Decorating was the main event. Luckily, we were able to dig around our house and find just about everything that we needed. I had purchased the giant rose wreath months ago at Goodwill--I was going to pull the roses off and use the frame, but it was perfect for our tea party. The lamp is from my kids' bedroom. Then we just filled every glass jar we could find with pretty candies. I picked up the china cupcake stand for a couple of bucks at Goodwill, as well. We really only bought candy and balloons!
The cupcakes were a cinch to decorate. I whipped up a batch of buttercream frosting, dropped a dollop of white onto each mini-cupcake, refrigerated them until set, then dropped another dollop of either pink or purple on top. I topped them with a tiny pearl candy.
The cake is a two layer chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting between the layers and on the outside. I then used giant confetti sprinkles to polka-dot the whole thing. I used the mini candy pearls (like on the cupcakes) to make a "5," and to outline the rose. I created the rose from marzipan, then used edible pearl dust to color it pink.
To begin our tea party, we rang this beautiful bell. It was my grandma's.
My daughter found this fancy hat candle holder at Goodwill, too, for only $2. I always think of big hats when I think of tea parties, don't you?
To set the table, I purchased a cup and saucer for each girl, from Goodwill. Each cup and saucer only cost about $.30, so to say that it was cost effective is an understatement! We sent them each home with their own teacup and saucer, in lieu of goodie bags.
We began the party by decorating the crowns you see at each place setting (12 for $2.50 at JoAnn's). The girls could color their crowns or glue tiny jewels onto the front. (We already had the jewels, as they were actually the dragon scales that we used in the wand cores for my son's Harry Potter birthday party in April.) This was a good opening activity, as it gave the kids something to do when they arrived, and while they waited for the actual tea party to begin.
After crown decorating, we painted their fingernails. I just grabbed a few dollar varieties, plus some cheap decals that we put on once their nails were dry. This was a big hit; all the girls talked about how excited their moms would be to see their pretty nails.
While the girls had their nails painted and waited to dry, my husband did face-painting. We didn't do anything crazy, just whatever little thing the girls wanted. It was mostly balloons, butterflies, hearts, etc. I do think he did a castle with a moon in the middle and a red Christmas tree, though...
After the nails were dry and faces were painted, we served pink hot chocolate. We don't drink real tea, plus I figured the girls would prefer hot chocolate to tea any day. I simply heated eight cups of milk on the stove, poured in a bag of white chocolate chips (once the milk was steaming), added a touch of vanilla, then some pink food coloring. Voila!
We also served the cupcakes, candy, cookies, etc. that were being used as decorations during this time. This was the actual tea party!
Once the hot chocolate was poured, we sang Happy Birthday and ate cake. Did I serve way too much sugar? Yes. Was it worth it, though? Definitely!
Then we opened presents and time was up! Short and sweet describes our Princess Tea Party perfectly. My daughter loved it, the other girls had fun, and it was so very simple to do. What more can you ask for?
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