Mother's Day Tea

In my introduction I spoke briefly about our Mother's Day Tea.  We held the first annual tea at our church last May.  I came up with the idea to celebrate the Mothers in our lives - our moms, aunts, daughters, and friends.  The tea was a great success!  We are beginning to plan our second annual Mother's Day Tea for May 7th.  The planning is just as much fun as the actual tea.  The planning is fairly easy.  The bulk of the work comes the week prior to the tea, as well as the evening before.

We had 12 tables, which is all our space can hold.  We chose not to have a long buffet table, but instead we served the tea and the food at each table.  I recruited a table hostess for each table.  The hostess' responsibility included serving on the planning committee, preparing some of the food which was served, and decorating her table.  Each table seats 8 people.  The tables were set with the hostess' china, cutlery, goblets, tea cups, and serving trays.  They also decorated the table with a centerpiece.  We stipulated that the centerpieces be real, such as real flowers.  No silk, plastic, or other types of flowers or decorations are allowed.  One girl used a beach theme and used real sea shells in place of flowers.  That is great!  We did have coursages hand made by one of the ladies.  She hand-rolled satin fabric into a beautiful rose.  She made one for each lady in attendence.  They added a nice touch to my napkin presentation, as I tucked one into each napkin which was folded with a decorative ribbon used as a napkin ring.  My napkins are a light pink and the roses were more of a hot pink.  It provided such a lovely contrast.

Because we want the tea to be extra special, and because we rarely are able to dine with such beautiful place settings, I also did not want paper napkins to be used.  Only cloth napkins are used. 

Each table looked different and had different color schemes, according to the china or dishes the hostess used.  I decorated two tables, with the help of my mother.   We provide ecru colored table clothes (the only ones the church has), but the hostess may use any table cloths or place mats they have or desire.  On one of my tables I used different tea cups and coordinated them with butterfly plates provided by my mom.  Her plates have a solid colored band around the edge with a butterfly over the white center.  They are pink, blue, green, yellow, and lavender.  I used light pink placemats to add color to the ecru table, as well as matching napkins.  My table was the most ecclectic there and it received alot of compliments.  My other table used a pink damask table cloth with my good china - an ecru background with clusters of muted flowers in pink, yellow, green, and a little blue.  Ecru napkins were used.  Clear etched goblets were used for the water.  The tea cups were in the same china pattern. 

I will post later with more information about the Mother's Day Tea.