From colorful rag tie fabric banners and pony rides to a buffet of fresh-baked sweets, this charming Country Tea Birthday Party  just looks like good old fashioned fun! Beautifully styled by Pilar Reichlein of Vintage Mingle for a 6th birthday celebration, I’m loving all the crafty touches and overall sweet, handmade vibe. My favorite detail might just be the clever hay bale tea party table though… what a fun way for the little ones to celebrate outdoors!

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Rag tie fabric banner & dessert table backdrop made from thrift-store fabric
• Tea party table made from hay bales + vintage teacups & farmers market flowers
• Topsy turvy tiered naked cakes and colorful sugar cookies by Rosycakes
• Wood-framed chalkboard signage + vintage wooden serving cart for the snacks
• Pony rides by Snowball and Snowflake from Horse Haven Farms
• Candied apple party favors with apple tree branch sticks!

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Pilar…

This Country Tea Party was designed by Vintage Mingle of Portland, OR and was the perfect theme for a six year old girl’s backyard birthday, complete with two beautiful white ponies from Horse Haven Farms…

The style for this particular party is overall gender neutral with a country look and feel in respect to the colors and decor. Add a few personal touches and we can sway the look of this party to cater to whatever gender the guest of honor may be. We used vintage country flower patterns and wood tones among the decor to soften the primary color palette. We also added farmer’s market flowers to the centerpieces to add something fancy enough for our birthday girl.

Handmade pieces included the fabric banner from scraps of fabric found at Goodwill. Invitation and signage were designed by Pilar of Vintage Mingle. Activities included pony riding, pin the tail on the pony and a craft project. For this craft project we made ribbon wands with left-over strips of fabric and ribbon. A quick and easy craft project.

To kick up the country feel a notch we used hay bales for a table and vintage teacups. The tablecloth added some ruffles to the dessert table and was made by graphic design artist and quilter, Katie Sciarrino. Fresh baked cookies and pastries of mini cinnamon buns,
lemon muffin tops, whimsical topsy turvy tiered naked chocolate, banana and strawberry cakes were a perfect dessert menu with a country farm feel. On the snack menu were peanut butter and jelly, and ham and cheese sandwiches, Kettle brand potato chips, carrots and blue cheese dip and peanut butter pretzels.

The thank you favors, candied apples, were made by Rose City Sweets. Adding a special touch, Shanda used apple tree branches as sticks for the candied apples.

The two sweet ponies, Snowball and Snowflake, really topped off the party for the children. Their presence was, dare I say…magical. Horse Haven Farms provides a life of social and job-skill training to special needs and troubled children. Proceeds from the parties go to the care of the animals. In fact, our party helped pay for the surgery
on one their donkeys. Its a good feeling to know that this event helped. The owners of Horse Haven, Maria and Javier are wonderful people who truly care for these very well-behaved and special animals.