Weddingbee Blog

Photo heavy post ahead! Some of you guessed it—for my hen’s party (bachelorette) I chose to have a High Tea! Nine friends and I put on our party dresses and headed to The Barista for an afternoon of fine china and elegance (or, in our case, fine china and loud inappropriate conversation, but “elegance” was the general idea ).

Look at us, all civilised-like

Let’s start with the invites. Mr E knows I adore polka dots, so he came up with this design:

Yup, my fiance designed my Hen’s Party invites. I know, I’m spoiled. Sorry about my shoddy photo of it, though.

So how do you get nine of your friends to relax and have a good time together, some of whom run in very different circles from others? Well, first you ply them with bubbly…and get them oohing and ahhing over the fancy-pants silverware.

See? Loosening up already!

Then you bring out the scones, gingerbread, and pastries, preferably served with mascarpone cheese, whipped cream and various jams. In my honest opinion, I think not much on earth beats a warm scone covered with jam and cream. Later on, more yummy goodness was brought out, in the form of coconut ice, date loaf, neenish tarts, melting moments, and cucumber and egg sandwiches.

By this time, everyone was so full and happy that the talk was flowing like the milk into our tea.

I love this pic—every single one of us has an awkward stuffing-face expression. I demolished that scone.

We also each got to pick a special teacup to use for the afternoon. They were all so pretty, and it was hard to choose!

My teacup

We selected teas from a special menu, and silver tea sets were brought out. The one I used was 135 years old…yikes. The teacups also allowed us to practice our “English lady” poses with pinkies out. I’m not so sure if we were successful in mastering being “ladylike” though…you be the judge.

But I was quite proud of myself that I didn’t end up breaking any teacups by accident, like I am prone to do. Of course I did manage to somehow get jam on my neck, necklace, and dress, but I blame invisible gremlins for that. After all, it was Halloween.

This would be the look I would give invisible gremlins…if I could see them

It had been a bit of a rough week for me in wedding-land, but going out with the girls was just the pick-me-up I needed. It was exactly what I hoped for—all my friends together (a very rare thing), having the time to talk with them about anything and everything, and just relaxing while stuffing ourselves. It was pretty much the perfect way to spend the afternoon. I got even further spoiled by them with the gift of an electric kettle (because everyone knows how grumpy I am in the morning if I dont get my hot cup of tea!) and vouchers for lingerie. Ahh, these ladies know me too well.

I would highly recommend having a high tea for your bachelorette if it is your “thing.” Even my friend R who is our resident party animal and who was doubtful at first of the merits of a high tea versus getting me totally smashed loved it and said to me later, “It was really cool and fancy, something I haven’t experienced before.” So there you go, straight from the horse’s mouth.

Has anyone else out there gone the alternative route and had a high tea or an afternoon out for your hen’s party/ bachelorette?

*All pics are either personal, or taken by Mr E or my friend H who went crazy with the camera