Who doesn't love a tea party? Ever since I was little, I loved the idea of dressing up and having a cup of tea and fancy snacks with my friends. I can't count how many cups of pretend tea I've had from both of my daughters since I became a parent. In 2019, I hosted a High Tea themed party for my daughter, Maya. I may have gone a little overboard for a 5th birthday party, but she had a blast planning the party with me and celebrating with her friends and extended family.

I want to preface this blog post by clarifying that I enjoy the process of event planning, and it has become a passion/hobby over the past six years. I am a relatively low maintenance person and try to live life in moderation with a flair of frugalness that stems from being born in South Asia and growing up as a first-generation Canadian. That being said, you’ve got to enjoy life and live a little, so when it comes to travel and our children’s birthday parties, moderation is not as much of a priority 😊.

The primary goal of this post is to inspire anyone looking to throw a tea party, whether for birthdays, baby showers or bachelorette parties. And the secondary goal is to share the vendors and resources I discovered from planning this event to provide a starting point for anyone considering to host a tea party. As a working mom of two young kids, it is merely impossible to pull off such detailed parties without the help from my family and friends. I needed to clarify this because I wouldn’t want to make any parent feel bad for being unable to plan such detailed parties for their child’s birthday. You should do as little or as much as you’d like, as long as it makes you happy!

I know most of us aren’t throwing any big parties anytime soon, thanks to COVID19, but life and birthdays are still happening. So, I wanted to share some ideas to throw your next tea party, whether at home, in your garden or at a beautiful venue once this pandemic is over.

Before I dive into the food and décor from Maya's party, I want to provide some history about High Tea, in case you aren't familiar. If you are, just scroll down to get to the party details.

For the longest time, I used to think that High Tea and Afternoon Tea were the same things. I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one. While both are quintessentially British and have subtle differences, they originated from two different societal groups. Legend has it that the Duchess of Bedford started the tradition of Afternoon Tea in the mid-1800s when she invited a few friends over for some tea and snacks. Back then, there were two primary meals in the day, one in the morning and one later in the evening, thanks to the invention of kerosene lamps. Afternoon tea became a popular tradition across high society to bridge the long gap between breakfast and dinner. It is generally served between 3 to 5 pm, on low chairs such as parlour or garden chairs, and the menu includes finger sandwiches, scones and sweets along tea.

High Tea, on the other hand, used to be served on higher dining or bar-style chairs and included heartier meals for the working-class households who didn't have the luxury to have tea or snacks around 4 pm. Instead, they ate after working a full day of hard labour, around 6 to 7 pm. Their evening meal was also served with tea, hence it was referred to as "High Tea" to differentiate from the "low" tea that was preserved for the high society.

Over the years, hotels and tearooms have adopted variations of these traditions to offer their Tea Service. If you want to experience the most authentic quintessential British Afternoon Tea, the Ritz in London is the place to go. Once my children are a bit older, this is definitely on my list to try.

DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. For more information, please read my Disclaimer.

I debated for a few days whether to call Maya's birthday party a High Tea or Afternoon Tea party. In the end, I decided to call it High Tea because I served hearty dishes in addition to the traditional dainty foods. For a kids party, whether you serve it on high or low chairs, there are many fun and cute ways to throw a memorable Tea Party. I'll share all the stores and vendors I used for the food and décor, and you just bring the manners and fascinators 😊. Oh, and make sure to tuck your pinky finger (pinkies up is considered to be rude)!

Tea Party Décor

Tea parties are so much fun to decorate. You can create some easy DIY décor, buy reasonably priced themed décor from a party store, or splurge on fancy china, table linens, and the whole shebang. I decided to use a mix of vintage china and themed paper tableware for Maya's party. 

• Kids tableware: I bought the themed lunch plates, cups and tablecloths from Party City. Using paper tableware avoided the risk of broken china and potential injuries.

• I also found the same themed placemats with a picture to colour, tic-tac-toe and a sheet of stickers for each child. These were very helpful to keep them busy until the main entertainment arrived. Party City doesn’t list this currently, but I found another online store, Party Things that has the entire Tea Time themed collection.

• The loot bags, photo props and a few other items were from Open A Party. It's a Canadian online party store that I didn’t know about until last year.  

• I also placed a Teapot favour box on each child’s place setting and filled them with Lindt truffles. Some of the kids were too eager to open them at the party while others took it home with their loot bags.

I considered renting proper china plates and teacups with saucers for the adults but decided to use paper plates and hot drink cups with lids to avoid the risk of spilling or breakage with kids running around. Also, it made the cleanup much faster.

• The lunch plates for adults were from Kate Aspen’s Tea Time Whimsy collection. They come in pink or blue. You can buy them from Amazon or directly from Kate Aspen’s website.

• The paper hot drink cups and lids were from Amazon. You can also find similar ones at most Dollar stores.

• I used the “Truly Romantic” small (paper) plates by Talking Tables for desserts to add some colour and charm to the dessert table.

• Table linens were rented from Meadowvale Party Rentals.

• The vintage china cake stands and teapot were rented from Sweet Bee Tea Party. They are a full-service specialty tabletop and event rental company in Toronto and work with many banquet halls and event planners. They provided excellent customer service despite my order being much smaller than the usual weddings and banquets they serve. 

• The teapot flower arrangement was made with Pink Roses and Baby’s Breaths. 

• I used an antique photo frame that I found at HomeSense to display the dessert menu.

• The bird cage on the dessert table was also from HomeSense. I wanted to use fresh flowers to fill the cage, but decided to use artificial florals from Michaels.

• Adding a customized label to water bottles is another simple way to highlight the theme. I made them in Cricut Design Space by adding some floral elements.

I didn’t need to put up as many decorations as I usually would because the venue had so much charm. It was an old courthouse that was converted into an event space at the Peel Art Gallery Museum. The room had a very high ceiling with elegant Palladian windows overlooking the beautiful Gage Park in Brampton, ON. Who knew there was such a hidden gem so close to Toronto!

My passion for event planning began with Maya's 1st birthday. I put in so much effort on the decor and food, but didn't think to hire a photographer. I was so busy running the party that I didn't even get any photos with half the guests. I learned my lesson and made sure to hire a photographer for each birthday party after that.

All photos for this event were taken by Vanessa Li Photography.

Since I had encouraged our guests to dress for the High Tea occasion, I decided to have a dedicated photo corner with a beautiful backdrop. I was seeing a big trend in paper flower backdrops so I researched a few vendors and ordered from Lux Paper Fleur.  They are based in Toronto and serve all the neighbouring cities. If you check out their Instagram page, most of the setups are quite elaborate, but I wanted to keep my backdrop simple and “reasonably” priced. They created a beautiful floral hoop with minimal decor for this party.

• Lastly, I try to have some type of contest/draw at my parties that keeps the guests engaged. For this party, I filled a vase with Lindt chocolates and the person with the closest guess won a tea set from David’s Tea. The person with the second closest guess won the chocolate.

• Other popular draw prizes are gift certificates from WaySpa, Starbucks, Tim Horton, etc.

Tea Party Food

Afternoon Tea traditionally includes a 3-tiered cake stand that serves:

• tea sandwiches and savoury bites on the bottom tier

• scones and breads on the middle tier, served with butter, clotted cream and jam

• sweets on the top tier

I was initially stressing over the menu items because my guest list was 75 people, and the thought of setting up and disassembling that many 3-tiered cake stands was daunting. Thankfully, the owner from Sweet Bee Tea Party, who works with a lot of wedding venues and event planners, put my mind at ease. She suggested that I should personalize the menu and serve what I want to serve instead of following the traditional menu. Our little chat gave me the confidence to set up my desired menu to work in a High Tea party setting instead of the setting defining the menu. I decided to serve the food buffet-style to save on rentals and reduce the time to setup and clean up.

• Bottom tier - I ordered Tea sandwiches and gourmet pita wraps from Pickle Barrel Catering.

• Middle tier - I baked traditional English Scones and Sweet Potato Scones. Recipe coming soon!

• Top tier - I usually serve dessert on a separate table along with the cake. Scroll down for more details.

I created a separate menu for the kids, which included carrots, cheese cubes, sandwiches (turkey & cheese and cream cheese) and chicken nuggets. I used the PC Tramezzini (crustless white bread) for the sandwiches.  

In addition to the scones and sandwiches for the adults, I served a veggie tray and a selection of Mediterranean dips for appetizers. The main course included a couple of salads and cheese/spinach cannelloni from The Pasta Corner in Mississauga, ON. They service some of the top restaurants in Toronto and offer a great selection of Italian dishes for catering.

Dessert Table

I am a passionate baker, so I usually make all the desserts for my children’s birthday parties, except for the cake.

• The CAKE - I’ve been ordering all of our special occasion cakes from Swirls Bakeshop in Mississauga, ON for many years. I love how they take my sketches and turn them into masterpieces every time. Their cakes don’t just look pretty, they also taste amazing!

  For this cake, I chose a mint green colour with a golden lace and gumpaste flowers to incorporate the boho-inspired theme.

• Sugar Cookies - I have a love-hate relationship with sugar cookies. I love how they look and taste but they are so much work to make. I only make them twice a year for my children’s birthday parties and each time I keep telling myself that I need more practice but never find the time to make them again until the next birthday comes around. I found the teapot and teacup cookie cutters on Amazon.

• Cupcakes - I usually make Strawberry or Mango flavoured buttercream frosting for cupcakes but there were a couple of guests with allergies to these fruits, so I tried something new. I made Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes, which were made with vanilla cupcake with a brown sugar streusel mixed in and then topped with brown sugar and cinnamon frosting.

• Cake Pops - I made these simple cake pops with Wilton Colorful Pastels candy melts and it provided just the right amount of charm without having to do any extra designs. They also hide little imperfections well compared to the plain coloured candy melts.

Here’s the finished look of the dessert table!

Wow, it feels so good to finally write about this party! If you are looking for some inspiration for your child’s next birthday party or a bachelorette / baby shower, I hope you find something useful here. I’ve added all the items that I purchased from Amazon and a few other alternative options here.

Save this post for later and share it with a friend who might find this helpful.

Fast forward a year to 2020, we found ourselves in the middle of pandemic and had to cancel Maya’s 6th birthday party, which was supposed to be a Floral Fairy theme. She was very disappointed about not being able to celebrate with her friends. I tried to make it up to her by taking the day off work and spending the whole day together at home. We prepared a small Afternoon Tea menu for the family and ordered takeout from her favourite restaurant for dinner. It wasn’t exactly the tea party we had for Maya’s 5th birthday, but we made the most of it with what we had at home.  

Here’s to wishing a much better and brighter year in 2021 for all of us!

Cheers,

If you were inspired by this post and decide to throw a tea party in the future, I’d love to know how it turns out.
Comment below or share a photo on IG and tag @emmaya.us.

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About Me

Hi there! I’m Tahmina - mom of two girls, an engineer, a passionate baker and a creative event planner.

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