Whimsical Fairy Garden Tea Party
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Flitting fairies. Woodland friends. And sipping tea in a shady glen.
All of these things made for a delightful fairy tea party to celebrate my little’s recent summer birthday.
The event was inspired by a beautiful fairy festival that we attended the previous year. There the kids made fairy wands, met a mermaid and danced through the gardens. It was quite the afternoon.
For our fairy tea party, I wanted to recreate the enchanting feel of a magical fairy hideaway in our own backyard. Luckily, in the late summer months, the towering trees provide lots of shade. And our garden turns a lush green. So, the setting was perfect to invite the fairies to stop by.
The Invitation
As I always say, choosing the right invitation for your event is important. An invitation sets the scene and let’s guests know what to expect.
When designing this fairy tea party invitation, I wanted to include whimsical fairies and elements of tea. So, I created an invitation that mixed both elements with watercolor fairies and woodland animals.
My favorite part of the design is the bird bringing the tea bag. It reminds me of the delightful picture books that I read to the kids at bedtime.
Adding the tea time element transformed the fairy invitation from a regular fairy birthday party to a fairy tea party.
The Location
When I think of a fairy tea party, my first thought is to head to the garden. If you’re hosting your event in the late spring through fall months, you can easily take the party outdoors.
We are blessed with a beautiful green garden in our backyard. In late summer, there are roses, wildflowers, hydrangeas and other colorful flowers to enjoy. These were a wonderful backdrop for our fairy tea party.
If you don’t have a lush backyard, then you can also head to a local park or garden. Many will rent space or let you just gather under the beautiful trees.
When planning an outdoor party, think about shade for your guests. We set up our tea party under a tent. It kept guests much cooler. No matter when you host your party, sitting in the sun can get warm. If you don’t have a tent, look for some shade from a tree or wooded glen.
The Decorations
Table décor is one of the most important places to make a statement with your guests. When hosting a sit down gathering, start your decorating around the table.
To bring a natural element to the center of our tea party table, I used a vase of gold painted acorns. When decorating the center of a table, try not to add too much height. You still want guests, especially littler ones, to be able to see each other and interact.
For each table setting, think in layers. I started with a gold charger plate (affiliate) for the bottom. You could also use a decorative paper placemats (affiliate) or rectangular paper doilies (affiliate).
On top of the charger plate, I added a vintage wildflower plate. These were a gift from my grandmother and it was special to have her at our celebration in this unique way.
Next came the napkins. I rolled up dinner sized napkins in our matching printable napkin rings. There was also a small glassine bag (affiliate) filled with homemade potpourri for the party favor, a bottle of “Pixie Bubbles” and “Fairy Dust” sprinkles. (More on those below.)
The tea cup and saucer were set on the right hand side. I found my china tea set at a thrift shop when I hosted our first children’s tea party many years ago. I love having a tea set that the kids can use without me having to worry about it. And after many uses, we’ve never had a breakage.
After setting the table, I worked on decorating the rest of the party. One of the best parts about entertaining outdoors is that you are surrounded by natural decorations. Wild flowers, pine trees and rose bushes all serve as a beautiful backdrop to a fairy tea party. So, I didn’t need to add too much extra.
On the dessert table, I added pinecones, flower petals and seed pods. There were also sticks that the kids had collected on a recent hike. These natural elements helped guests feel like they were in the woods.
To greet party guests as they arrived, I made this wooden sign post. It featured a variety of fairy places to visit including Sunset Cove and Frosty Yew.
The Tea
So, the reality of planning a tea party for kids is that not many kids drink tea. Okay, to be completely honest, very few kids drink tea.
That’s okay. Even though you are using the formal words “tea party”, tea doesn’t actually have to be served. My alternative is serving hot chocolate. I’ve found that it’s been a winner at all of my kid tea party events. And I can still serve it using a tea pot. Which is half the fun.
Other beverage alternatives that kids love include lemonade, fruit juice and chocolate milk. I do recommend choosing only one beverage to serve at the table. It can get complicated offering too many.
If you would like to offer multiple drink options, serve them in drink glasses next to the tea cups or in drink dispensers (affiliate). In addition to hot chocolate, I added “Fresh Morning Dew” (lemonade) and “Sweet Fairy Tea” (iced tea) to the drink menu. I also had chilled water bottles customized with matching water bottle labels for guests to enjoy.
With the hot chocolate, I served homemade whipped cream and a bottle of fairy dust sprinkles. I made my own sprinkles mix and added it to these little glass bottles. As beautiful as the bottles are, they can break easily. So, be sure to only serve them with older kids that can be responsible. Each child can dust their hot cocoa with the sprinkles mix and take the extras home to enjoy at another time.
The Menu
When creating a tea party menu for kids, it’s important to choose finger foods that everyone will like. Since we had guests with allergies, we stayed away from nut based foods.
The tea party happened after lunch time, so I didn’t serve finger sandwiches. Instead, I focused my menu on different mini desserts and healthy fruit options. Remember, when creating a party menu, it’s important to have a balance between sweets and healthy food choices. It’s prevents a sugar overload and keeps parents (and guests) happier.
This tea party menu included raspberry jam thumbprint cookies, cream puffs (purchased in the frozen dessert section of our supermarket and dusted with powdered sugar), fairy kisses (mini meringues), blueberry scones, crème brulee, twigs (pretzel sticks), macarons, watermelon slices and strawberries.
There was also a mix of cupcakes – toadstool cupcakes and pretty fairy ones with swirled frosting. I added these woodland fairy cupcake toppers and it looked like the fairies were really stopping by (affiliate).
When creating your tea party menu, decide if you want to have just sweet or a combination of sweet and savory. I stuck with just sweet for this tea party. But I could have added some savory dishes as well. Some ideas include mini quiches, finger sandwiches, cheese and crackers and savory scones (like ham and cheese).
For this tea party, I set up a dessert table to serve guests. I used an assortment of cake plates, serving platters and rustic baskets to display the goodies. To add a woodland feel, I also displayed treats on large wood cuts (affiliate).
I used a long white tablecloth to cover the dessert table. Then, I placed a burlap table runner (affiliate) in the center. When decorating a woodland themed party, burlap is a great fabric to incorporate. It’s rustic feel and rough edges complement the natural elements of the event.
The Activities
One of my favorite parts about planning a party is choosing the activities. There are so many fun party games and activities to select that kids will love. And you can get quite creative too with your planning.
For this fairy tea party, I chose a variety of activities that I knew the kids would enjoy. If your kids are older, have them help in planning the activities. They know what their friends like to do. By including their input, you’re more likely to choose activities everyone will enjoy.
What’s Your Fairy Name?
We started off the party by playing What’s Your Fairy Name? game. The kids took the first letter of their name and added the month they were born to figure out their fairy names. I made fairy name tags and they wrote their names on them. For the rest of the party, they could use their fairy name if desired. It was fun calling everyone by their magical names instead.
Fairy Scavenger Hunt
Kids love scavenger hunts. And a fairy tea party wouldn’t be complete without one. (This might not be true, but the kids had so much fun searching.)
So, I created a magical scavenger hunt for them to enjoy. The kids divided into teams of two. Then, they searched for nature items and magical fairy ones hidden throughout the backyard. These special objects were used to make their teacup fairy gardens later on in the party.
Quick note… the one rule I have with group scavenger hunts is that you can’t shout out when you’ve found something. It ruins the hunt for everyone else. When starting, make sure the groups go in different directions. This will guarantee that they aren’t following each other and discover the items at different times.
Fairy Wand Craft
Every fairy needs a fairy wand. Let guests create their own fairy wands to enjoy at the party. Start with an unfinished wooden star shaped wand. Guests can add an assortment of stick on gems, sequins, glitter and beads (affiliates). You can even include googly eyes if there are a lot of boys attending. (They like to make monster wands.)
Teacup Fairy Gardens
Making teacup fairy gardens is the perfect craft idea for a fairy tea party. Using vintage teacups, guests can create their own fairy gardens to take home. This project also can double as a favor idea. Check out the tutorial for making your own teacup fairy garden here.
Pixie Bubbles
No matter the age, kids love bubbles. Especially at a party. Although you could have more organized bubble activities at your fairy tea party, giving guests a bottle of bubbles to blow works well too. Use our fairy bubble labels to make them “Pixie Bubbles”. Guests will love fluttering about the woods blowing the bubbles.
Decorate a Fairy Door
A fairy door is a magical connection between our world and the fairies. They can be found at the base of a tree, on a bookshelf or along a wall baseboard.
For this craft, invite guests to decorate their own fairy door to take home. Start with this set of pre-made fairy doors (affiliate). Then kids can paint them, color with markers or embellish with craft supplies such as buttons, toadstools or beads.
The Favors
For this fairy tea party, the crafts were the favors. Guests got to take home fairy wands and teacup fairy gardens to enjoy later on.
At the place settings, we also added small bags of homemade potpourri from the garden. I packaged it in small glassine bags (affiliate) and sealed them with a fairy sticker.
Other fairy favor ideas include fairy dust bottles, fairy wish bracelets and fairy door magnets (affiliates). To package, add our fairy party favor tag and attach to the favor.
Instead of a formal favor table, at a tea party you can add the party favors to each place setting. Guests will love to wear their fairy wish bracelets or keep their fairy dust bottles close at the party.
A fairy garden tea party is a beautiful birthday party idea. The theme is perfect for littles who love fairies and playing in the woods. If you don’t want to serve tea at your party, you can also host a fairy garden party. Just replace the tea with regular refreshments. And instead of making tea cup fairy gardens, guests can create a card roll fairy home or painted pot fairy houses.
Love these fairy tea party ideas? Be sure to pin for later.
And if you are hosting your own fairy tea party or garden party, check out our fairy tea party printables in our shop here. There is a wonderful assortment of designs to make your fairy tea party extra special.
Happy Celebrating,
Natalie
