A Tea Party with BHLDN

A Tea Party with BHLDN — How to host a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel!

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

When BHLDN asks you to team up with them to style a tea party themed soiree, you naturally do two things:

1) Run a few laps around your studio out of sheer excitement.

2) Go buck wild and transform your whole studio into a Grand Budapest Hotel inspired wonderland from top to bottom.

Lucky for you, I don’t skimp on the details when it comes to get togethers. And thus, a tea party with BHLDN is anything but an exception.

So I’m going to share alll of the details, how-to’s, and even a few freebies for you to create your own!…

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

I’m not a huge fan of over-the-top attire when it comes to enjoying the outdoors (or hypothetical gardens in this case!).

Instead, I’d much prefer something cute and casual (or maybe I’m just not cut out for high tea?!).

Either way, BHLDN has the perfect ensembles for a sweet yet sophisticated garden party, while still keeping it just the right touch of casual with this Reese dress and Savannah Topper, the Celestina dress in Ivory, and my favorite, the Prato Romper.

Pair all of that with the all-too-pretty hair and makeup by Southern & Adorn, a few cute Mendl’s boxes as your accessories (don’t worry, we’re getting to that part!), and a pink ombre floral wall and you’re all set!

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Clotha tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

DIY Ombre Floral Backdrop

To set the tone for the space with the DIY ombre floral backdrop, I dip dyed a bed sheet in hot pink fabric dye, rinsed, and let it dry completely.

Then, we attached it to the wall, and Carly used bulk flowers from Fifty Flowers and a few select greens to create the amazing floral garlands throughout.

To attach them, she actually hand-sewed them to the fabric backdrop with an embroidery loop needle, and then used water tubes on the ends of each of the floral stems before sewing those on so that they would last several days.

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

Carly also arranged the table setting florals in the BHLDN ivory and golden hobnail vases, and some we even sweetly nestled inside the conservatory envelope holder for a unique centerpiece in the vintage seating area.

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

Once you have your setting and attire down, the next most important step is sweets…obviously. I know I’ve taught you well in this category, because this is where over-the-top is always okay!

To help make it all happen, I enlisted the help of my good friend Monica from Paper Flour Ink to create Grand Budapest Hotel inspired cakes and tiered bundt cakes to serve atop these pretty in pink cake stands, tea party paper plates (so cute, you can hardly even tell they’re paper!), gold-dipped serving set, and served with a side of Rose in these gold rim coupes.

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Clotha tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Clotha tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

With this many pretty sweets you’re around, it’s inevitable to have a few extras leftover/

So we made Mendl’s inspired boxes from plain white 6 inch folding cake boxes with a bit of double sided tape and four colorful designs for you to print and make at home, too!

DIY Printable Mendl’s Boxes

Materials:

  • 6 inch square white cake boxes
  • Double-sided tape
  • Scissors
  • Printed Mendl’s designs (you’ll need four squares for each box)

Blue Mendl’s // Pink Mendl’s // Purple Mendl’s // Mint Mendl’s

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Clotha tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

Naturally, I had to throw in my own little DIY with these mini Grand Budapest Hotel macarons with Mendl’s delivery trucks and the hotel facades on them!

I also loved the way the plain ombre colors tied everything together so I left just a few plain and simple.

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Clotha tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Clotha tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

Seating For A Tea Party with BHLDN

For seating, I wanted to create a space that felt rich and vintage, but with just the right touch of modern and unique.

So we used mid century chairs from Indre By Design, a vintage rug from Rent The Foundry, custom mod patterned pillows from Darci Towns, and a retro inspired tulip side table.

a tea party with BHLDN inspired by The Grand Budapest Hotel! - Sugar & Cloth

All in all, I’ll dare to say that this may be my current favorite shoot we’ve ever done on Sugar & Cloth! It was super fun getting to transform the space from the usual bright white into something a lot more whimsical!

What do you all think, is this something you’d want to recreate for your next big soiree?!

Sources and Vendors For Our Tea Party with BHLDN  

  • Clothing and tabletop decor from BHLDN
  • Hair and makeup by Southern & Adorn
  • Cakes by Paper Flour Ink
  • Floral arrangements and floral garland installation on backdrop by Margot Blair
  • Bulk flowers provided by Fifty Flowers
  • Vintage chairs in vignette by Indre By Design
  • Vintage rug in vignette by Rent The Foundry
  • White table, red ornate legs, and garden table chairs from Ikea
  • Patterned pillows and ombre table linens by Darci Towns
  • Marble tulip table from Dot & Bo
  • Pot de creme desserts by Tout Suite

And of course, a big thanks to our lovely models Meredith, Ailee, and Aelish!

This post is made possibly by BHLDN! Thank you for supporting the brands we love that keep bigger and better DIY’s and even sweeter sweets coming straight to your inbox everyday!

Please note that we may earn a commission for some of the above affiliate links. However, products featured are independently selected and personally well-loved by us!

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33 Comments

  1. Great article, beautiful tasty looking treats! Gained 5 pounds just looking at the pictures. I wanted to share a website link to fresh flowers that could use for cakes, cupcakes and other treats decorations. I used blue orchid blooms to decorate a cake for my friend’s baby shower and they looked gorgeous, everyone loved the cake decor. check them out, https://www.jrroses.com

  2. It’s pretty awesome idea!

    Everybody loved the first day of School too.

    Thanks for sharing, it’s very informative for me.

    I’m going to steal this awesome idea and tuck it away for when i have little ones.

    I also have a similar Online Wholesale Wedding Flowers, I think, it’s similar to your site and same services. like that.

    Cheers

  3. every piece of the content is BEAUTIFUL and specially I will greet you for using Pink color. I love this. Congrats! Also roses in bulk is adding the eye catching look.

  4. This is so awesome! Love the modern, girly twist to the decor, I totally would love to come to the next one you throw ;)

  5. Gorgeous! I would love to try your dip-dye wall treatment; Do you remember what brand and color of dye you used? Thanks so much.

  6. This is so beautiful! Every detail is exquisite. I’m in heaven, looking at all these lovely cakes, flowers, dresses, etc. The pink ombre sheet is genius, and the painted macarons are just incredible. Amazing!!

  7. I love BHLDN! Their wedding inspiration is gorgeous; love their Pinterest as well! This tea party is absolute perfection!

  8. Beautiful!! Looks like a fantasy land – feminine, classy, and elegant. Thanks for the inspiration :)

  9. I love this post! I know it’s just the kind of tea party I would love to attend. What a great way to make happy memories. Love the pastels and the fun boxes. Thank you for sharing. I invite you to share at my Thursday blog hop too ( you can start linking tonight at 7pm (MST) through Sat midnight) Hugs!

  10. I love EVERY SINGLE THING about this! I wish I could have been there! Maybe I will have to throw one of my own! AMAZING

    You should do a DIY post for the pink backdrop!

  11. This is like the tea party OF MY DREAMS! Could it be any more perfect? I just wish I could have been there to smell all those scrumptious looking desserts!

  12. Wow, everything about this is absolutely stunning. I especially love the “Grand Budapest Hotel” hand painted macarons though! So cute!

  13. Towns! TGBH is my favvvvvveee movie! Ash, this is sooo good. I think the vintage seating area is my fave! Or is it the cakes?! Or the paper plates! Too much goodness! And the photos are top drawer!

  14. SO CUTE! I love everything about this Ashley. I need to rewatch The Grand Budapest Hotel now.

  15. BOXES! Is it weird that I’m super excited about those boxes or just containers/storage in general? I’m not a huge fan of tea parties, but I do enjoy the decor and fancy bites. I’ll be having afternoon tea in London pretty soon! Those mini Grand Budapest Hotel macarons are super cute! And the details that went into it..

    I might pick up some of those cake stands and paper plates that don’t look like paper and gold dipped accessories.

    Linda | http://todaysheloves.com