As my friends and I began our last month ever in college, we knew we wanted every second to count, which for us, meant planning fun pre-games, spending late nights talking and laughing on our porch, and making s’mores with our firepit in the backyard. Simultaneously, throughout the year, a friend of mine and I had been hosting dinner parties with fun themes, drinks, and dinner recipes every couple months for our group of friends and we knew we wanted to end the year with something unforgettable: a tea party.
Neither of us had ever done anything like this before, so we immediately took to Pinterest to get the creative juices flowing. We looked for recipes, decor ideas, and different tablescapes. Above all though, we were hyper aware of the fact that we were a group of college students planning on a college student budget, which led us first to the antique store.
Tea China
The most important part of any tea party is the china, but we didn’t originally set out to buy a china set. An idea we had as we began planning was to thrift a cup and saucer that had a pattern that reminded us of each of our six other friends. However, when we arrived at our local antique store, we immediately fell in love with a real china tea set. It was white with pink flowers and came with eight cups, sauces, plates, a teapot, a creamer and a sugar bowl all for $25. We were also able to get a three tiered stand of a similar pattern for $10 that we planned to use to display our food. So, my first recommendation would be to thrift and antique. You can get amazing quality utensils and kitchenware for very cheap prices.
Food
When I think of high tea, the first thing that comes to mind is finger sandwiches. We picked two different kinds, one with white bread, garlic, and chive cream cheese, and cucumbers, and the other with white bread, brie, fig jam, and prosciutto. While this was a great start, we knew we wanted more. Our menu also included chocolate caramels with sea salt, bite size brownies topped with raspberries, blueberry scones, pillsbury grands with jam and honey butter, and fruit.
Decor
For decor, we went simple but this is where creativity can really shine through. We picked a simple white and tan tablecloth from Walmart and three different shades of pink streamers and gold star streamers. We used a table and chairs we already owned, and put a simple vase with tulips in the middle of the tablescape.
Tea
The other integral part of a successful tea party is the correct assortment of tea. Thanks to our fantastic thrift find and a borrowed tea pot, we were able to have two different options for our guests. For our black tea we decided on earl grey and a honey vanilla chamomile for our herbal tea. For add-ins we included sugar cubes, honey, cream, and lemon.
Activity
In addition to tasting delicious finger food and tea and enjoying lovely conversation with our best friends, we wanted to add a little extra pizazz to our tea party. As a fun accessory and a hands-on activity, we bought some colored paper, ribbon, lace, peals, and stickers of hearts, stars, and flowers so everyone could make their own crown. It was not only fun to do, but also a physical memory of such a fun afternoon.