Today’s Real Party is a lovely, creative take on the popular “Perfect Pair” bridal shower theme. Instead of focusing on just the traditional pear decor, though – Vicky from The City Cradle added a creative twist with another type of “perfect pair”… a coffee + tea tasting bar!

The inspiration for this theme is best described in Vicky’s own words: “A perfect pair: plum & gray. A perfect pair: coffee & cream. A perfect pair: tea & sugar. 
A perfect pair: her & him.”

Read on for all the pretty details, as told by Vicky…

“A perfect pair was the party theme inspired by the connection and love we see in this marriage to be. We used shades of purple to stand out against a backdrop of gray. The subdued colors of a wedding were paired with spring blooms and flowers popping up all around.

I found these glass pears stuck away in a clearance section, looking forlorn and forgotten. Snatching them up, I knew they would stand at attention central to a table some day. We used them to hold cream and sugar for the tea – perfectly paired together!

The tasting was set up using 5 re-purposed glass bottles. We served a sampling of 2 types of coffee and 5 types of tea, all chilled and ready for sipping.

The cups had custom cup holders made for the occasion to keep hands from feeling the chill of the drinks.

The bottles each had personalized labels that you can download here – which dressed them up & made the tasting decisions easy.

Frozen milk quickly became a treat when turned into milk ice cubes. They were extra sweet with purple sprinkles added for flair. In the event that drinks need extra chilling these milk cubes kept them from getting watered down. Instead they made the coffee even more scrumptious!

We served a brunch selection of muffins & scones wrapped in personalized pastry paper…

This was an amazingly easy project that added a bit of extra loveliness to our shower. Each muffin had the words “muffins & tea” on one side and “a perfect pair” written on the other. To make these I simply cut down parchment paper to an 8×10 size, made my word sheet to match and sent the whole thing through an inkjet printer.

I remember seeing muffins with wording at a local coffee shop and thought, “I wonder if I could do that”. It came together even easier than I imagined – love it when that happens!). These would be a fabulous addition to any early morning brunch, wedding, party or amazing family breakfast.

A whimsical and spunky addition to the table was a set of marshmallows that spelled out “bride” in purple sprinkles:

We handed out custom pomegranate-green tea bags as favors to be brewed later that day. Each had a personalized label saying thanks and directions on brewing the tea over ice at home. You can download the favor labels here.

When designing with a single color palate it is super important to have texture included. For this party I looked to flowers to stand in as beautiful texture.

We hung flowers from vases on the ceiling, suspended down with ribbons as if they were floating in on air. Flowers were also used on the table building upwards in a frolicsome bud vase display. {Bud vases from IKEA. Find DIY instructions for the vase display here.}

Many other layers of texture were added using a gray sheet as our backdrop, a fabric chain link streamer draped leisurely over the tasting table & cardboard circle cut-outs painted with chalkboard paint to add a few sweet sentiments around the room. The fabric chain banner was made out of a pillowcase, the DIY for it is found here.

It was a blessed afternoon that I was honored to share with a new group of friends. We celebrated love, gave marriage advice and filled our stomachs with coffee & tea.

I am so grateful to have had the honor of hosting this event and to be sharing it with you today. It makes my heart flutter to see love so vividly displayed through marriage. This party theme would also turn out very lovely for an anniversary or a wedding.”