How To Throw A Garden Tea Party

There's nothing more beautiful than a garden tea party. We hosted one in our backyard and it was magical. Check out our decor ideas, full tea party menu with recipe links, iced tea mocktails, flower crowns, and more.

Jump to:

• Quick Look
• Why You'll Love This Garden Tea Party
• What Is a Garden Tea Party?
• Setting the Scene: Making Your Outdoor Space Feel Magical
• Garden Tea Party Tablescape
• Garden Tea Party Flowers and Flower Crowns
• Garden Tea Party Menu
• Garden Tea Party Drinks
• Iced Tea Mocktails and Cocktails
• Tea Party Favors
• More Tea Party Inspiration
• Frequently Asked Questions

There is something about a garden tea party that feels genuinely magical. For Paige's 16th birthday family celebration, we set a long table under our backyard pergola, draped vintage lace ribbons from the beams, tucked fresh flowers from the garden into every corner of the table, and served finger sandwiches, scones, and sweets with proper cups of tea. We sat outside long past dark, with candles flickering and fairy lights glowing overhead, and it was one of those evenings none of us wanted to end.

This garden tea party has everything you need to host your own: decor and tablescape ideas, a full menu with recipe links, drinks, flower crowns, and practical tips for hosting outdoors beautifully.

If you love tea parties, you might also enjoy our Little Women Vintage Tea Party, our Christmas Tea Party, and our Complete Tea Party Food Guide which has all our favourite tea party recipes in one place.

What Is a Garden Tea Party?

A garden tea party is simply afternoon tea enjoyed outdoors. It takes all the classic elements of traditional afternoon tea, finger sandwiches, scones with jam and cream, little sweets and pastries, and moves them into a garden, patio, or backyard setting where the fresh air and natural surroundings make everything feel even more special.

You might hear the terms "afternoon tea" and "high tea" used interchangeably, but they are actually different things. Afternoon tea is the elegant, lighter spread served in the mid-afternoon with dainty sandwiches, scones, and sweets. High tea, despite the name, is a more substantial meal eaten in the early evening. For a garden tea party, afternoon tea is exactly what you are after.

Setting the Scene: Making Your Outdoor Space Feel Magical

The beautiful thing about a garden tea party is that the outdoor setting does a lot of the work for you. Whether you are hosting under a pergola draped in grapevines or setting up a simple table on a backyard deck, the key is creating an atmosphere that feels intentional and a little bit enchanted.

For Paige's party, we were lucky to have our pergola as the natural anchor of the space. But the elements that really made it feel special were the ones we added: the draped lace ribbons, the hanging lanterns, the candlelight, and the fresh flowers everywhere. Those details transformed a backyard into a setting that felt genuinely magical.

If your outdoor space is more modest, lean into what you have and bring in the rest. A few potted blooms, a market bouquet, some draped fabric overhead, and soft lighting at dusk will do more than you think.

Garden Tea Party Decorations

This is where the magic happens. For Paige's party we went for a romantic, boho aesthetic with lots of white, soft blush, and warm gold throughout.

Ribbon Streamers: The biggest impact came from the lace ribbons. My sister helped us drape vintage white and off-white lace ribbons all across the pergola beams, weaving them down toward the hanging paper lanterns in the centre. It created this dreamy draped canopy effect that looked like something out of a fairytale. Almost all of the ribbon was a lucky secondhand store find, and I love that it is completely reusable. Prepare to see those lace ribbons at future parties because they are too beautiful not to bring out again.

Lighting: The large white lanterns hanging from the pergola beams at different heights, are actually weather proof solar lanterns. They created the most extraordinary glow as the sun went down, combined with candles, and fairy lights. The candles were in thrift store brass candlesticks with a dipped paint effect (see how we made them here) and we also tucked some vintage glasses in as tea light holders throughout the table. The effect was honestly breathtaking.

Indoors: If you are hosting your garden tea party indoors, you can recreate this look by attaching ribbon to the ceiling or draping it from corner to corner across the room. It works just as beautifully inside.

If You Don't Have a Pergola: Tall outdoor lighting posts, the kind people use for festoon or string lights, work beautifully if you set them around the table and run ribbon or fabric between them. You can also look for an over the table rod stand, an adjustable metal arch frame that clamps right onto your table edges and creates an instant overhead structure you can hang lanterns and ribbon from. Both options are inexpensive, easy to find online or at big box stores, and endlessly reusable for outdoor entertaining.

Garden Tea Party Tablescape

We were going for a pretty boho vibe for the tablescape, and I love how it all came together. Our color scheme was lots of white and off-white with touches of soft pink and a little purple, which felt romantic and garden-fresh without being too formal.

• Table Runner: We laid a macrame runner down the centre of the table, which added the most beautiful texture against the concrete. A lace runner would work just as beautifully here too.
• Lights: Then we added lots of candles and fairy lights to create that magical feel as the evening settled in. The candles were some brass thrift store finds with a dipped paint effect (see how I made them here) and we also tucked vintage glasses in as tea light holders throughout the table. As the sun went down the combination of candlelight and fairy lights was absolutely gorgeous.
• Place Settings: For each place setting we used pretty vintage pink depression glass tea cups with beautiful gold cutlery and added a teaspoon for stirring tea. The vintage tea cups really added a special touch to the table. Since everything we served was finger food there were no forks necessary. The knife is just for spreading butter, jam, and cream on your scone.
• Menu Cards: Paige made individual menu cards for each spot using Canva, printed onto cardstock and layered with the colors of the party. They are such a lovely personal touch at an elegant tea party and make a beautiful keepsake for guests to take home afterwards too.

Garden Tea Party Flowers and Flower Crowns

Table Arrangements: The fresh flowers were all from my mom and sister's garden and they looked absolutely stunning. There is something so special about using garden flowers for a party like this. They feel alive and generous in a way that grocery store bouquets sometimes don't, and the variety of blooms you get from a real garden is hard to replicate. We arranged them in simple glass vases.

If you don't have a garden to cut from, a farmers market bouquet or even a few bunches from the grocery store arranged loosely in small vintage vessels will look just as beautiful on the table. And wild flowers are a great addtion too, just be sure to harvest responsibly.

Flower Crowns: My sister Heather used to be a florist, and we called her in to make flower crowns for the girls. She asked each of them what they were wearing and tried to incorporate flowers in colors that would complement their outfits. The flower crowns were so fun and festive, and honestly I think we should use them instead of birthday hats at every celebration from now on. The girls loved them so much they all dried theirs afterwards as a keepsake of the evening.

Flower crowns are one of those party details that feel both whimsical and genuinely special. If you don't have a florist in the family, you can find tutorials online for simple DIY flower crowns, or many local florists will make them to order for a small gathering. They photograph beautifully and your guests will never forget them. For a special party like this one, they are a splurge that's totally worth it.

Garden Tea Party Menu

We had so much fun putting together the menu for this party. We did all our favourites for a traditional afternoon tea and then added a few extra special touches to make it feel a little more substantial since we were serving it as our evening meal. The great thing about a tea party menu is that almost everything can be made ahead of time, which means you actually get to enjoy the party instead of spending the whole evening in the kitchen.

Tea is traditionally served on tiered trays with sandwiches on the bottom layer, scones in the middle, and pastries and sweets on top. Since we were serving a larger group we used platters and cake plates and passed the different courses around the table, which worked out beautifully.

Savoury

The finger sandwiches are the heart of any tea party menu and our guests loved sampling all the different options. We made the fillings ahead of time and assembled the sandwiches right before the party, which made things so much easier on the day.

We also included a few different savory bites, like our goat's cheese tarts, and mini tostados. Any bite sized favorites are great to include. And I come from farmers who always have a pickle tray at the table, so we included some sweet gherkins, which are so nice with a sandwich.

• Cucumber Sandwiches
• Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches
• Chicken Salad in Toast Cups
• Caramelized Onion and Goat's Cheese Tarts
• Mini Avocado and Grilled Shrimp Tostadas
• Gherkin Pickles

Scones

We are big fans of scones as part of any proper tea party spread. We made both plain and raisin scones the morning of the party so they were fresh and at their very best, and served them with the traditional toppings of butter, jam, and cream.

• Easy Food Processor Scones

Sweets

One of our favourite additions was the floral inspired lollipops. We flavoured them with raspberry and pressed dried edible flowers from the garden right into them. They were so pretty and such a fun conversation starter. We made some of the sweets the day before and some the morning of the party, and rounded things out with a beautiful assortment of pastries and macarons from our favourite local bakery. Picking up a few things from a good bakery is such a smart shortcut for a party like this.

• Brown Butter Madeleines
• Assorted macarons
• Floral Raspberry Homemade Lollipops
• Brown Butter Raspberry Tarts
• Cookies and Assorted Pastries

Garden Tea Party Drinks

No garden tea party is complete without a proper cup of tea, even in warm weather. We offered a selection of traditional orange pekoe, Earl Grey, and a few herbal options so guests could choose their favourite. It is worth having a few different teapots available and keeping the kettle going throughout the party so there is always fresh hot tea ready.

If you need extra teapots or tea cups, secondhand stores are your best friend. Mixing and matching vintage pieces is part of the charm, and you can almost always find beautiful ones at the thrift store for a fraction of what you would pay at an antique shop.

It is said that tea tastes best when served in porcelain, and there really is something about a proper cup of tea brewed in a teapot and poured into a beautiful tea cup that you just cannot replicate with a mug and a tea bag. Set up a small tea station on the side with all the tea fixings, a selection of tea bags, honey, sugar, and milk, so it is easy to keep serving throughout the party without any fuss.

Iced Tea Mocktails and Cocktails

Since we were hosting in the evening we wanted to add something a little more festive to the drinks menu. My girls love the fancy iced tea drinks from Starbucks so we took some inspiration from their menu and came up with a passion tea lemonade and a peach white tea lemonade.

For the grownups we offered a shot of vodka to anyone who wanted to make it into a cocktail.

Edible Flower Ice Cubes: The detail that really made these drinks special was the floral ice cubes. We froze edible flowers from the garden right into the ice, and it was one of the prettiest and simplest things we did all evening. Our guests noticed them immediately and loved every extra special detail like that. These iced tea drinks were the perfect welcome drink as guests arrived and set the tone for the whole party beautifully.

We set everything up on a bar cart in the garden with the pitchers of iced tea, a silver ice bucket, the edible flower ice cubes, fresh fruit for garnish, and a printed recipe card so guests could mix their own drinks. It looked gorgeous tucked into the garden and was so easy to manage throughout the evening.

Tips for Hosting a Garden Tea Party Outdoors

Hosting outside is so beautiful but there are a few practical things worth thinking through ahead of time so the day runs smoothly.

• Keep food inside until just before serving. Insects and heat aren't great for prepared food. Bring the food out just before serving, and consider using mesh covers, if insects are a problem.
• Set up in the shade. Direct afternoon sun on a tea party table is hard on both the food and your guests. Position your table in a shaded spot if you can, whether that is under a pergola, a tree, or under a large umbrella. Your guests will be much more comfortable and your food will hold up better too.
• Embrace the evening. Tea parties are traditionally in the afternoon, but we hosted ours in the evening and it was great. One of our favourite things about this party was the way it transformed as the sun went down. The candles and fairy lights came alive in a way they simply cannot in the afternoon. If your schedule allows, starting your garden tea party in the evening and enjoying it after sunset is a beautiful way to enjoy the full magic of an outdoor gathering.
• Have a backup plan. Weather outdoors can be unpredictable. Know ahead of time where you would move the party if the weather turns, even if it is just your living room or a covered porch. Having a plan means you will not be scrambling and your guests will barely notice the change. Or have a rain date in mind, and let guests know.

Make-Ahead Timeline

One of the best things about a tea party menu is how well it lends itself to getting ahead. Here is how we would break it down:

One to two weeks before

• Order flower crowns from your florist so they have plenty of time to prepare
• Design and print menu cards
• Gather your teapots, tea cups, and serving pieces and make a note of anything you still need. Shop antique stores or thrift stores for extra pieces you need.
• Iron linens and set them aside

A few days before

• Make the lollipops if you are including them and store in a cool dry place
• Make edible flower ice cubes and freeze

The day before

• Make all sandwich fillings and refrigerate
• Bake madeleines and tartlets and store in an airtight container
• Prepare iced tea elements and refrigerate
• Pick or buy flowers and arrange them indoors somewhere cool overnight
• Gather all your supplies, platters, and decor pieces so the morning of the party is calm. Use sticky notes on platters to remind yourself what goes where.

The morning of

• Bake scones fresh so they are at their very best
• Assemble finger sandwiches and keep refrigerated right up until serving
• Pick up any bakery items
• Set up tables and decor outside
• Set up the tea station and bar cart

One hour before guests arrive

• Light candles
• Boil the kettle and have the first pot of tea ready
• Bring sandwich platters out of the refrigerator right before guests sit down
• Put on your playlist and your flower crown and enjoy the party you planned

Tea Party Favors

It's always nice to send your guests home from a birthday party with a small party favor.  Our guests went home with:

• take home pack of fresh scones
• small jar of jam
• box of speciality tea
• homemade floral lollipops  
• special tea mocktail supplies and the recipe cards to make them

We did one gift bag per family, which was perfect.  These were a big hit with everyone, and helped the good feelings of our magical evening together to keep going.

More Tea Party Inspiration

Frequently Asked Questions

If you try anything from this garden tea party or any other ideas on my blog please let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!