Summer Soiree
Summer Soiree Evening Tea Party: the perfect summer soiree evening with boho decor, fresh flower crowns, a tea party menu and tea cocktails.
My oldest daughter turned 16 last week, and because of Covid and having to have a small family gathering we decided on a on backyard summer soiree evening tea party. It was pretty magical and I’m excited to share all the fun details with you.
We wanted to have the party in our backyard under the pergola, and enjoy all the pretty lights when it started to get dark outside.
Ribbons On The Pergola
To decorate the pergola we used a bunch of lace ribbons in white and off-white. My sister is a florist and used wire to secure the ribbon and drape it towards the solar lanterns in the middle. It created such a beautiful setting. I love how it all turned out, and how much drama it added to the space.
Boho Tea Party Tablescape
We were going for a pretty boho tea party vibe for the tablescape. As our colour scheme for the table we used lots of white and off white, with some pink and a little purple. We laid a macrame runner on the beautiful concrete table -see how we made the table here.
Then used lots of candles and fairy lights to create a magical feel. The candles were some brass thrift store finds with a dipped paint effect -see how I made them here. We also used some vintage glasses as tea light holders.
The flowers were all from my mom and sister’s garden and looked so beautiful.
For the place settings we some pretty vintage pink depression glass teacups, with beautiful gold cutlery. Paige made the individual menus for each spot.
Summer Soiree Flower Crowns
When we first talked about Paige’s 16th birthday and asked her what she would like to do, she mentioned the Summer Soriee in the Anne With An E television series and how beautiful it was. So we came up with the idea of a backyard garden party. One detail she really wanted to incorporate from the show was to have flower crowns. Luckily my sister used to be a florist, so we called in Auntie Heather and she did an amazing job at making flower crowns for the girls.
They were so pretty, and the girls are all drying them now as a pretty keepsake of the evening.
Summer Soiree Tea Mocktails and Cocktails
For our summer soriee we decide on a tea party menu, but since it was the evening we updated it a little with tea mocktails and cocktails.
My girls love to get a fancy tea drink at Starbucks, so we took some inspiration from their menu and came up with a passion tea lemonade and a peach white tea lemonade option. For some of the grownups we added a shot of vodka.
To make our drinks extra special we used edible flowers from our garden and froze them in the ice cubes. It was such a pretty and simple way to incorporate more flowers.
They were really delicious and the perfect way to kick off the evening in the garden as a welcome drink.
Summer Soiree Evening Tea Party Menu
We had a lot of fun putting together an evening tea party menu. We did all our favourites and a few extra special treats.
Savoury
- cucumber sandwiches
- egg salad sandwiches
- chicken salad in toast cups -recipe here
- caramelized onion and goat’s cheese galettes -recipe here
- mini avocado and grilled shrimp tostadas
Sweets
- scones with cream and jam -recipe here
- brown butter almond madeleines
- assorted macaroons
- floral raspberry lollipops
- cookies and assorted pastries
- brown butter raspberry tartlets -recipe here
Since it was dinner we wanted to have quite a few options for our guests. One of the great things about tea parties is you can get it all ready ahead of time. We made the sandwich fillings earlier and then just assembled them right before the party.
One of our favourite additions was some floral inspired lollipops. We used this homemade lollipop recipe. We flavoured them with raspberry flavouring and added dried edible flowers that we collected from our garden and pressed earlier. They were so pretty!
We had such a fun evening together Paige’s Sweet 16 Summer Soiree. It was a perfect evening to celebrate our girl.
We sat and enjoyed ourselves until long after dusk, under the lights of pergola.
With a Sweet 16 Summer Soiree Tea Party, life really is a party!