"A Bouquet of Teas"


     The staff at High-SocieTea.com recently visited the Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta, Georgia where they found several wonderful ideas for decorating afternoon tea tables. Tea parties can be hosted to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, bridal showers, baby showers, a new job, winning the lottery, or any other happy event in someone’s life. Using a wide variety of flowers and other decor items, the Show participants created some lovely tablescapes and centerpieces that could easily be adapted for any of these themed tea parties.

     Probably the most formal of them all would be the Bridal Shower Afternoon Tea. Using a very tall glass vase, a spray of white flowers in the center of the table sets the mood for this happy occasion. Smaller vases of the same flowers were also placed at each setting. If you look closely, you will see that giant "diamond rings" were used as napkin rings, in keeping with the event’s theme. The beautiful gold rimmed plates and gold flatware finish the look that any bride-to-be would simply adore.



















     If there is a young person in your life celebrating a birthday, this colorful and whimsical table would be just the ticket to liven up an Afternoon Tea birthday soiree. Featuring hot pink and bright lime green covers, this table was decorated with round glass containers filled with tall, thin white rods that you can skewer with marshmallows, colored with food dye to match the table covers. Colored beads were scattered on the table, and nosegays created from flowers in vibrant reds and oranges were set in glass vases. Finally, a "cake" made of ribbons and topped with more vibrantly colored flowers was placed on a glass pedestal cake plate. What child wouldn’t love celebrating a birthday at an afternoon tea table that looks like this!



















     Mardi Gras would be a fun theme to use to celebrate someone winning the lottery, or just celebrating life in general. Here, you see the table covered in a bright pink and white bordered cloth. Those same colors are also used in the grand floral centerpiece, which is arranged in a silver pedestal bowl. For fun, a champagne bucket was placed on the floor and surrounded by iridescent streamers. Silver rimmed white china sets each place along with gleaming silverware. For the final decorative touch, you can see the Mardi Gras mask that was attached to the back of the chair on the right. What a fun way to celebrate life’s good fortunes!




     Another fun Afternoon Tea party to host would be a Bon Voyage party. Here is a really unique way to decorate that tea table. The participants at the Flower Show created a tablescape using a variety of seashells. For the centerpiece, they layered the shells almost like cake layers atop a glass pedestal cake stand. They also scattered clusters of plant leaves amid the shells to add color and texture. Using smaller martini glasses, similar arrangements of seashells were created, which can be placed at each setting. White shell "balls" were created by gluing small white seashells onto Styrofoam balls. These can be placed directly on the table, or grouped in their own glass bowls. Finally, unusual and colorful shells were scattered around the table to complete the nautical look. Your guest of honor won’t want to leave on their cruise when they see this "sea-lightful" Afternoon Tea table. 


     To celebrate someone’s good fortune in landing a new job, you might consider a traditional Oriental tea party. Steeped in tradition, the Japanese ceremony is a show of appreciation of four elements: harmony, or to be at peace; purity, or pureness of mind and thoughts; respect, to respect others; and loneliness, or the quiet serenity found when alone. When attending an Oriental tea party, everyone enjoys admiring the calligraphy and music, and feels as though they are escaping life’s commotion and entering nirvana. To recreate this environment, you can place pillows on the floor around a low table and set out a Japanese tea service (if you have one). You can also place pretty silk fans around the table, and use orchids and bamboo for a centerpiece. Japanese music on CD’s is easily found in music stores, and you can locate Japanese characters or symbols on the Internet to recreate on parchment paper. Write down a few characters in the Japanese language on a strip of parchment and hot glue a bamboo stick at the top and bottom to create a scroll. This would make a nice hostess gift to give to your guests when they leave. What better way to celebrate someone’s good fortune in finding a new job than to experience the rituals of an Oriental tea party where you can all escape, albeit briefly, to nirvana!

     The staff at High-SocieTea.com also found several floral arrangements that would make "tea-riffic" centerpieces for any Afternoon Tea table. 


     This yummy looking "three-tiered cake" was made entirely from flowers. Starting with several Styrofoam rounds glued together, a wedge was cut out and the entire remaining Styrofoam was covered in flowers. The stems were cut short and inserted into the Styrofoam. Then, the "cake" was set on a cake stand for presentation. 




     Here is a multi-tiered "cake" made by stacking several cake stands in graduating smaller sizes on top of each other. You can secure them together with sticky florist clay to make the arrangement more stable. Then, insert blocks of florist foam that have been saturated with water (but not dripping) into the center of each layer. Simply insert the cut flowers into the foam on each layer, and using different colored blossoms, recreate the cascading effect of the flowers from the top layer to the bottom. This masterpiece would be the show stopper at any Afternoon Tea party. 





     This sweet centerpiece would be perfect for a children’s Afternoon Tea party. The folks at the Flower Show used an exaggeratedly large ceramic ice cream cone for the base. But, you could probably find an oversized plastic one at a craft store, or use real cones and make several smaller arrangements. Simply stack round Styrofoam balls onto the cone and secure with a wooden skewer through the center. Then, cover the balls with different colored flowers, replicating those found in ice cream. You can also insert darker colored flowers to look like "chocolate sprinkles" or "maraschino cherries." The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. 




     Last but not least, this centerpiece was created for a Sweet 16 Birthday celebration. Using an elaborate golden pedestal bowl, mounds of flowers were, again, inserted into Styrofoam (or florist’s foam), and dark petals from an exotic orchid were used to cascade down from the top of the display to resemble ribbons. A pretty ribbon was tied to a beautiful serving spoon to carry out the theme. Any young lady would be thrilled to see this floral centerpiece on her Sweet 16 Afternoon Tea table.

Photos: © 2009  Lighthouse Literary, Inc.