Tea Party for My Princess.

My princess has turned five. And I do mean princess. This little girl is as pink and frilly and floofy as a girl can be. So, each year I have to up the chichi factor.

This year, we went with a Tea Party for her social event of the year. She invited her closest pals (wait, it was a surprise, so technically I invited them....) I had it in the late morning/early afternoon on a week day since that works best for most of her little friends and it also means I won't spend a whole weekend stressing over it!

And it was a hit! Although she was a bit in shock... She came around after the saw the overabundance of sugar at her fingertips: Chocolate covered strawberries (pink chocolate, of course), choc late covered marshmallows, strawberry yogurt covered raisins... pink lemonade, tea in the cutest tea pots found on clearance at TJ Maxx, Hershey bars wrapped in her own special birthday wrapper... pink sparkly cupcakes, flower shaped pb&j sandwiches (such a cute idea)... it was sugar overload, but she loved it!

The setting and decorations were beautiful... but you would never know the whole setup was actually very inexpensive. I picked up mismatched cups (a nice pink 80's floral motif), plates, saucers, serving platters, serving bowls... all very pinkish... as well as an adorable cheese server to provide her with her own special cupcake: all for under $15 at Goodwill!!!

I made my own napkins from remnants from the Strawberry Shortcake dress. The table cloth was a sheet I purchased on clearance at TJ Maxx years ago for Ariana's princess parties. Then I made the chair back covers from another sheet I went back to TJ Maxx for this year, I then used the leftover fabric as a table runner.

Add a ton of tulle: (which comes very cheap by the yard at fabric stores).

A hand made banner: ...made in Photoshop with the Circus font (downloaded free from Dafont.com), printed at Staples and sewn into a double fold bias tape.

...a block for each little girl to mark her place setting (Seriously, what child does not love to see a photo of themselves, especially where it wasn't expected???)


..and you end up with a table full of very giddy (albeit highly saturated with sugar) little princesses and one very special, excited little lady... who had the "best birthday party ever".
And I know it does look opulent, but thanks to Goodwill, TJ Maxx clearance and coupons, it was quite inexpensive. The balance was definitely paid with my blood, sweat and tears though, as it took awhile to put together.

Remember that ok, Princess? It's all because I love you... all the way to the moon and back!