Here’s another question for everyone to brainstorm about!
I’m doing a Mother/Daughter tea for my work and am short on money. I was wondering if you had any idea on how to decorate. So far, I have white tablecloths (I wanted pink overlays, but apparently they don’t exist) and white and pink carnations (donated). I was thinking more pink than anything. Any thoughts? It’s next month and I realized I don’t have all this figured out yet!
Thank you so much!
Heather
Thanks for your email, Heather! Here are my ideas:
Burlap: this is a pretty hot decorator item right now, and the best part about it is that it’s super inexpensive! Ways to use it:
- Get a few yards of burlap and cut it into narrow table runners to go down the center of the tablecloths
- Use it to make pretty paper towel flowers (with a general pink color scheme)
- Get some smallish white frames at the dollar store, frame some burlap and a pink flower
- You can also spray paint the burlap pink and use it any way you want
Speaking of Spray Paint: This is a quick and cheap way to makeover anything, including dollar store or thrift store knick knacks for table decorations.
Ask Around: If you know a few people who are coming, you could ask them to lend you their tea sets. Pretty tea sets are great table decorations in themselves!
At the Dollar Store:
- Paper doilies
- Pink rose petals (in the wedding section)
- Pink ribbon
- Vases
- Faux flowers
Okay, that should get you started. Readers, please chime in with your good ideas!
10 Comments
Emily
I used the modpodge on glass idea that was mentioned the other day to make some lovely spring vases. I got my vases for 25c from the thrift store. I was super impressed with how nice the cheapy long necked vases looked with some modpodge and food coloring.
JHill
I would check out the wedding section at the dollar tree. They have some nice looking decorations, usually in a white/silver color scheme, so you could easy add pink embellishments to make them fit your party.
Another idea would be to ask guests to send in their favorite mother/daughter pictures. Use picnik.com to make them black and white, sepia toned, or even give them all a pink cast to unify the look. Then you can print them out and put them on the tables. I like to do this trick at parties because it gets people up and mingling because they want to visit each table to see all the different pictures!
amy
I love JHill’s idea. You could make it into a contest too, and have it be pictures of the mothers with their mothers (a twist on baby pictures contest!).
Raya
You could make some adorable cake stands from which to serve your tea sandwiches, scones, and other treats, using dishes, vases, or candlesticks from the dollar store.
There is a great tutorial here: http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/05/diy-project-kates-recycled-cakestands.html
If you use clear glass vases as the bases, you could fill them up with pink things like beads, ribbons, and silk flowers.
Cece ~ Craftysmurfette
If you have cloth napkins (or even the folded paper variety) you can print out customized napkin wraps for each attendee. All you need is a color printer, paper, & scissors. I have several templates on my blog including several recent pink ones that might work out well for you!
http://craftysmurfette.com/2010/04/19/diy-mothers-day-wraps-i/
Also check out the dollar section at places like Michael’s & Target for things like pink metal buckets,etc that could be used for containers and decorations.
You can pick up pink tissue paper at your local Dollar Store to make Tissue Paper pomander balls which you could hang from the ceiling as decorations. Martha Stewart has an easy tutorial for making them.
Michelle
* Spray paint the burlap several shades of pink (light and dark) and have it ‘curling’ down the center of the table.
* Buy short square vases from the dollar store and fill it with a few inches of water. Float flowers in the water. You can put marbles in the bottom of the vase if you want. Place vases every few feet along the table
* Scatter petals on the table around the burlap.
* If you do pictures you can place them on the table throughout the burlap and vases.
* You can do a large clear vase and put limes in the bottom and fill it with pink flowers (lilys, carnations, roses).
* Find small flowers/beads/confetti/etc on the table.
Heather S
Thank you so much for your suggestions. I’ll let you know how it goes (it’s in May) and hopefully send in some pictures too!
Dana
Pink (fine) tulle can be bought rather cheaply at the fabric store and you can puddle it and use it to decorate the center of the tables with your decorations nestled in the tulle….It adds color and looks nice as well for a low price.
I like to scatter the silk rose petals and also, strands of pearls ( you can buy it by the yard) scattered looks pretty.
A cute idea for an activity, if you need one, is to buy some very inexpensive straw hats and some ribbon and silk flowers and let each team decorate a hat…have the mother or daughter model and have a judge….and of course a prize!
Hope this helps some!
Lizliterarius
If you’re near an Ikea, they have HUGE sheer hot pink curtains (called Sarita?) that come in a 2 pack for like $9. You could cut table overlays or runners out of these…depending on the table sizes, you might only need one pack! And they’d be a huge color punch! Definetely use the candlestick + plate idea…but hit the dollar tree and use their “silver” platters as the plates! I’ve even glued a bud vase to the top tier of a plate stand like this to GREAT compliments! (perfect for a small cluster of those carnations!)
Heather S
Check out pictures from the Mother-Daughter Tea:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=177508&id=187593086402
Thank you so much for all your wonderful suggestions. Sorry the pictures don’t show the decorations as much as I’d like them to!