Hello my lovelies!! Today I have
a very special post for you all! It will be all about my birthday party
from this weekend! I was originally supposed to have it on May 3, I had
to postpone it until this past Saturday. I had spent about 2 months
planning this one so it was a long time coming! I pretty much planned
every detail that I could without going too crazy.
For my 22nd birthday, I wanted
to do something fun and special. Something out of the ordinary. My more
recent birthdays included going to the mall and shopping and I wasn't
feeling anything of the sort this year. I wanted to do something very
memorable. I have always wanted to have a classy tea party. So I threw
myself a birthday tea party. My actual birthday this year was pretty
bad, but my party totally made up for that! I invited all of my closest
friends (though some couldn't make it) and had a fantastic day.
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| I made this sign! I meant to make something simple, but I hadn't painted in a long time and got carried away. |
I had the party in my backyard, it was a beautiful day. It stayed
cloudy for much of the day with (blindingly bright) sun peeking through.
As I was setting up, I noticed that a tree in my driveway (I think it's
called dogwood) looked like a white cherry blossom tree. There was a
light breeze and the flower petals were falling like cherry blossoms. It
was so beautiful! It was literally perfect for the day and I took it as
much needed sign that it was going to be a lovely day (I was nervous
because I still wasn't feeling well), which it totally was!
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Tree on day of the party
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| Tree with intense sun |
I set up a table for us to sit at as well as a food table. Oh yes, you have to have plenty of snacks for a tea party!
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| Excuse the mess in the background. No one bothered to clean it for me and I was unable to myself. |
I was aiming for a feminine and beautiful look, I tried
to make it look like a British tea party with a twist. I also tried to
stick with pastel colors. I went with pastel pink tablecloths, utensils
and napkins. I wrapped the utensils and napkins in doilies and tied
string around them. I sprinkled some fake red rose petals all over the
tablecloth.
I got some beautiful black plates with a white design on
them. I also used tons of doilies underneath everything. I took the
remaining living flowers that I was given for my birthday (
see my previous post) and put them in a blue vase as a centerpiece.
I also
wrapped some pearls around the vase. I used actual tea cups and saucers
as well as my tea pot. I didn't actually own enough tea cups beforehand,
so I ordered a lot of 2 tea cups and saucers from eBay surprisingly
cheap. I put all of the fixings needed for tea onto the table.
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| This was my place setting, with my special sugar skull tea cup. |
Eventually some snacks went on there too. I also tied ribbon around the
chairs...which is seems I forgot to take pictures of :(.
I brought my big ipod speakers
outside with us (It's a huge tower dock) and played music the entire time. I spent two weeks
curating the playlists for the party. I made four, including a classical
music one, modern classical music (like more modern music mixed with
classical. For example, some of the Sword Art Online soundtrack), music
with words/more modern music that fit the theme (some Beatles, Adam
Lambert, Avril Lavigne, Emilie Autumn and various other artists. I played this while everyone was arriving) and a
"tea blend" which was a mix of all of the above. All of the music fit
perfectly. Believe it or not, a lot of the instrumental stuff was from
anime OSTs! The Black Butler, Madoka Magica and Rozen Maiden soundtracks
were absolutely perfect and fit to a T. There were quite a few times
where I had to pause in what we were doing to spazz a little over the
perfection of a song playing. The music really added to the atmosphere
and helped to set the tone. If anyone would like me to post the complete
track listings to these playlists, let me know!
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| Outside selfie of me during the party. I have very long hippy-like hair and at this point, it was annoying me so I put it up. My makeup was running at this point because it was pretty warm and my hair adds a lot of extra heat. I also made this strange-ass face HAHAHA! This picture makes me think of Chaquita Banana xD. |
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| Beckman, Vicky and Destinee |
My three closest friends,
Beckman, Destinee and Vicky (who reads this blog, hiii Vicky!!) attended
my tea party. Destinee was running late due to a family illness so
Beckman, Vicky and I had to start the party without her. We spent hours
drinking, eating and chatting. It was pretty much everything a tea party
should be. It was exactly what I wanted and hoped for!
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The lovely Vicky <3, seriously my new favorite picture of her.
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| Beckman sipping some tea |
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| Crumpled instructions, from after the party. |
While we were waiting we played
a game, tea leaf reading. It used to be common for people to tell your
fortune with tea leaves rather than tarot cards. To do a tea leaf
reading you need to have some tea leaves and tea in your cup. When you
dump the cup over, getting rid of the remaining tea you are supposed to
look for shapes in the tea leaves. Whatever the shape you get, you look
it up and there you have your fortune! If you have never heard of this
practice, watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It is a lot of
fun to try to read the fortunes. Vicky kept getting bird shapes a lot
and I got the letter "H'" a few times. Go figure since my name is
Heather.
When Destinee arrived we did some more tea leaf readings and a tea
tasting game. My mom (who was helping out with serving) brewed 4
different teas, then poured a little bit into smaller cups for each of
us to taste and try to guess the flavor. I guessed 3 out of 4 of them!
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| The lovely Destinee <3 |
Poor Beckman kept getting assaulted by gnats and various other flying
insects while we were sitting there. It was actually quite funny xD. It
got to the point where if he saw a bug, he smacked it, which resulted in
me getting randomly smacked a few times xD.
Luckily Vicky had bug spray (what would I do without you?? ;__;
<3) so we didn't die from insect invasion. Sadly, I still ended up
covered in bug bites and itchy as hell the next day.
Out of nowhere a bee flew at us.
After everyone else had run across the yard to get away from it, it
decided that my dress or hat had actual flowers on them. After getting
too freaked out trying to sit still so that it wouldn't sting me, I ran
across the yard away from it. The stupid bee chased me across the
yard...and when I ran towards everyone else the bee chased all of us!
After a little more running from the vicious bee around the yard like
crazy people, some of us ran inside to escape it and it was gone.
Despite that insanity, it was a
true and fun tea party! I felt so classy sipping my tea at my fancy
table with all of my little snacks. And of course the music totally made
it! We had so much fun laughing and having different discussions that I
nearly forgot about the games that I had planned! Of course there were
discussions of Kakashi. I felt sort of bad about all of mine and
Beckman's anime discussions because we were the only otakus of the
group.
Awkwardly throughout the party my douchey yuppie neighbors were
cleaning their yard, dumping their leaves into my yard. They've done it
for years, they do the same thing with snow. If they have one leaf in
their yard, they pull out their leaf blower for 20 minutes. Some of my
friends weren't too happy about their rudeness (and possible illegal
action of dumping shit into my yard). So when the party was over, we
threw some leftover fruit and sandwiches into their yard. If anyone
asks, we had a food fight!
I made a good variety of foods for the party. Everything I made was
small, finger food.
I made home made petit fours (omg they were
amazing!):
Chocolate, vanilla and strawberry wafer cookies dipped in chocolate with some sprinkles
Cheesecake cream filled strawberries
Beckman brought us a bunch of donuts
I also made crescent rolls filled with ham and cheddar cheese and mini peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. By the time I took this picture, they were half gone:
I went through quite the ordeal
preparing all of the food but I'm so happy that it all was pulled off!
When I postponed the party, I had to freeze almost everything. Most of
the fruit didn't thaw right and last minute we had to throw some of it
away. My health wasn't so great the day before the party, it was
extremely nerve wracking for me trying to prepare things while feeling
that way. I still didn't feel all that well the morning of my party, but
by the time it started I was feeling alright!!
We kept the pots of black tea coming. I also made home made lemonade with frozen strawberries to drink.
A woman that my mom knows who makes cupcakes for birthday parties
made me cupcakes! We brought these out towards the end of the party. The
tea cups and saucers are made of fondant and each one has a hand
painted design. The cake was vanilla, the frosting was strawberry and
they had a Lindor truffle in the middle. The best birthday cupcakes
ever!
Now onto the part that some of you have been waiting for, my outfit.
When I first mentioned that I was planning a tea party for my birthday
many people were curious of what I would wear. My friends described my
outfit as "Victorian funeral director" or morgue owner. Destinee thought
that I wouldn't look out of place at a funeral in my outfit. I was
going for a gothic Victorian sort of look.
I wore a dress, I guess it would be considered a sundress though it
is more of a formal dress and I have worn it to fancy events before. It
had a black, white and beige flower design. Here is part of the dress,
as I'm honestly not comfortable posting a picture of the entire thing on
me. The dress has a matching shrug jacket (mini short sleeved jacket),
which I eventually discarded because it got warm.
I wore my velvetey black wedge heels with my pastel purple lace socks (the color doesn't photograph well). It
sure was fun walking/running around my yard with uneven terrain on these
babies!
For my hair, I planned to do
this whole style like Asuna's hair and curl it...but I was having some
anxiety issues that morning and not feeling great so I said fuck it. I
just threw in some volumizing powder to my hair and clipped in my mini
sort of lolita hat.
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| The front of the hat. |
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| The side of the hat. |
It's really hard to see the details of the hat in
photograph. But it is a mini black top hat, with some fishnet fabric, a
sort of silk flower on top of that and a black feather in the back of
it. It really brought my outfit together and everyone loved it! Even my
mom, who normally thinks most of the stuff I wear is weird.
For my jewelry I wore this beautiful purple stone cameo necklace. It
was a bitch to get this in time, the first one I received arrived to me
damaged.
For earrings I wore skeleton lady cameo earrings in my bottom ear
piercing. In my 2nd ear piercing I wore these cute little pink stone
with mini pearl and gold colored metal earrings. These stud earrings I
have had forever and are a hand me down from my mom.
I wore fishnet skeleton gloves. I have had these forever but never
get the chance to wear them! I also wore this beautiful rainbow topaz
ring that I got myself as an early birthday present. Apparently it is
worth a lot more than I paid for it! I was too lazy to paint my nails,
so I stuck on (and of course cut really short because I can't handle
long nails) some Impress manicure nails in a bright, neon pink shade.
For my makeup, I don't think it really looks all that Victorian. But I
went with a bold red lip (Lime Crime Red Velvet Velveteen. It lasted
through ALL of the tea and snacking). For the eyes, I used the Urban
Decay Naked and Naked 3 palettes. I did some pink on the lid,
brownish-copper on the crease blended out and dark brown on the outer
corners. Then I put dark brown and pink under my waterline. I did winged
black liner and black liner on my outer rim. I filled in my brows with
Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow. I used Urban Decay Naked Skin
foundation along with some other products to make my face look flawless.
I used Nars Orgasm blush (yes, guys Orgasm is the name of a shade of blush. It is actually a very popular and famous blush shade), though I apply my blush lightly so it hardly
ever shows in pictures.
Fancy dress was optional for
this party. I dressed up because I was super into the spirit of it.
Destinee dressed up as well, going for an Alice In Wonderland/ Mad
Hatter look. The tutu she wore she made herself by hand. She was afraid of looking silly, but I loved the outfit and think she looks fantastic. Vicky and
Beckman didn't dress up (which I didn't care, I was just happy that they
came!)
But Beckman did look like a butler. In fact, Beckman insisted as
acting the sort of butler by pouring the tea for all of us. He
understands my love of Black Butler (and is a fan himself). Personally I think everyone looked fabulous and awesome <3.
Overall, it was such a fun and
memorable day. When I look back on my 22nd birthday, I will remember
this day and not my actual birthday. I partied
hard and got to spend it with some of the people in my life that I love
the most <3. Really, that's all I wanted for my birthday. I do have
some truly amazing friends and I treasure them more than anything. My
closest friends have been there for me though a lot. They are the few
people that stuck with me during the times that I truly needed them
while others were nowhere to be found. I really can't fully put into
words what their friendship means to me. I'm so very happy that I was
able to spend my day with them.
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| My cat shoved herself into this box after the party. I couldn't resist posting, she's so cute!!!! |
I think for my 23rd I should have an alcoholic tea party hahaha! After all, everyone will be 21 by then!
Now that I'm not spending so
much time planning this party I'm sort of at a loss xD. But, when my
health is better I will be having an adventure for my birthday with
Vicky and I'm so excited for that!
Thank you everyone for sticking
with this really long post! Hope you had as much fun reading it as I had
fun on saturday. I will in the near future (hopefully) be writing about
how I plan parties with party planning tips!
Xoxo
Moon prism power, makeup!
