Planning the Perfect Tea Party!

Join us for a Beary tea party! Oh my gosh, I gasped as I was talking to a friend that has a three year old, she was complaining about not having anything interesting to do with her daughter.

What are you kidding me what a lost opportunity, let's have a Party I said, she looked puzzled and said really a tea party? So I had to ask have you ever had a tea party. The answer was no and from there I got all excited because I love tea parties when my daughter was growing up we had all kind of tea parties on Saturday's in the back yard. Tea parties were celebrated with the dolls, with the neighbors and sometimes our parties morphed into super tea parties with friends.

I got so excited that I thought I would plan a tea party with my niece this week-end just to have fun and enjoy friends.

Planning the perfect imperfect tea party requires some patience and creativity.

A party can happen on a tiny stretched budget or on a rather fancy expensive budget.
For this event the goal is to spend $25.
00 or less by using what is around the house and in our cabinets. My only investment is the bowas, tiara, flowers and table wear. To stay in budget most of our shopping will happen at the nearest dollar store or hobby/lobby.
Theme The theme for this tea party is bears; we invited our favorite friend Rachel Beary to join in on the fun. Invitation Invitation is a must but, make it fuss-proof, with combined effort an invitation can be created online or using the old-fashioned method of construction paper, scissors, magic markers and glitter.

The key is to have fun and keep cost to a minimum. It also creates some excitement in knowing the event is coming up soon. Clothing Decide on clothing, choosing the right clothing is strictly up to you, depends on how much work you want to put into the occasion.

Consider a dress and flip-flops or some type of comfortable footwear. It's strictly about using your imagination and having fun.

Location, location, location Location is also simply a matter of preference; this celebration of life can happen in your back-yard, on the front porch or at a neighborhood park.

The following are must have's Tiara can be found for sale at your neighborhood arts /crafts store or dollar store.

Bowa can be found for sale at your neighborhood arts/crafts store or dollar store. Flowers and table arrangement, my only investment everything else was around the house, I purchased a bouquet of flowers to celebrate the time together. Table cloth also found an assortment of disposable table cloths and dollies at the dollar store.

Again the choice is yours to make it easy and fun or slightly upscale and still fun.

Plate ware we had a stash of fancy saucers and small plates to serve our purpose of drama free planning.

Silverware - picked up fancy silverware (must be pink of course) at the dollar store and extras for the next tea party.

Music - this was an easy task I created a tea-party play list the week before. I started with soft soothing music to play while I served the main course of tea and sandwiches, followed by trendy currently and some not so trendy music to make us move around and shake our butts.

Some type of beverage, water, tea, soft drink or possibly hot cocoa (make it fun).
Oh the options, my first option for the party was a pitcher of cold water, my second option was cold lightly sweetened pink lemonade of course in a pitcher or tea pot. Petite sandwiches - easy to make, start with what your family may traditionally eat and then experiment from there.
Ham on cheese on white or brown bread, sliced into squares or turkey with cheese on brown bread sliced into some type of shape is always fun and inexpensive.
Petite veggies or fruit, knowing ahead of time I wanted to do a tea party, I purchased our favorite fruits and veggies, such as cucumbers, apples, grapes and oranges.
Chose a medium sized serving tray, place sliced cucumbers on the exterior, next place sliced apples, grapes and oranges or arrange by color until you get to the center of your tray or create fruit cups.

My favorite dessert, cookies, cake pops or cupcakes really anything with sugar. Yummy my favorite part of the tea party dessert time. I firmly believe in prepping ahead of time regardless of what I'm working on for success.

For this occasion consider time factor when planning for the tea-party.
I purchased a roll of cookie dough sliced them into silly fun shapes; my niece's job is to decorate with her favorite sprinkles or toppings.

While she's busy eating the toppings, I'm working on beverage.

Now for the main event, this tea-party is happening on the back porch, the table is set and ready to go.

The tea-party on a budget is destined to be a great success and we had a great time prepping for it. Enjoy!