Lovely Garden Tea Party
Good Morning! I am so excited to welcome Denise Cherry back to the site. You might remember Denise from her beautiful wedding here or these fabulous DIY papel picado invitations. She recently planned a bridal shower for a dear friend and was kind enough to send over some images and ideas from the day…
Stefanie and I have been the best of friends since the second grade so naturally, I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to give her the shower of her dreams. As Stefanie loves all things girly, I started with the concept of a tea party and fused it with a garden brunch and as time went by, it evolved into a country/shabby chic tinged version of a garden tea. We DIY-ed everything we could – invitations, flowers, games, favors…the future mother of the bride even made all of the delicious food herself!
For the invitations, we wanted to capture the spirit of the shower and get everyone excited; they featured a memory and advice card for Stefanie, re-purposed traditional paper doilies into envelope liners, and vintage botanical stamps from eBay.
Of all of the projects, the flowers were my absolute favorite (and the first time I’d ever attempted anything remotely close to floral design). We were going for a garden picked, bountiful summer look – mason jars overflowing with full blooms. I scoured flea markets in Austin and the Bay Area to find vintage bone china tea cups and saucers for each place setting. To further personalize them as favors for the shower, I hand-painted “Stef’s Bridal Shower” and the date on the side of each one. I created tea bag place settings by simply replacing the tag on store-bought tea bags with name cards I printed at home.
Sources:
Paper products: Paper Source
Mason Jars: Overstock.com
Flowers: LA Flower Mart
Fabric: The Common Thread
Brooke writes
I love the envelope liners! How did you make those?! I’m looking to do something just like that for my invites.
WeddingXpert writes
I just adore tea parties, especially ones like these that are extra luxurious. I’m hoping my bridal shower will be an exact replica of this amazing bash!
paige appel writes
LOVE this Em. so pretty. xoxo
Anna writes
Oooo i love this! So SO beautiful…I am attempting to do the flowers at my wedding next month -its a tea party for 40 people -and i would love to know what the names of the flowers used here are? xx
denise writes
@brooke – they are actually just square doilies that i trimmed to fit into standard paper source envelopes. i cut the three edges to make an envelope liner shape and glued it in place with a glue stick. super quick and easy!
@anna – thanks! the flowers were what was in season at the la flower mart – dahlias, queen anne’s lace, stock, lycanthus, and very small daisies
Kat writes
I’m DYING over that font! Is it available somewhere online?
Ashley • Fine Day Press writes
Ooh, love, love these invitations!!!! Brilliant idea for the envelope liners, Denise :)
The flower-print ribbons are fantastic too.
Shirley Kelly writes
I was going to say that I was in love with the floral arrangement but then I realize that the element that really caught my eye was the patchwork table runner. That took her table centerpieces to a whole new level.
Poorna writes
Absolutely love that shade of blue and the ingenuity of the doily. Do you think those fabbo floral arrangements will work with brighter flowers?
denise writes
@kat – i bought that font from myfonts.com…it’s called parfait script. here’s the link:
Kay writes
just devine. the styling is so perfect. planning a hen’s as we speak and the tea bag tags idea is so clever. thanks for the tips. will be posting more on our hen’s tea party too.
Gayle writes
Oh so pretty! I love the softness and electic elements in the flowers and invitations. Beautiful!
Charles David writes
Love the tones, love the pink teacup idea! Very good sense of colors and textures. Clothes line idea, I love it too!
Sue writes
Hi Denise! The invitations are SO gorgeous!! How did you get the cutouts and scalloped edges on the brown card with “Hello” on it? It looks so fab!
Amy@OldSweetSong writes
This is simply sublime. I love it.
Stephanie writes
Hi Denise I love everything especially the teacups..I am dying to find antique teacups like the ones you used…where did you gets yours?…Thank you for posting this!
denise writes
@sue – thanks! the scalloped edges are a martha stewart craft punch from paper source…i saw it while picking up the cards to print on and thought it might add a nice extra touch
@stephanie – i actually split my time betwen austin, tx and san francisco, ca (i “live” in austin but work in sf) so i picked them up at the flea market in alameda, ca and the city wide garage sale in austin, tx. i would venture to guess that most flea markets will have some. hope that helps!
Hayden writes
Love love love this! Out of curiosity, where was this? I’m looking for a similar place in Austin…
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Kirby writes
This is absolutely stunning! I especially love the invites with the scalloped lace cutouts, the floral fabric and tea cups.
beautiful
xx Kirby