My friend Mrs. B and I (Miss H) are planning hypothetical showers. Of course, we’re not doing this just for the fun of it (although we could!). Feel free to use the plans as they are or just get ideas from them. Here is Mrs. B’s first shower~a bridal shower with a tea party theme.
What time should a shower like this be held?
I think this can be any time of day. If in the morning, you can substitute food and make it more of a brunch tea, serving more egg and pastry type things. Afternoon would be basic dessert and sandwhiches. Evening would be the same thing, I think.
Where would it be held?
It can be held in someone’s home, a recreation hall, a church fellowship hall, even a park gazeebo, if the time of year is right…or a backyard.
Miss H says:
I think the nicest location would be someone’s home, or perhaps garden. That might be challenging for a large group though!
How long would the shower last? How should it flow?
Most showers are about 2 hours. It really depends on the number of presents/people. If it lasts more than two hours, break the gift opening up into segments.For example…introduce everyone or main important people..i.e. wedding party..MIL..etc. then open three gifts, play a game, open ten gifts, have some tea sandwhiches/food, open more gifts, play another game, have dessert while the bride opens the rest.
The Invitations:
Invitations can
be made by using a 3″-5″ teapot cookie cutter or any other
pattern with a teapot about that size.
Teapot Invitation
Learn
how to make an invitation like this here.
The Decorations:
Decorate with
lace/doilies/flowers (in her wedding colors or not).
The Games:
Before you begin make
sure you have enough pens/pencils for each guest if you are doing a
writing game and hardbound books for them to write on. (Children?s
books work great for this). You should have at least two games or
activities.
#1 One game should be a word game such as word scramble: scramble words having to do with tea and give them
60 seconds to unscramble as many as they can.
#2 This game is just a fun one for the bride. All these products are cleaning products. Gather them together on a nearby table?have an assistant. Give the bride a large laundry basket to hold?and read the following: Dear “bride’s name”, It is only fair that we let (Bride’s name) in on a little SECRET. (Groom’s name) may be FANTASTIC but wait until (Bride’s name) finds out that he is not MR. CLEAN. He’ll expect her to be a DYNAMO in the kitchen and he thinks all women should MOP & GLOW. At night he’ll wake you up at DAWN to SNUGGLE up close. We all AGREE that (Bride’s
name) and (Groom’s name) will have a very happy LIFE together. Our wish for you is that your home be filled with JOY and you remain as happy as ever in the FUTURE. The host can read this “poem” while the bride holds a laundry basket and an assistant holds up each product and shows the guest, and places the product into the basket.
Game Prizes:
Prizes can either fit your theme or not. To keep in the tea theme, one prize could be a nicely wrapped box of the brides? favorite tea, or a lovely tea cup.
Non themed prize gift ideas
Sew a small pouch bag, inside place:
A candle
Lotions
Face scrub
Foot scrub/socks
Other Ideas:
Note
pads
Books
Plants
Unwrapping her gifts:
Before the bows go flying, enlist a fellow shower hostess to help out by recording which guest gave which gift to the bride. This helps out later when the bride needs to write out her thank you’s.
Of course, tradition has it that all the bows and ribbons from the shower gifts are collected by the shower hostesses and used to create a faux bridal bouquet for use at the rehearsal. So make sure your volunteers are stocked with a sturdy paper plate as the base for the bouquet and plenty of tape or a stapler with which to attach the bows and ribbon.
The Menu:
Cheesecake is the order for a tea party, but only if the bride likes it, and you can cater to her taste, cherries on top, chocolate cheesecake, whatever she wants.
Use your teapot cookie cutter to make lovely teapot sugar cookies!
Make tea sandwiches, using diamond, square, and round shapes. Trim the crust off your bread. Here again, it is to your taste, I would make a simple deli type with just a thin spread of mayonnaise, a thin layer of deli meat, and square of cheese ~ use whatever type of filling your bride likes, if you like cucumber and cream cheese then use that for your tea sandwiches.
I would do a vegetable platter with ranch dressing, also a fruit platter.
Serve coffee, Tea, and punch.
Miss H says:
Isn’t this a simple menu? The food for a tea can certainly be more elaborate, but if you don’t have the time or energy for that, something like this would be just perfect and I am sure your guests would enjoy it.
If you have fewer than 10 guests, it would be nice to use real china ~ but sometimes that isn’t practical. All white, paper plates and cups would work, or a floral that fits your colors or one that you just like~ just make sure your plates match the other decorations you have chosen. Such as your flowers if you have any on the table.
The Favors:
The take home favor I have chosen is to use a clear plastic coffee cup, the kind with a small flat pedestal on the bottom. Fill with candy and 1 teabag. Wrap with a circle of netting; tie off with a ribbon to match the decorations. Add a tag that says, “for you” ~ give one to each guest.
What about the gifts?
Miss H’s gift idea: Emilie Barnes’ Creative Home Organizer.
Print this teacup shower gift record sheet to use!
