulton china tea cups and they were all so excited to use them that they treated them like gold (no breakage!). I also used some of my china plates to put stuff on and I had a few 3 tier tea trays like they have in tea houses. I made a bunch of 2 bite brownies, mini muffins, cupcakes, tea sandwiches and more. I bought mini cinnamon rolls from BJ's and scones from the supermarket. I had a plate with strawberries and grapes and another plate with celery and carrots available as well. For drinks the girls had a choice of lemonade, water, hot chocolate or decaf tea and then I had regular tea and coffee for the adults.
For quick and easy tea sandwiches, Pepridge Farms make a Thin Sliced bread. You can get white or wheat and they are just right for tea sandwiches. I got some of each and made the following: white bread with butter and thin sliced cucumbers, white bread with peanut butter and jelly, wheat bread with thin sliced ham and cheese and last 1 slice of white and 1 slice of wheat with philly chive cream cheese. The sandwiches were a huge hit and the parents loved them as well. I went to walmart and found cheap little princess wands in the party section and some cheap necklaces and rings and wrapped them in pretty purple see through bags and had them waiting on the girls plates so they had them to play with right from the start of the party....then they used their goodie bags to fill with candy from the pinata.

 

[cheshireqt]

Very cute!!!

For DDs 5th birthday I gave her a formal tea party. The invites had a poem that she helped me with, can't remember exactly, but here is an adaptation you could play with:

Hello Dahling,
Hope you've been well!
Lets have a party and see Kate get a ring

Wear a fancy dress, of course wear pearls
(Its time for my 5th Birthday)
And tea with the girls!

I left the Birthday part in but you could just knock it down to 2 lines...
Wear a fancy dress, of course wear pearls
Its time for tea with the girls!


For DDs birthday we used the dining room and real china. I offered 2 "teas" One was pink lemonade the other was a raspberry tea (not hot). Center piece was a pretty little cake (with flowers on it) on a pedestal cake stand. Scattered pink rose petals on the table, White table cloth, purple cloth napkins, and served cookies, strawberries, mini-cupcakes, madelines (from costco) and sandwiches (used the thin bread you can find about 2 inches square and very thin, spread cream cheese, added slivered cucumber (no peel), cut diagonally into triangles. Mine were closed sandwiches but you could do open face with the slivered cucumber artfully arranged. Can't remember if we had Tea at 2pm or 4pm but either way you do not need a lot of food, just delicate cute finger foods.
I bought each girl a little purse from TJMaxx, it was pink with black piping. Filled each one with fake jewelry (rings, strands of beads, hair accessories) and a tiny mirror and a cherry chapstick (for lipstick). I also brought my full length mirror down to the LR and a bunch of hats, silk (or silky) scarves, gloves, beaded bags and bought a couple of feathery boas. I have several sets of formal white gloves from my grandmother that I allowed them to try on. The girls tried on the accessories after tea (and handwashing). It was not a long party but it was a lot of fun. The moms all stayed and nibbled on the snacks and had as much fun as the girls
Since you are incorporating the Royal Wedding, I would imagine you will have some activity with that, like watching a recorded portion of it. Maybe do that first so the girls have that to talk about and set the theme/formality of the party in their minds?

And don't forget music. Some possibilities:
Bridal Chorus (Here Comes The Bride) - Wagner; The Wedding March - Mendelssohn; Trumpet Voluntary – Clarke; Finale (from Water Music) - Handel; Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring - Bach; Canon in D Major - Pachelbel; Rondeau - Mouret; Ode to Joy - Beethoven

 

[meway]

Thanks--these are all great ideas! Love the menu suggestions and I totally forgot about music. I am a visual person, so the pictures really helped, too!

Since it's not a birthday party, I don't have to worry about goody bags, but I would like to play a couple of games (keeping in mind the girls will have on party dresses). Any game ideas?

 

[akcire]

OP-Last summer was the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden. I belong to a group of Swedish people in the Chicago area, and have become the default kids group leader.

I did a whole party with about 25 people. I actually went to thrift stores and got tea cups and saucers, I think they were $1.50 each; I didn't look for matching sets and let each child take them home. It was funny watching the kids pick their place based on the available cups. For the actual food we just used nice solid colored paper plates (blue and yellow-Swedish colors) and paper napkins.

We had music, played some games, and did dancing. Of course we also watched the wedding.

Like a previous person mentioned I just made sure the table was very fancy with food presentation. I used a couple of epergnes, 2-tier, and 3-tier trays. I also had hot cocoa, with peppermint sticks in a crystal vase. We also had strawberry lemonade that was in a clear pitcher and had lots of garnish, so it was pretty. We had lots of cookies, small brownies, cupcakes, petit fours, and a ton of finger sandwiches. No one went hungry.

We had both girls and boys present, and they were also told they could invite one of their special friends (toys). Some of the older girls brought American Girl dolls, we had a lot of stuffed animals, and one of the boys brought some kind of bug like action figure.

Oh and we did a "craft" where the girls and boys all decorated crowns. They were also asked to dress "nicely".

A bunch of the senior citizens also attended. I think they had as much fun, if not more than the kids. The only menu difference was they seniors had coffee available; and a few extra sandwich choices (I didn't think the kids would want cucumber sandwiches or herring).

Good luck.

 

[Abbeys_mom]

What a GREAT idea! I think we might have to do this!

Kate and Wills are getting married on our 10th anniversary, which is a Friday (April 29). I will probably Tivo it and we can have a little tea party on Saturday.

 

[StephMK]

Cute idea! For games, you could play pin the crown on the princess and some sort of game involving plastic sparkly rings.

 

[prncess674]

For my birthday when I was in 4th grade I told my mom I wanted a "lady party" as I called it. My mom frequently had the ladies over for afternoon tea. It was so much fun. I have no idea what the invites said in 1984 but I told all my friends they had to wear a dress and to bring their Cabbage Patch dolls. I had 6 friends and we sat at the big dining room table and ate crustless sandwiches, pretty cookies, little tea cakes and drank pink punch on the good china.

I think a party for your kid's friends sounds like a great idea and the other mothers will enjoy a party where they are not required to bring a gift! My Mom was always very formal so every year for Valentine's Day my mom would host a Valentine's Day party for me and my sister. We each got to invite 3 friends and do all the fun girly things. Mom was a SAHM so it would be after school at the house and we would have all pink and red snacks and each girl got a big sugar cookie with their name on it in frosting as a party favor.

Maybe you could fine cheap copies of Kate's ring and make lace veils to give each girl as a favor!

 

[poohfriend77]

We had a tea party for my DD's 8th birthday in January. For games, we played a version of "hot potato." I filled a teapot with candy and they passed it around the circle. When the music stopped, the girl holding it was "out," but she got to pick one piece of candy to put in her treat bag. The last girl got the remaining candy.

We also had a contest to see who could stack the most sugar cubes, but that might be a bit hard for 5 year olds. And they played a bozo buckets type game, where they tossed tea bags into tea cups lined up on the floor.

If you want to stick with wedding-theme games (and you don't mind a mess!) you could let them girls wrap each other in toilet paper to make wedding dresses.

 

[kittychatalot]

I think it was during the week and i remember my mom keeping me home to watch it! It is a wonderful memory!

 

[MissMarilene]

I am very excited to watch the royal wedding. I loved Princess Diana and am so happy her son has found his perfect match.

I am planning a tea party for the 8pm re-broadcasting of the wedding on TLC.

I ordered tea from Bucks Palace gift shop online and it's being sent over as I write this. I went to World Market to purchase the jams & devon Cream for the scones, which I will make from a scone kit, though they are very easy to make yourself.

The $1 Store had great wedding supplies & paper napkins & plates, etc...and I purchased some adorable demi-tas teacups & saucers from the HOME GOODS store in a pretty pink chintz (shabby chic vintage) pattern.

I originally wanted the bone china affair but decided against spending the money until later- when I am ready I will probably purchase one of the beautiful teapots from Bucks P shop - it will be several hundred dollars, but an heirloom to pass down.

 

[belle22]

What time is the wedding? It is on Friday right? My DD5 is having a Bday party we may have to do a tea party.

 

[cajunbaby1]

I would check out the local goodwill or thrift store for cups/saucers. Maybe you can find several different patterns so each can have their own little set. Not having every single piece be the same. You can get at the Dollar Tree clear, plastic serving trays and those disposable silver platters too. We all kinds of stuff like that in the "wedding/party section" for a friends moms anniv. party. That way you're not having to be out a ton of money.

 

[kwhite1022]

I too remember staying up to watch the wedding of Diana and Charles, and I so want my girls to do this with me. I mean how many times in ones life does a real Prince get married?? Any one know what time (est) it will start here in the states? I dont want to DVR it, I hope to watch it live, thats just more my style.

 

[CastleChick]

what a cute idea!

Sadly, my little boy wouldn't like a tea party for his 6th birthday which is April 30th lol!

I remember getting up really early in the morning to watch all the festivities being broadcast on tv for Diana's wedding and I can't wait to watch William get married also

There is just something so fairy tale about a Prince!