A Garden Tea Party Bridal Shower

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Today I am going to be sharing photos from a party that I did a few weeks ago. I think it’s one of my best works yet! It was for a very close friend of mine (who I’ve known for more than 20 years) so of course I was going to go all out!

You are probably thinking, another tea party? But you posted a tea party setup earlier this year! I know, I know, but just hold on because this one is unlike the one I did before! And once you see the photos, you’ll understand. 

Okay, now that you’ve seen all the photos, I’ll give you some tips and tricks on how to set this up.

Tips:

1. Wood Pallet Table –  The table in the middle is made out of wooden pallets. Where did I get the pallets from? That is a very good question! Basically what I did was go around small businesses and look in the back of their buildings to see if they had any laying around near the dumpsters. If they did, I would go in and ask them if I could take them, free of charge!! Every business that we went to, didn’t mind at all!

I can’t take full credit for doing this, I had my friend, M help. They are pretty heavy, so you’ll definitely want to take someone with you if you do that.

Once you are ready to set them up, just clean them up a bit and stack two on top of each other. Then, I took a craft paper roll (yes craft paper again) and made a runner with it. I placed a wide lace ribbon that I purchased from Micheal’s (that was on sale) and laid that on top of the craft paper to make the runner look more elegant. Then finally, as I do at most parties, I got flowers and put them in mason jars and tiny cups. I was lucky, my sister had these cute cups already at home that went perfect with the theme!

2. Flower and Leaf Garland – I made a garland with eucalyptus leaves and carnations. I cut the eucalyptus stems into smaller pieces and used mini clothes pins to hang them on twine (I love the mini ones you guys, I use them ALL the time as you’ve probably noticed) With the flowers, I could have used those as well but I decided to tie them instead since they were a little heavier for the mini clothes pins to handle.

3. Activities – I had 2 tables set for a couple of activities. One was a creative one with an apron and a DIY flower crown station. There was a blank apron and fabric markers for everyone to sign and draw on. Next to that, there were all the things needed to make a flower crown, including a tablet opened up to the DIY tutorial from my website so people could follow along easily.

The other table had a couple of cards I created for everyone to fill out. One was a recipe card, a word of wisdom for the bride and finally a game card with questions about the bride-to-be. (Hopefully I’ll have these up in my shop to purchase soon.) 

4. Flower Crown for the Bride-to-be – Flowers are everything in my opinion and there wouldn’t be a garden tea party without the bride-to-be wearing a crown! So I made her the biggest and prettiest flower crown. 😉

5. Photo Booth – I think that if I didn’t make a proper photo booth, it probably would have still been fine because the pictures were turning out wonderful from any part of the party. However, I just couldn’t help myself!

When it came time to set it up, I had run out of greens so I went in the back yard and front yard and just cut off branches and stems from trees and bushes and hung them up using those same clothes pins and floral wire. (I’m so frugal)

6. Menu – The food was made by a few of us. Some was bought and some was home made.

We had the following savory items: Smoked Salmon Sandwiches, Cucumber and Hummus Sandwiches, Chicken Seekh Kababs, Chips and Dips (spinach dip, salsa and guacamole) and Channa Chaat (a Pakistani chick pea and potato salad).

For dessert there was: Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes, Brownie Truffles (okay I like making these a lot because they are easy and look fancy. Also this time, I changed it up and added different toppings to them. lol) and Mini Custard and Fruit Trifle.

For drinks: All different kinds of teas (of course), water and my friend, N made Blackberry Lemonade which everyone was dying over so I’ll have to ask her for the recipe and share it with you guys!

7. Flowers – I went to a florist to get some of the greens for this party which was a bit costly. But I just wanted to let ya’ll know that if you ever plan an event and need a lot of flowers, it’s best to order them online for whole sale. I recently setup a backdrop full of carnations for this same friend for her Henna Party and ordered them from GlobalRose.com. I ordered 200 carnations for under $100 and it was the best thing ever! They arrived in a timely manner and were good quality!

So, what do you think? Do you think you’d be able to set this up?