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Planning parties and giving gifts are some of my favorite things to do! I have always felt that birthdays are an important day and should be a special celebration. My other favorite thing is planning on a budget. I love to see how much I can save by either making things myself or finding things that are inexpensive.
Last week my daughter turned 9 and we threw a simple tea party with some of her friends. It was so cute, and the girls had the best time! Today I’m sharing all the details of the party, that was very inexpensive thanks to Amazon and the Dollar Tree.
Tea Party Dress
Before I get started with party details, THIS is the dress that my daughter wore for the party. It is great quality and so so cute! She loved it, and it would also make a beautiful Easter dress. Her flower crown was from Hobby Lobby, in the section with the baby headbands and bows.
Decorations
Many decorations for a tea party you probably already own. I already had a lace tablecloth, THIS pink runner, and THIS pack of greenery that I put down the center of the table. I bought a bouquet of flowers at the grocery store and made small bouquets in plastic cups to go in the center of the table also.
I owned THIS set of cups and saucers from Amazon already. We love to have tea parties or teatime often, so I love having this set handy for my kids to use so I’m not upset if one breaks or gets damaged. It is great quality, inexpensive, and dishwasher safe. The tea pots are my own, that were passed down from my mother-in-law. Another inexpensive way to get real teacups inexpensively is to go thrifting. You can find many different cups and saucers for very inexpensive at thrift stores and having mismatched ones would be really cute too!
The Dollar Tree Store is my go-to for most party supplies, other than paper plates. (Their plates are very flimsy.) At the Dollar Store I grabbed a pink tablecloth for our craft table, pink napkins, and the sparkly forks. I grabbed THESE assorted paper plates from Amazon.
These days I don’t have much time to gather a bunch of decorations or make things myself, so I LOVE grabbing a birthday party set from Amazon for each birthday. You can find them for almost any theme and it comes with everything you need for an amazing price. I bought THIS set that came with all the balloons, the hanging tea pots/tea cups, the “Let’s ParTea” balloon banner, and all the cupcake toppers. The only thing I added to my mantle was another strand of greenery that I had from previous parties. Such a simple pack, with everything you need, that makes it look like you went above and beyond.
For a tea party, pull out anything you might already have that could work as decor first; table cloths, runners, center pieces, etc. See what you already have before you buying anything new to save money.
Food
I did not get many pictures of the food I served once the party got started. We chose to go with a breakfast theme, but you could also do simple tea sandwiches, veggies, small pastries, etc. For our party we served stacked mini pancakes, fruit cups, donut holes, mini muffins, and sausage. I guess it was a hit because they ate everything! I bought almost everything pre-made to make my life easier. All I had to do was cook the sausage, heat up the mini pancakes, and cut up some fruit for the fruit cups. (The fruit cups were from the Dollar Tree also.) I served all the food on THESE tiered trays. We also had mini cupcakes to sing Happy Birthday.
Not many little ones like actual tea, so we had one teapot with apple juice and one teapot with grape juice.
For the moms, I grabbed an Aram sandwich from the deli, a veggie snack tray, and some of the fruit I cut up.
Activities/ Games
Having a tea party is the best because that is one of the main activities. All of the girls had a great time eating, drinking, and chatting together at the table. They enjoyed that for a long time, so they didn’t need many other activities to do.
I did have a craft station for them where they could decorate their own cups. I grabbed each of them a white mug from the Dollar store and pulled out all my assorted sharpies. You can buy THIS set if you need some. They all gathered around the table and drew pictures or designs all over their cups. At the end of the party, I sent them home with a small goody bag to go inside. It had a candy bracelet, a ring pop, and instructions for their parents how to bake the cups at home later so the designs would stick.
**Bake the cup at 350 degrees for 30 minutes once the design has dried for a few hours or overnight. (Put the cup in the oven before it heats up and let it cool off before you take it out.) Hand wash the cups to keep the colors vibrant.
They also each got a white spring hat on each of their chairs at the tea table. These hats and the candy for their goody bags were from the Dollar store too! However, if you are wanting to get hats like these for your future party from the Dollar store, go now! They are only out right now because they just pulled out all their spring, Easter decor. If you are unable to find them, THIS is a great set of similar hats on Amazon, or THIS pack of mini hats are cute too.
We also played some simple games that were all free. I printed out THIS Tea Party Bingo set that they played and used colorful pebbles I already had as the place markers. These pebbles can also be found at the Dollar store, in the section with the vases and fake flowers. We played “Toss the Tea Bag,” by tossing a tea bag into assorted cups, bowls, and vases that had various points on them. I just wrote on the bowls and vases with a dry erase marker. They lined up and stood behind a little chair and each got to toss 3 tea bags to accumulate points. It was a lot of fun. Make sure they are standing fairly close as the tea bags are tricky to throw, many were then able to still get them into the different dishware.
That was it! After the tea party and playing games, the girls went off to play before doing mini cupcakes and opening gifts. It was a super simple party, but everyone had so much fun.
Some of the moms and I were talking that they all enjoyed it so much, we should have tea parties a few times throughout the year just for fun. I already have all the teacups!
If you need a few gift ideas, these were some of her favorites she got for her birthday this year:
I hope you enjoyed seeing our party and feel confident enough to throw you own! It is a great simple party you can throw with many items you already own.
I don’t have a blog post for her birthday party last year, she had an ART party, but if you go to my Instagram you can find a Reel I made with all the details. It was SO cute!!
I haven’t shared many parties on my blog before, I will be better at doing it now, but HERE is one I did of my son’s 1st birthday (Puppy PAW-ty) that was so fun and can be used for any age and gender.
Wishing you a restful weekend!!
Lindsay
Loved it! Do you recommend these theme at 9 or younger? Thanks
I think any age is great for this!