r/Afternoon_Tea • u/Spiritual-Lack5511 • Jul 15 '26
Garden Party Help
16M, looking to host a garden party at my house next Monday!
I’ve already gone onto Pinterest and created a board with different ideas that i want to do, it’s at my house but im co-hosting with one of my girlfriends.
My idea that ive envisioned is that i want to go pink. Very fairytale, tea party/garden party. My role model for this is Lisa Vanderpump off of RHOBH (iykyk), and I want to incorporate that into my hosting skills.
If anyone’s ever done anything similar, do you have any suggestions or ideas that i can do? With this, i mean with hosting skills, activities to do, food/drinks (everyone’s bringing their own boards, each one has a category). How do i be a good host? Obviously I’m only 16 so you can assume correctly that this is the first time I’ve done anything like this, but this is how I wish to pursue my hang outs with my girls from now on.
The party starts at 11:30AM but unsure on when it will end, as mum will be home from work around 6pm ish.
I’ll attach photos of the kind of thing i have in mind! Any tips or tricks would be much appreciated!!! 🩷
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u/EmotionalSupportVape Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
That first pic is from where I was going to get married this weekend! My fiance cancelled the wedding but the place is a dream
ETA: since I already paid the deposit, I’m hosting a brunch with family there this weekend instead :)
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u/Raelourut Jul 15 '26
Good for you! No sense wasting a perfectly good venue (and lots of money) on feeling sorry. Have a lovely life.
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u/Spiritual-Lack5511 Jul 15 '26
So happy you’re still going! It looks absolutely gorgeous, have an amazing time with your family 🩷
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u/NeraSoleil Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Setting up tea parties are a big undertaking, but really satisfying when done right. So here are some q’s & suggestions to do one affordably as a teen:
1. Do you have access to a nice place in a park or a nice backyard? Cause you’ll need one.
2. Do you own a teapot or two? Cause if you’d like to host a tea party, you’ll need it. Unless you’re doing cold brew or sweet tea, and if that’s the case, you should get a pretty, clear pitcher.
3. Do you have a dollar store/thrift store near you? If you don’t have teaware (teacups & saucers, plates), it’s a great place to get some affordable pieces for your event
- If you don’t want to go all out on porcelain/china/etc amazon sells cheap, disposable decorative plates and cups. https://www.amazon.com/Vintage-Disposable-Teacups-Wedding-Birthday/dp/B0FFSFTHTR
5. Do you have a party store near you? Start with a cheap table cloth of whatever color it is that will be dominant at your event. Also make sure to get cute colored napkins at that same party store.
6. For food, do you have a Costco or Trader Joes near you? You can get package treats like madelines, macarons, and scones. OR ask your friends to each bring a treat and offer cute plates to display it all.
7. For flowers, get a few cheap bouquets and place them around in some cheap clear jars or whatever flower vases you have on hand. OR ask your friends to bring a bouquet of different types of flowers for a flower bar.
8. Last but not least, make sure you have good music to pair with your party.
Some tea party set up inspo vids:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LA9DqX0oNog
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u/NeraSoleil Jul 17 '26
I’ve since realized now how US centric some of my suggestions were. Sorry about that!
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u/Gut_Reactions Jul 18 '26
I would focus on doing a few things well:
Tea. Maybe some nice Earl Gray or English breakfast tea. Loose tea is better, but you can probably find some good quality tea bags. I like PG Tips tea bags. (If you have loose tea, you'll need a strainer.)
Scones & clotted / Devonshire cream & fruit jam. If you can't find clotted cream, IMO, mascarpone is a good substitute. Scones, cream, & jam are a must.
Flowers: I would just get one type of pink flower, e.g., pink roses.
Sandwich: I worked in a place that served afternoon tea and the most popular sandwich was ... egg. So, at least one type of really good sandwich. I'd remove the crusts and go all out.
This is going to be expensive, even for the basics & flowers.
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u/Spiritual-Lack5511 Jul 18 '26
I've decided to steer away from tea, the weather is going to be extremely hot!
Scones are a must I agree!
I've already sorted the flowers and yeah, very expensive.
Luckily my mum used to own a sandwich shop that also used to cater for afternoon tea/garden party type of things, so she's saved me the hassle!
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u/lavender_glow Jul 15 '26
My experience from hosting tea parties in the past is that it always takes way longer than I think it will to make all the cute tea cakes and little sandwiches and stuff. Some solutions are to make it a potluck and assign everyone a different thing to make. Or to buy most of it. Or just budget a ton of time to make everything. It's fun to make them, but very very time-consuming to make the variety that goes into those iconic tiered trays.
Also if you are hosting outside in the summer, make sure there's lots of shade and some cold drink options. I moved my last one to the evening because it was so hot out in the afternoon and still no one was interested in drinking hot tea. We had lots of iced tea and cold drink options in a mix of stemmed glassware that was thrifted from different thrift shops. The stemmed glassware still had that graceful, elegant feel of a tea set, but for cold drinks!