Pre-Birthday Tea Party ♥

My birthday was on the 30th July but I’ve managed to string my celebrations out for over a whole week! I didn’t do too much on my actual birthday as it was during the week and people were busy, but the weekend before I had a miniature tea party in my garden with my family, including my little niece who loves this kind of thing! Nothing fancy, just a few cakes and sandwiches and pretty tableware. Sorry about the dark photos.. the sun was quickly disappearing in the evening! 

I set the table with my pretty Cath Kidston tea set and cake stand, my Laura Ashley lemonade jug, and my adorable new Parisian side plates from Culture Vulture Direct. I love these so much! They come as a set of 4 in a cute little gift box and is each a different pastel colour. They have a delicate doiley pattern on them, and are decorated with French wording. They’re perfect for a little tea party!

I love adding cute little touches like the pink stripey paper straws, and the vintage style cupcake picks. I stuck these into our cakes and scones and I think they look lovely! The match the tea set I used vintage rose cases for the vanilla cupcakes I made, and I decorated the cupcakes using buttercream swirls and topped with fondant decorations. To make the decorations I used this silicone mould from the Cake Decorating Store, which includes three different designs; a teacup, a cupcake, and a slice of cake. I have a few of these moulds and I find them really easy to use. You simply dust with a bit of cornflour or icing sugar and press in some ready made sugarpaste. You can use multiple colours at one to give the decorations more depth. You then just carefully push the shapes out and voila! I used the Squires Kitchen sugarpaste in Sweet Lavender and Frosted Leaf for my decorations.

We ate salmon and cream cheese sandwiches, home baked fruit scones with clotted cream and jam, cupcakes, carrot cake, and party ring biscuits! Yummy. I also did my pink lemonade trip again by simply cheating and adding a bit of food colouring into my old fashioned lemonade! As the little tea party was held in the early evening after work on one of those boiling hot days, I simply changed into my new Dorothy Perkins maxi dress and jewelled sandals courtesy of House of Fraser. I love the floaty fabric on this dress, and I like the fact that it’s sheer but the lining underneath is short. I adore the pastel coloured floral pattern too, which I think is lovely for summer special occasions. It has thin spaghetti straps which cross over at the back, and it also has straps to tighten the waist at the back. I was having a lazy hair day so simply had it up in a messy bun, and I wore my floral headband which matches the dress nicely.