The long awaited ‘party of 2013’, is now, long, long, long, behind us, it’s probably about time that I tell y’all about it for posterity sake, right? I’ve been told that my tea party was my second best party of all time (a close second to the 80’s themed party I threw for Col’s birthday last year) and I have to admit, I LOVED every minute of this tea party.

The preparation and pre-amble to this party was pretty labour intensive – as I was starting from scratch, I had none of the props related to tea parties at all.  But, it was a fun and educating party.

The theme was a traditional tea party, with a modern day ‘twist’.  I’d planned a mostly traditional menu (yet with a few American dishes on there, like PB&J sandwiches) and I had the most wonderful brainwave to delegate the food requests among my friends – well, it was my birthday after all! Everyone bringing something, took the severe burden of feeding 30-40 people all by myself and meant that my house stayed relatively clean ahead of the party.

The dress code started simple, everyone had to wear a hat or a fascinator.  But as time passed and we got closer to the party, people kept asking me what they should wear and once I established that I was wearing my party dress, it became a ‘posh affair’!

Decor and props were simple, when it comes to a tea party, it’s all about the simple elegance of the equipment. Goodwill became my new home, I checked three different local Goodwills, every week, for months.  I bought a couple sheets that I used as table clothes (for between $2-$4 each), one, which I cut into about 40 different pieces and stitched (yes! ME!! Sewing!) in to napkins and a final one I hung as a backdrop, or, ‘photobooth’, as is the common terminology these days.

Tea often comes in some very beautiful kinds of tins, I found a few on clearance in Target for a few bucks a piece and my friend Theresa brought me back a tin from her last trip to Canada.

I bought my flavoured teabags from Amazon, they were inexpensive and I’d tried them before, so I new they tasted good.

Teapots can be beautiful things, and, going in to this party, I had only one teapot to my name.  By the end, I had five.  One I got in Hobby Lobby at 80% off $39.99, the second I got in Home Goods for about $6, Ross for $4, Goodwill for $2.  Milk jugs, glass carafes and sugar crocks were a buck or two a piece in Goodwills around Houston.

I picked up a couple of parasols from Ebay, some lace gloves, two or three adult hats and a couple of hats for the littler people in our midst and made a ‘Tea Wreath’ out of cardboard, scrap-booking paper, clothes pegs, hot glue and a plastic tea-party-style hat that I found in Goodwill.

It was the tea sets that proved the most challenging, and oftentimes expensive.  In order to get the teacups and saucers, I had to buy the whole dinner service, which meant I had a plethora of serving plates, but way more than I needed, or wanted.  I just wanted the stupid cups and saucers!! But I eventually got the number I wanted, OK, the patterns weren’t quite as gawdy or old fashioned as I was aiming for, but all the same, it was what I needed!

First course:

• Salad (Nanees)
• Quiche (Corinne)
• ‘Fruit’ salad aka pink fluff (Shelly)
• Pasta Salad (Cindy)

• Irish wheaten bread (Alison Moran)
• Cous cous salad (Las)

Scones:

• Gingerbread scones (Las)

Tea Sandwiches:

• Spinach and Parmesan mini muffins (Las)
• Chicken salad (Lindsay)
• Peanut butter (Salma)
• Jam (Salma)
• Cheese and tomato (Jo)
• Chicken, apple, brie, fig preserve (Las)

Tea Desserts:

• Caramel squares (Las)
• Lemon and poppy seed muffins/cupcakes (Corinne)
• Lemon curd tartlets (Las)
• Jam tartlets (Las)
• Date crumbles (Sheri)
• Banana bread (Nicole)
• Meringues (Annette)
• Victoria sponge cake (Magz)
• Fruit w/ chocolate fondue (Donna)

Drinks

• Orange Juice (Eileen)
• Cranberry juice (Adrienne)

Teas

• Earl Gray
• Cranberry tea
• Pomegranate Pizzaz
• Mint Medley
• I Love Lemon
• Cozy Chamomile
• Orange & Spice
• Sweet Dreams