My Sixteenth Birthday and Vintage Tea Party

This past Saturday I celebrated my sixteenth birthday with a vintage-style tea.

It is a tradition in our family that when we turn sixteen we are allowed to wear a little make up!  It was very special to drive into Knysna on my birthday morning with my mom to buy my first bit of make-up.  The Lord was so good and led us to all the right shops to find just what we needed at the right prices!  I also had to get a dress to wear at my party and the Lord helped us find that as well in record time!  I usually battle to find a pretty, modest dress anywhere!  Shopping with God is so incredible... 

We left early in the morning to beat the holidaymakers and halfway through our shopping expedition, we stopped for a light breakfast at Mugg & Bean.  I love spending time with my mom and we don’t often go out alone, so I felt very blessed to be able to have her to myself!  When we came home my parents surprised us with a music DVD they had bought for us – ‘Celtic Women Believe’.  ...A perfect ending to a beautiful day...

Throughout the week before my party, I had made all the decor and planned a few crafts for us to do before tea.  I made vintage-style bunting, which you can read about here and I also upcycled an old duvet cover to make two beautiful vintage table cloths.  My mom has a small collection of vintage tea cups and side plates and we turned a few of them into a special cake stand.  We only had to buy a few sherry glasses to raise the plates to form the spectacular tiered cake stand!

My mom and I strung a few spare tea cups on lace and ribbon to create a beautiful scene for the table...

The day before my party I spent in the kitchen, putting together the mini quiches and preparing the sweet treats for baking.  I baked the zesty apple cake on the actual morning, as well as the scones to ensure perfect freshness.  The food was a huge success and amazingly tasty!  I liked the fact that there was nothing too fancy – we kept it simple and it proved to be a hit:)  We wanted a smaller version of ‘high tea’ and that is exactly what we were able to create!

The tea table...zesty apple cake, butternut and red onion mini quiches, baby tomato, basil and feta mini quiches, mini meatballs and baby tomatoes, chocolate brownies, scones and vanilla fudge...

I love this photo of the rose teacup!

 

Isn’t this little sugar bowl too cute?  ...My mom and I saw it at a flower and decor shop in George and knew we just HAD to have it...we also just HAD to buy the matching milk jug seeing as we didn’t actually have one big enough for the occasion...

I had the idea of tying different types of lace around the stems of the wine glasses, and it worked beautifully and added a unique touch to the glasses!  We drank berry cooler in them while we were doing our crafts.

The guests arrived at 11am, wearing vintage-style hats.  We began by enjoying homemade strawberry ice cream in sugar cones and then taking some photographs of the whole display.  By that time we were ready to do a few crafts...  Afterwards we drank forest berry tea and helped ourselves to the tea table of mini finger foods! 

My vintage-style hat! I love it!

As soon as the guests arrived, my mom spooned homemade strawberry ice cream into mini sugar cones for us...it was a perfectly sweet start to the party:)

Lace to cover the candle jars...

 

We wrapped scented soaps in vintage material and lace...this is Nancy’s one! These wrapped soaps make lovely gifts for ladies.

Scones with homemade apricot jam and cream and scones with homemade strawberry jam and cream displayed on our cake stand.

 

Little blocks of homemade vanilla fudge...

Home-grown baby tomato, feta, and basil mini quiches...

Scones...

 

Zesty apple cake – you can expect the recipe very soon...

My dad bought these roses for the centrepiece...they were so beautiful!

 

The lovely young ladies who came to my party!

My dear mother and I...

The party ended all too quickly – it was absolutely lovely and I enjoyed the day so much.  What made it even more special was having our dear friend, Aunty Chris, spend the morning with us! 

 

Gabrielle and Aunty Chris.  We all love her so much!

When my parents left to take Aunty Chris to her home in Knysna after the party ended, my sisters and I ran around putting the house back together again so we could retire on the couch to watch our favourite action movie – ‘theThree Musketeers’.  We had leftover party food for supper and then went to bed as we were quite tired!

Thank you dear family for making my sixteenth such a memorable birthday....I will treasure it always!

P.S.  A big thank you, to my friend, Franki, for allowing me to use her camera – I loved every minute of playing with it; and to Hannah, who very kindly played photographer and took photos of me!

And my verse for this week is...

Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.

Psalm 141:3