Tea Time

On August 14, 2015 my beautiful mother turns 60 years old!  We knew we wanted to do something extra special for such an amazing lady so back in January we started stewing over ideas and settled on a surprise birthday party at the beach house.  When I called to book the venue in January almost every Saturday was booked except for July 18 so we booked it.  It is also my Granny's (my mom's mom) 90th birthday in August so we wanted a little distance between the parties incase family wanted to come.  During the winter my sister and I made plans and slowly started working away on all the details.  The best decision we made in the entire process was deciding to hire out the food!  My sister's amazing friends planned a high tea party style menu and made every last drop of it.  My talented friend made the gorgeous cake and cupcakes.  My sister collected tea cups from the thrift store for months and another talented friend made the invitations.  I must admit we are so lucky to know so many people that are willing to help us!

My big assignment was the decorations.  I love planning a party, it is no secret but this was a big task and a big 1000 sq ft space.  I made about 6 ft of this pretty fabric garland one day.

 A lot of these tissue pom poms

 Lots of signs and other little tid bits.  For the table I had originally thought of burlap and lace but after working with burlap for a stake RS event in the spring I swore I would never touch the stuff again.  I ended up making table runners out of huge rolls of painter's brown paper and a few doilies.

 And we collected jars and bought a few blue vases to fill with fresh flowers.  I can't even tell you how unreal my house smelled!  Glorious.  Early on the morning of the party I set to work arranging the 40 little bouquets.

 We only had 2 hrs to get the party prepped so the pressure was on.  I can't thank my sweet friend LF enough for coming to help.  When I arrived with my van loaded to the brim I ran into some of my sweet Cubs and their Dads who offered to carry everything up into the beach house (angels).

 After 2 hours we had transformed this big empty space into a room set for high tea.  We had classical music playing and a slide show of my mom's 60 years playing on repeat (we won't talk about how many hrs that slide show took to compile but it turned out perfect)

 We set tea cups and silver spoons at each table

 And it was the perfect day on the lake with a nice breeze to party upstairs

 The cake details were gorgeous

 We had iced herbal teas in strawberry rhubarb and pink lemonade flavor with honey and sugar cubes for sweeteners

 There was a delicious assortment of ginger squares, lemon tarts and chocolate dipped strawberries that were so divine!

 

 

 Two flavors of warm from the oven scones with strawberry preserves and lemon curd to top with, egg salad and curry chicken salad sandwiches and little cucumber dill sandwiches.

 The only snag on the day was not bringing my good camera (and having my phone battery die part way through).  A photographer friend had offered to come take  pics of the party but wasn't able to make it.  Thankfully I've been able to gather photos from guests including one that brought a quality camera.

 My sister got a polaroid camera and set up the cutest photo booth.  It was an absolute blast! We gave it a test run before the guests showed up ;)

 At 1pm it was time to party!  I did end up telling my mom about the party a week or so ahead of time after she ended up with last min company right up to the party.  I had to give a girl a chance to get dressed up for her party ;)
As the guests started to arrive and the birthday girl came it was time to just relax, visit and enjoy it all and celebrate 60 yrs of wonderful.

 Mine were the only kids in attendance (my sisters were still at YM camp) and they amazed me with how well they did.  It was technically WR's birthday that day and he lived it up, pretty sure he ate 5 cupcakes and he drank cup after cup of tea (he loved being able to turn on the drink tap)

 AL loved every minute of it.  She perfected drinking with her pinky finger sticking out!  And now she really wants a tea party for her own birthday.

 The patio space makes this venue picture perfect.  Seriously so nice to be able to visit and soak in the scenery.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect.

 I made some cute little note cards with an adorable tea stamp set for guests to leave birthday wishes

 

 This girl was the most amazing help!

 

 We got some really fun pictures to add to a book for the birthday girl!

 So many of my parents friends had never been to the lake or never knew it existed.  They absolutely loved it.

 Even got this handsome guy in on the dress up action

 

 

 I know my Mom loved catching up and visiting with all her friends.  Only wish we could have gotten pics of all of them.

We sang happy birthday and my Dad shared some beautiful words of love ("everything good in my life is because of my wife")

It was such a good day.  Happy Birthday Mom, you make 60 look absolutely stunning!