Just a few short weeks ago, my sisters and I were tasked with the great pleasure of putting together a surprise bridal shower for my aunt Steph. We were overjoyed when my grandma asked us as we are the bridesmaids and she thought it would make sense for us to host. My grandmothers only ask was that the theme be a high tea and she would also like to make her punch (no complaints there as her punch pretty darn wonderful!). I’d never actually planned a full-scale event previous to this, and while this was a pretty intimate party, with just family and close friends, I wasn’t convinced we would be able to pull everything off in just 3 weeks. Thankfully, my sisters and I are all pretty creative and work extremely well together, so after the initial anxiety settled we got down to work. I don’t typically share posts that involve my family but this Sunday was such a special day. The event turned out so fantastic that I really wanted to share, If not for me to look back on, but I also think there are some really great ideas here for a high tea themed bridal showers. So without further ado, my aunt Steph’s high tea bridal shower.
My Aunt Steph was so surprised and seeing her face when she walked outside and realized what was going on made me feel so bubbly inside. Though her fiancé did tell her they were going to look at puppies to get her there and needless to say, she was pretty disappointed there weren’t any when she arrived, haha!
The Flower Shop did such a beautiful job on the centerpieces for the tables. I asked for a colour palette of pink, magenta, and cream with lots of flowy, garden inspired greenery and they delivered exactly what I had imaged. And those gold vases? Perfection!
We rented tables and chairs from MacFarlands in Halifax. The white resin folding chairs were the perfect option for a high tea and really brightened up the space. The large round tables were also perfect for 8-10 people and anchored the space beautifully. To cover the tables, we used a cream plastic tablecloth and then layered each table with lace table cloths (they actually may have been sheets or curtains) that we found at Value Village.
The beige stand is from Dollar Store and it holds homemade blueberry scones my sisters made. They also made the cutest little washi tape flags out of toothpicks, washi tape, and a couple scissor snips. In the background is an elongated vintage teapot that I filled with grocery store carnations for a special added touch.
{Lemon water station + balloons in the bridal shower colour palette.}
We were lucky when it came to collecting china for the high tea as my grandma and my mom’s boyfriend had so many beautiful pieces for us to choose from. The china became the inspiration behind the event as they are such unique and intricate statement pieces and make for one beautiful table setting. We set each table with a small plastic (can you believe it) gold-rimmed charger plate, followed by the saucer, floral napkin, and teacup. We placed small gold spoons (found at Michael’s) in each teacup which added such a cute touch.
The brass tiered stand was a great find from Value Village and was the ideal vessel to hold decadent macarons from Le French Fix. The sign is from the dollar store (I quickly spray painted it white and printed out the words “sweets”, “bites” and “punch” for the 3 signs).
The sign hanging between the trees is another DIY project my sisters and I came up with. We used paper doilies and gold letter stickers to write the words “high tea”, punched holes in the doilies and gently strung them through lace ribbon.
{My aunt “T’s” picture perfect fruit topped cheesecake.}
My grandma, who I just had to share a photo of. We played a game in which we broke into teams to create a “one of a kind” toilet paper wedding dress. My grandma kept saying “I said yes to the dress”, and we were all in hysterics.
{Another view of the prettiest chairs from MacFarlands.}
A group shot of the models in their custom toilet paper designs. Notice my grandmas dress completely came apart, we gave her the award for “best quality”, haha!
{Grandmas aforementioned punch. It was a hit.}
{Aunt Steph sitting down to open presents and looking pretty dang happy.}
Finally, for any of my family reading this, I just want to say a huge THANK YOU to each and every one of you who helped us, we literally couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks for picking up party supplies and props and driving us around because we are licenceless mom and Jamie, you guys rock. Thanks so much for setting up the day of (everyone + Ed for hanging the flower poufs!), giving us the house/yard to use for the day (Val), bringing/making the delicious food that was thoroughly enjoyed (grandma, aunt Judy, Aunt T), cleaning up afterwards (everyone!), doing the heavy lifting (Jamie especially, who worked so hard to clean in the pouring rain after the event + Kathleen who helped in the rain tremendously), handing Steph her presents/hiding the ring pops for our “find the ring” game (shout out to my 8-year-old cousin, Maren). I love you all so much and cannot thank you enough!
