A key part of any party planning is thinking through the flow of the afternoon or evening. Are you going to move guests from room to room? Will you serve different courses all at once or throughout your event? Do you have games or activities for your guests?
For an adult party or a kids’ party alike, good forethought can make a big difference in the execution and flow of your party. So now that I’ve built this up completely, today we’re wrapping up our look at my daughter’s Tea Party Birthday Celebration.
I set up the tea party in our basement. Once all the girls arrived, we made our way downstairs. The first thing we did was hand out tea hats to the little girls. We invited seven little girls and their seven baby dolls. So of course, the dolls needed a hat too. Enter our first activity.
The girls decorated hats for their dolls. I had purchased the hats at a craft store, spray painted them, added simple ribbon to decorate the top and also two pieces underneath to tie around the doll’s head. (See Belle’s head in the top picture. This was crucial to keeping the hats on the various sized dolls.) The girls added little gems, pearls and flowers to their hats using a q-tip and tacky glue squirted out on little plates. For the large gems, I had glue guns available for the moms to help secure the gem to the hat.
After everyone including the dolls had a hat, we moved on to our game. Sorry, I don’t have any photos for this. We played a very simple Tea Bag Toss. I filled sachets with black beans and we pretended they were tea bags. The girls tossed them into a giant ceramic tea cup and then everyone received a necklace. And because I wanted the girls to feel like their dolls were guests too, I had a necklace for every doll as well.
After our two activities, it was time for tea. We sat down for delightful little tea sandwiches and tea desserts. We sang happy birthday and then opened presents. I intentionally did our two activities first as not to interrupt sitting down to eat between courses. I wasn’t so sure we’d get the girls to sit again (especially after all that pink lemonade and sugar cube!).
When it was time to leave, each girl (and yes, her doll) were given a tea cup sippy cup. So many of the little girls were thrilled that their baby doll received a cup too and it was so much fun to delight them!
If you missed the first two posts, you can check them out here:
Tea Party Decor
Tea Party Foods
* And I want to send out a BIG thank you to my cousin, who came early to the party and took most of the pictures you’ve seen in this series.
My name is Kristen. I'm a former Wedding & Event Planner blogging about fun ways to celebrate each and every day and the special occasions of life. Here you'll find inspiration for family fun, children's activities, party planning and a faith-filled life. 
I love this idea 🙂 where can I get the tea cups that you gave away at the end? Thanks
Hi Samantha, I bought the plastic tea cup sippies from Oriental Trading Company. 🙂
Hello- where did you purchase the girl hats and doll hats- thanks!
Hi Anu,
I bought the girls’ hats off ebay. Search “girls tea party hats” and you’ll see some very close ones.
Amazon has a couple options that are moderately priced and Oriental Trading has these that are similar: http://www.orientaltrading.com/childs-easter-bonnets-a2-13682789.fltr?Ntt=girl%20hats
For the doll hats, I bought them at Pat Catan, the craft store.
Hope this helps!! ~Kristen