With the release of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, tea parties have been rising in popularity. I have been seeing everything from birthday parties to wedding with a tea party theme and favors. So how do you make yours special? Here are a few tips.

Personalized Tea Packets
This is the main one, personalizing the packets of tea will help guest remember your day forever. It also gives them a gift that they can use instead of throw in a drawer or box and never see again. Practical gifts are the way to go now days. Guests aren’t as excited about keepsakes as they used to be. These personalized tea packets have a lot of available personalization. They are categorized under Bridal Shower, Wedding, Christening/Religious, Baby Shower, and Holidays.

With so many options, you are bound to find a something that will work. They also come in three flavors: black, green, and jasmine.

Tea Infusers
For those of us who don’t know (I didn’t till just a few moments ago), you place loose tea leaves or bags into the infuser while you brew your cup of tea. This keeps you from having floating leaves in your tea. I don’t know about you, but I hate floating pieces of anything in my tea. If your guests are like me, then these infusers will be a great addition to your personalized tea packets.

Teapot Timer
I know it sounds a bit silly, but can you imagine sitting there, enjoying each other’s company laughing, and joking and letting your brewing cup of tea go bitter because you forgot about it? We all loose track of time, whether it’s in the kitchen cooking, reading a good book, or especially when spending time with good friends. This item will be a practical gift that will allow them to multi task at home and keep their tea from getting bitter at your party.

Personalized Glass Cup
This is the final item I will suggest. I don’t think this one needs any explaining. Personalized cups or mugs will add that extra magic to your event. These also have a lot of different options for personalization so you will be able to match it and make it work.

To add the final touch to your event, take all the items, put them in a small box, basket, or bag together, place package at their seat and you have a perfect little party gift that can be used then and after. Just don’t forget the food!

Weddings can be very expensive, but there are ways to cut back on the cost. Most guests will expect you to have centerpieces and to give wedding favors as a way of showing you, the soon to be newlyweds, care about them. So why not take care of both with only one bill to pay? Here are some ideas for how to incorporate favors as center pieces.

1) Floating items in water.

Not every venue will allow you to have candles, though if they do, I suggest you go with floating candles above. For my roommate’s wedding we deconstructed silk flowers, added a light, and reconstructed the flower around them then floated the flowers with beads at the bottom of each one with one of the wedding colors. I have found some soap flowers that could do the trick as well if you would prefer to not spend the 20+ minutes per flower.

These beautiful orchids can be used in 2 ways. The first is that you could just take the confetti and place it in the water and leave the orchids surrounding the bottom or you could reverse. You could also place both inside the water. HotRef has a few different varieties of the flowers and also just plain confetti.

2) Beach themed

Beach themed weddings open up a lot of options for the combining of centerpieces. First thing you can do is use sand and favor bags that look like beach bag. Fill them with some M&Ms and you have a cute center piece and favors in two easy steps.

You can also find sand in many colors to fit your theme.

You can find sea shells and small candles; place them in the sand with some driftwood (or just sticks) to give a being on the beach feel. Below are some wonderful seaside inspired tea light candles that are inexpensive. Sailboats placed strategically in blue sand will give the feeling of being on or next to the ocean! Adding a candle behind the sails that can give the feel of being at the beach and watching the stars.

Get creative, make your own or just combine items to get the centerpiece and favors that your guests can take home. You don’t need one item for every person because you will have couples, families, and people who don’t want to take anything home. This is your special day, so don’t forget to have fun!

All items listed shown above can be found at www.hotref.com, click on the images to be taken to the item pages.

Capture THE Moments~~

(singing)