How To Throw A Fall Tea Party

 
Last year, we started our annual tea party. It's a time where we women and children can dress up and partake in tea and snacks. My daughter has been looking forward to this second one ever since the first one finished.  (You can read about how we threw it economically in  How to throw an Economical Tea Party.)

 

      Unfortunately, this year, it wasn't as economical. My husband took our daughter out to find a dress and well, baby girl might have daddy wrapped around her little finger. I can't complain, though, because my outfit wasn't as cheap either. I had a difficult time finding any dresses or nice outfits on sale, this time of year.

      Other than the outfits, I tried to keep the cost of the tea party lower by getting decorations from the Dollar Tree- where everything is a dollar, and the food that I made for it was made with things I already had or things that could be used in multiple things. Since we hosted this tea party in October, the theme was fall. I made a lot of pumpkin foods so I got to use the same can of pumpkin puree.

       So enough about the cost and this and that, here's what we had!

Photo Wall

     Fall themed backdrop- I hung up a white table cloth on the wall and hung up a couple of fall themed felt decorations. It was a cute idea in theory, but felt+tape= disaster. They kept falling off.

Another problem that we had is that I should have hung up another table cloth because not everyone fit into the frame when they were all gathered around. It was great for two, maybe three people, but that was it. It was also difficult to get a good picture because everyone wanted to take pictures at the same time so those who were in the picture didn't know where to look.

Decorations

I found these little solar powered flowers with a butterfly at the Dollar Tree- actually all of the decorations are from there. We had two different kind- this one had tulips and the other kind had red roses. Each family that attended was able to take one home with them. 

Pardon the worn out table cloth, I forgot to take pictures before everything had been used. I bough three vases with matching flowers. The red ones were actually one bouquet, but I split them apart so I could put one in each red vase. I lined the vases across the table and then weaved the mesh tubing around them in a figure 8 pattern. The leaves were spread evenly across the table. I hung the two lanterns on the light fixture above my dining room table. 

My friend was awesome enough to have taking this before picture of the table. I was putting the finished touches on everything and placing food about the tables. 

Food!

Ok, so I had a lot of help with the food. Most of these recipes I found on Pinterest. I made 3 dozen muffins. Each dozen was a different recipe. I only took pictures of this pumpkin recipe as a teaser to those who were still on their way over to visit. 

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins- Anna Ginsberg Cookie Madness is who I found this recipe from. The recipe is in the link. They were absolutely delicious!

Banana Streusel Muffins- Somewhatsimple.com- I thought that these were a little buttery and salty, but that was probably just me.

Chocolate Chip Muffins- Sugarspunrun.com- These were really good, but also dry. Again, this was my fault. I didn't realize that the recipe had called for sour cream so I used what I had (not enough) and I forgot to set the timer on them. Oops!

Pumpkin Caramel Enchiladas-KeyIngredients.com- These were the favorite of the day. Very delicious!

How mine came out- after some were already eaten. I didn't rub the cinnamon sugar on them, but they were still very yummy and the best part was, they were super easy to make!

Cucumber Sandwiches- This was my own recipe and I unfortunately didn't take any pictures of it. I plan to make a post with the recipe soon to come!

Activities-

Ok, so I had planned on doing some crafts, but we never got to them. The men and women split up- there were 18 of us there! 9 of us were children so things didn't go as planned, but it was still a lot of fun!

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The Very Best Part

The very best part of all of this is that my house got cleaned and we were able to almost comfortably engage in fellowship with each other. It may have felt a little chaotic with us getting up and putting a kid in time out or struggling to talk to one another over the noise, but we were together and had fun and that's what matters!

What did you do this weekend? Do you have any traditions that you do each year? 

How to Throw an Economical Tea Party

    I have three children and out of the three, I have two boys and one girl. My daughter has been tired of doing all of the things that my sons have been doing and asked if she could have a tea party and invite her aunts and grandmas. I decided that we could try it out, but if you've ever thrown a party of any kind, you know that it can get pretty expensive to have one.

    This time, I decided to try to be more practical about where to purchase the different things for the party.

    The first thing that I did for my daughter's economical tea party was to create our own invitations. Buying invitations at the store can cost almost $5 or more. By creating my own invitation, I got to be more creative in how it was made and also got to type things out instead of hand writing everything. For this act, I used Microsoft Publisher, but you can make invitations through Word as I figured out when I designed an invitation for the guys to have their own special hang out separate from us.

 
    For any Tea Party, you must dress for the occasion. You can search your closets for some tea party attire, but if you are wanting something new, you can always try out thrift stores. I usually like to buy my kids new clothes for certain occasions, but I knew that a brand new dress for my daughter was probably going to start at $25. In this case, we went to a thrift store that my mother-in-law is always recommending. At this store, I was able to purchase a pretty dress as well as tea cups, a tea pot, and some plates. We bought all of this for $12.  (Pictures to come)

    Since my daughter has something new and pretty to wear, I wanted something pretty too. I wasn't able to find a dress at the thrift store, but I did find a dress at Gordman's for $9.99. I don't even think I would have gotten that lucky at Walmart.

My next stop was the Dollar Tree. I wanted to find decorations and even some gift bag goodies for the guests. I was able to get all of this for only $21. I don't know if you realize how awesome this is. I always end up spending probably close to $45 or more for my kids birthday parties just for decorations and goodies to send home with the kids. I call this a great find!

That's 7 mini flower pots with flowers, two pairs of wings- one for my daughter, the other for the dog, paper plates, napkins, table clothe, pink rose petals to sprinkle on top, two lanterns, two different colors of two sets of streamers, and 3 lizard/alligator things for the boys.  There was also a blue tutu for the other dog, but it fell off before I could take the picture.

    The last place I went to was Good Will for some costumed jewelry and cheap centerpieces if I could find them. The jewelry wasn't very nice, but I did make off with a strand of pearls and instead of an actual centerpiece, I found some flower garlands that I can get creative with. All of this was for $5.

All of this I was able to get for $48. That may seem like an awful lot right now, but if I were to get all of this at Walmart or the party store, you're looking at close to $2 to start out with for each decoration. Walmart sells tea cups for $41.99. I got mine, a dress, and a tea pot for $12.

  I've already saved just by thrift shopping. I could have saved even more if I chose to wear something that I already had, but sometimes it's nice to get something new, besides, most of these items are items that we can reuse if my daughter wants to host another tea party

    While these are all pricey items, sometimes food can be the most costly expense. For this party, I am going to be making cupcakes, some cookies, and cucumber sandwiches for the tea party. For the guys hang out, I will be making Salmon Dip and preparing a chip dish. While it will take time to make these food dishes, I already have most of the things in my cupboards to prepare them and cucumbers in the garden. If you can bake you don't have to purchase $12 cupcakes when all you have to do is catch Betty Crocker on a sale and buy a box for $1. 

    I used to be very against thrift store shopping. I never wanted to wear someone else's left overs, but being a stay at home mom, I found ways to challenge myself to get creative with earning a little extra money on the side for pizza money or finding ways to save. Now I almost get a kick out of how much it cost me to buy a barely used outfit for my daughter or sons. There is nothing wrong with buying something brand new, I still like to do that, but if you can save or up for the challenge, why not save a little while getting a lot?

What ways have you saved? What was your greatest bargain buy?