I love a great tea, and one of my favorite experiences growing up was visiting Victoria, B.C.
with my family and experiencing what it was like to have a traditional English tea. My great-grandparents were from England and eventually settled in Canada. The English family history has always been interesting to me and what I feel most represents my heritage. When I got married my husbands family had never experienced what "tea" was. Yes they had cups of tea, but not the event of it. So this is my take on a traditional tea, with my own party spin. 
I love vintage pieces, and for this theme I was able to use several of my existing pieces. I used the plates from a snack and tea cup set, and my great grandmothers silver utensils and tea cups. I loved getting to use my family heirloom pieces, made me feel like she was with us too.
At each setting I kept it simple with white napkins and a box of tea for each lady to bring home.
No English celebration is complete without a fascinator. We don't have these in local stores, and what I could find online was more than I wanted to spend. So I made my own, and although not perfect it was fun and we certainly all had a good laugh about it.
After each lady had her fascinator we took a seat for lunch. Tea was customarily served in the late afternoon as a light meal, and over the years it has changed slightly in what is offered and the time of day.
For the menu I served tea sandwiches; cucumber, egg salad and chicken salad. Orange-cranberry scones with clotted cream and jam. Fruit salad, Biscoff cookies (they are simply amazing, I could eat the whole package) and shortbread cookies.
I served both Empress blend black tea and a traditional breakfast tea. The Empress blend is one of my favorites!
If you have never treated yourself to a traditional tea, I highly recommend it. If you don't have anywhere local that puts on a great one, try hosting your own. It is a fun way to gather the ladies in your family or even a group of girlfriends and enjoy spending time together. If you need a great invitation check out the one I had Misha of A Lovely Design make for this event. I think this will be a yearly tradition, we all had such a wonderful time!
If you are interested in making your own fascinators, it is really easy. I bought a white feather boa, white tulle and red flowers from the dollar store. I picked each flower bud off the stems and clipped a small piece of tulle and boa. I bunched up each tulle piece, feather piece and 1-2 flower buds and hot glued them onto the metal hair clip. The glue is hot so I advise to be very careful, lets just say I had my fair share of burns. It isn't precise or fancy, but it worked really well.
Photography and Styling: AK Party Studio
Invitations and Favor Tag: A Lovely Design
Tea Favor: Home Goods
British Tags and Paper Décor: Oriental Trading
*I was provided free product samples in exchange for my honest review.
No other type of compensation was received. All ideas and opinions are my own.
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