Let's Start By Setting the Table (Royal Wedding Tea Party)

When entertaining guests for any party, the first plan I come up with is how the table should be set. It's not often I entertain with royalty in mind as a REAL Prince marries his Princess bride! Of course, the engagement ring* of Catherine Middleton with its sapphire gem and the blue of the Union Jack flag had everything to do with the Royal Wedding Tea Party decor. I used a navy blue tablecloth and placed wide white ribbon (leftover from the pew bows at Anne and Jed's wedding) and narrower red ribbon on top with a "+" and an "x" pattern to replicate the British flag. The special china given to me through my in-laws from their friend, Flora, came out in its gold-and-white splendour. This china was Flora's wedding china from the early 1900s. Only four place settings remain and hand-washing is imperative to keep the gold from washing away. To keep regal, I used silver plate chargers underneath the china to better match the tiered plate holder and silverware.

Menus for the tea party were composed and printed. Vellum paper with fancy script listed the menu items and will be further described in a future post.

Treat bags in blue satin and trimmed with silver sequins were attached with ribbon to the chair back for each guest. Inside the bag? Paper dolls of Wills and Kate with three gown alternatives, a box filled with embellishments for the dresses such as diamond stickers, silk flowers, and sparkly brads. Vellum paper tied with silver ribbon suggested to the guests that they dress the Royals any "Blimey" way they chose. Also inside: a silver notebook with a jeweled crown as the cover with a pen include to use for jotting down observations and memories of the special occasion.

Just before sitting down, the sun shown down on the tablescape and I had to take a picture to capture the Camelot shining moment.

Around the tiered plate stand I wrapped a mini bunting of the Union Jack flags. The top of the cake stand has a special crown given to me by a friend several years ago. Look closely and you can see a solar-powered Queen Elizabeth waving her hand to the guests (in a peach-coloured dress), beckoning them to come to the table and celebrate the newlyweds Catherine and William. *Yes, I now own my very own copycat engagement ring. Let me tell you the story about how I acquired this ring sometime!

COMING SOON: The menu items, the Ladies and what they wore and anything else that I have been obsessing...er, ah thinking about concerning the April 29th nuptials!