Rose & Tea Bridal Shower

Welcome

Oh Hi <3 I’m back for an amazing one of a kind party to tell you about. I wish I could explain to you how excited I was to host this bridal shower. A little background is that my long time bestie gal who I met in college got engaged. I know you’re surprised about that one. Ha! Her and her groom live several hours away from me but that didn’t stop me from inserting myself in becoming her bridal shower and bachelorette party planner. It was a dream since I knew we’d be friends forever.

Lucky for me she deserves THE WORLD because of her kind hearted soul. So – I told her I’d plan her a fabulous Bridal Weekend. It started with her Bachelorette Party on Saturday which you can read about HERE and then followed by a Rose Tea Party on Sunday.

This darling bride is obsessed with tea and her new last name would be Rose so… genius idea was to have a ‘Final Rose Weekend’ set with all things roses and tea. Of course, when I think of tea I naturally go to a vintage tea party set in Bridgerton or Downton Abbey era. Enough with all that – lets get down to the details.

The Invites (evite)

I decided to make an evite for this event because the guest list was small and I already knew who was attending; it was just for fun so I didn’t need to spend any money on it! All the emails came from the bride and I added party information to the body of the email such as the following:

Shower attire – I wanted everyone to wear non-white floral like at a Tea Garden (suggested)
Special tea for the bride – this was a tea party after all so I encouraged everyone to bring her a tea to add to her collection
Gifts – If the guest wanted to bring a gift then I requested it be a gift card, honeymoon money or something small because the bride was traveling via plane and could not travel with big gifts
Food & Beverage
Games
Masks – This was still during mask time so I was providing an open space for people to wear one if they wanted
RSVP

Doing an evite allowed guests to respond to me with questions about the shower which I really liked!

Here is a visual of what I added in the email as well as a picture of the bride:

The Table

The table… something I was looking forward to for so long. I’m not sure why either – I just had dreamt to do a long table set for a tea party perfect for my girl D. Everyone around me suggested to alter it and I declined them because this is what I imagined and needed to accomplish. I wanted her guests to feel like family surrounded by each other to celebrate love. Sippin’ on tea, eatin’ a pastry, and chattin’ about how her and her lover got together. How perfect is that?

I wanted the table to be one long table with white chairs, pastries displayed in the center, and lux dinnerware. Some of these items were purchased at stores like Amazon but the majority were found locally. My good friend and I searched high and low for the perfect dishes to have at this party. From goodwill to antique shops that took 3 hours to walk through. No, I’m not kidding. My husband and I went to an antique shop (with our toddler) and walked around for 3 hours trying to find the perfect last few pieces.

I can’t link much for these items as the majority of them are unique but I can tell you how beautiful and fun it is to go to your local shops and find exactly the item you’re looking for. Let me tell you, it’s worth it.

Tables & Chairs

If you are in the Madison, Wi area, we purchased the tables and chairs at Avila Event Rentals for an extremely reasonable price. We got 2 tables and 14 chairs for $30! Communication, setup. and take down was so smooth! I couldn’t believe how lucky we got because finding tables and chairs for a small group is not an easy thing to do! Of course, you can just use what you have at your house but we didn’t have a lot of options for seating. Plus, uniformity was important to me.
I used some white linens from my friends recent wedding and then just draped the lace tablecloth over it!

Flowers

We got all of the flowers Saturday morning and actually, the bride wanted to take on the task of arranging them in the vases! She did such a BEAUTIFUL job!! In her next life she will be a florist; no doubt.

Place Cards, Info Table Cards, Teabag Cookies

I decided to make this a formal event so I made place cards and put each guest at a specific seat. I asked the bride if there was someone who should be seated next to a special person. The bride wanted to sit next to her mom so that was all that was needed! I did this so the event felt special and so that new people sat next to each other and no I’m not a teacher – haha! It was a good ice breaking moment though. 😉
I added cards that were on the tables that celebrated information about the bride such as where she was born or what her favorite tea is. Some of these questions were on the games so, if people were reading them they would be having answers right in front of them! Tricky Tricky 😉
The tea bag cookies were SO GOOD. I found a recipe for Earl Gray Shortbread Cookies and then had them cut into teabag shapes! Shout out to my MIL for helping with these!! They were absolutely delicious! After making them, we used string or thin yarn and a short piece of paper with a heart sticker on it to make the ‘teabag string’.

Here are the pieces that I found online:

Everything else not listed we found locally. So, the plates, teacups, faux roses, tiered pastry displays, vases, and pink drinking cups.

I know shopping locally can be difficult to do or at times frustrating so I’ve added some Amazon options below to help with your search.

Lookalike dinnerware options from Amazon:

**Scroll down to see the video visual of the whole event!

Leona’s Tea Bar

Leoana is the brides dog’s name who is very special to her and the groom so I had to use it to name the tea bar!

Here are the items that were purchased online:

Tea Assortment
- Mandarin Tea Mimosa
  - I can’t find the website where the recipe came from anymore but here is what I made:
    - 1 bag of Teavana Peach Tranquility Tea
    - Hot Water
    - Sugar
    - 1 bottle of chilled Champagne
    - Orange Juice
  - I put this drink in the class pitchers and placed on the table
- Earl Grey Cream Black Tea
- Peach Tranquility Tea & Jade Citrus Mint Green Tea
Gold Mini Rose Tongs
Lace Runner 14 x 120
Hot Liquid Pitcher
Rose Tea Buds
Clear Teapot
Gold Glass Container

I got the honey sticks from a local farmer’s market and the sugar cubes and milk at the grocery store! I’ll talk about the game in the ‘games’ section. The flowers were fake and bought from the dollar store and the sign was thrifted as well.

Lastly, I decided to display pictures above the bar so guests could see as they picked out their tea!

Food & Beverage (non-tea)

Having had thrown a party just the night prior – I had some difficulty planning this shower’s food because I wasn’t sure if I would have time to make or prepare any of it which meant I had to get food pre-made somewhere. Unfortunately, getting things pre-made to exactly how you want it can be pretty expensive or just not possible in your area. Since we had such a small amount of people it also made things difficult because companies tend to not cater to smaller groups of people.

That being said – I managed to come across a business that offered most of my requests and then we put the other items together at home morning of the shower.

The Menu

Catered Items from Upstairs Downstairs Catering
- Tea Sandwiches: Cucumber with Cream Cheese, Chicken Salad, Turkey & Cheddar, Smoked Salmon
- Brie & Raspberry Phyllo Tartlets
- Individual Gourmet Desserts: Mini Fruit Tarts, Mini Cheesecake Bites and Mini Cream Puffs
Chips
Veggie Tray
Cheese Tray
Meat and Cracker Tray
Cucumber water on the table

The Games

**All images are below this sections information

Games are never required for a party but in my opinion they make the awkwardness of people not knowing each other go away and make a party more memorable.

Bridal Jeopardy

My friend is a complete wizard with things like this; I am so grateful for her skills. She made this beautifully crafted Jeopardy game perfectly fit for a tea party. All the questions were put right behind the pink rectangle on this board. Questions are all made up but if you want suggestions just message or comment below and I can help you out! Winner’s got to choose from a bin of Ulta Beauty Makeup <3

Guess How Many Chocolates

On the tea bar I had a clear teapot with X number of chocolates inside that guests had to guess how many were inside. Whoever was the closest got the prize of the teapot and chocolates!

Prize: Clear Teapot

Who has the Teapot

Often times parties have a game where at the bottom of your plate would be a sticker and if you were the one that got the sticker you got a prize. Since we weren’t doing paper plates I wanted to do something slightly different and so I put a vintage unused sticker in-between the app plate and dinner plate and whoever got the teapot won.

Stickers: Vintage Stickers

Prize: Teapot Trivet

Bridal Emoji

One of my favorites because it is quick and easy! You can find the game here on Etsy or you can make your own up. I updated mine with photoshop so it had the same color scheme!

Prize: Tea Towels

Ask The Groom

This one is a ton of fun! All you do is come up with questions for the groom to answer privately and then during the party you ask the bride these questions and she has to see how well she knows her groom. It is purely for fun so no gifts here!

Extras

All signage was done via photoshop.
Bride To Be chair decor: I got the hanging at hobby lobby and then added little glass pink roses. Then decided to jazz it up with a dusty rose chiffon fabric draped behind it!
Welcome Cart: I used the cart from the bachelorette party as a welcome cart for guests to put their gifts on and sign the guestbook
- Tea Party Guest Book
Window Garland & Cabinet Decor
- I purchased a floral tea garland that I used one for the window and then the other one I took apart and just put the pots and cups on my cabinets
- Tea Garland
Custom sticker name to put on the brides special teacup
- I did it through Amazon! You can find it here.
Favors:
- Everyone got to take home their teacup and saucer!
- We did a bunch of polaroids too so, if people wanted a polaroid with the bride we took one and they could take that with them as well.
Rose Ice
- I’ve always wanted to make ice with flowers in it – not sure why but I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do so.
- Rose Silicone Tray
  - I just filled water with the bottom of the tray so the ice would be smaller but – this ice wouldnt fit in the glasses so if you want that I would recommend bigger glasses or smaller ice trays
- Rose Tea Buds
  - I just filled a normal ice tray with water and these buds and they worked great!

Additional Party Photos

In Conclusion

Wow, what an absolutely amazing and wonderful party that was to blog about. I truly had such a memorable time and would do it all over again if I could! Being so pregnant and sad that I wasn’t going to be able to attend the wedding 2 months later I ended up crying during my speech because of how joyful this event was and most of all how special this bride means to me.

I’m so grateful you came to read all about it and hope that it inspires you to host a lovely tea and rose party for someone you know! If you have any questions at all don’t hesitate to ask. Comment below or email me at fearlessfleurdelis@gmail.com

Looking for something different? Check out this The Final Rose (Bachelor) Bachelorette Party post!

1 Comment

The Final Rose (Bachelor) Bachelorette Party says:

September 6, 2023 at 8:04 pm

[…] Getting to throw my best friends bachelorette party… I felt like I just wanted to do all.the.things. It might have been because I was looking forward to her getting married for SO LONG (we met in college in 2012). She lives out of state right now so it was something that really needed to be planned in advance. I told her I wanted nothing more than to throw her THE BEST bridal weekend ever. You can find the bridal shower post HERE. […]

Rose & Tea Bridal Shower

The Invites (evite)