Bridal Shower Tea Invitations

Elegant. Whimsical. A bridal shower tea party is both.

Your bridal shower tea invitations offer guests thier first glimpse into the feel of the tea party. Make them as formal or as fun as you wish!

Modern Interpretation of an Historical Tradition
In the world of bridal shower invitations, those for bridal tea parties are especially unique. That is, with other showers, you needn't give a second thought to purchasing a pack of invitations and just filling in the blanks.

Traditionally, when planning a tea, a woman wrote personal notes to her friends, inviting them to her home on a specific afternoon. She included her name as well as the name of her guest within the body of the text. For example, she might write, "Miss Sarah Pembrook requests the company of
Miss Kate Arlan on Wednesday..."

Of course, unless you expect only a handful of people at the bridal shower tea party, you will not be handwriting each invitation, and you certainly won't make direct mention of a specific guest's name in the content. Furthermore, just because the telephone did not exist in the Victorian age, there is no reason to opt for a reply card insted of an R.S.V.P telephone number.

Some aspects of the traditional invitation, however, carry over excellently into today's bridal shower tea invitations.

• Write out the invitation like a letter, composing sentences that provide the shower details rather than just filling in the blanks with this information.
• The party hostesses can fluidly work their names into the invitation's opening line. This immediately tells guests who is throwing the bridal tea: a polished alternative to simply penning your name(s) into an isolated "Given By" line. Including the hostess' name in the introduction really does account for so much of the formality that we sense in reading antiquated tea party notes. But yet, quite ironically, it also establishes a very personal feel. We see that a real woman (or a few) is particularly requesting the guest to attend. This lends to the notion that the bridal shower tea party is an exclusive affair, which it is. And that is one thing that makes tea parties so special.

To buy or not to buy?
What is the best way to achieve both formality and intimacy in your bridal shower tea invitations, while, at the same time, hinting at the fun to be had? It's easy to see why cookie-cutter invitations fail to impart that dual sense of grace and whimsy to your guests. Creating your own bridal tea invitations, whether by hand or computer, allows you to personalize them to your heart's content.

Still, if you would prefer to purchase invitations for your bridal shower tea party, you're in luck! A couple of online stationery shops offer gorgeous bridal shower invitations, several of which feature vintage-inspired designs.

But what makes these the perfect candidates for bridal shower tea invitations? You have almost as much control over what the invitation will look like as if you were making them yourself. Not only can you choose from a selection of colors, but you may customize the text to say whatever you wish! Oh, and they're super affordable.

Unique Ideas
Whether you want to go semi-homemade or start from scratch, customized bridal shower tea invitations are well within your reach!

• Search out vintage or Victorian reproduction postcards and greeting cards. Ideal motifs include women sitting down to tea, an old-fashioned bride getting ready with her bridesmaids, an antique teacup, or even a woman holding an umbrella (this is, after all, a shower!). Make sure that they are blank so you can pen your own invitation.
• Print invitations that you've designed yourself. Upload a Victorian graphic to your word processor, and arrange the layout of your text. Print the postcards or folding cards onto cardstock, and use a bone creaser to create a crisp fold if necessary.

• Some pictures speak for themselves. Others have
  so much potential to be hilarious, it would be a shame not to add your own comment! For example, a photograph of several proper, unsmiling Victorian women can be the basis for a great bridal shower tea invitation. Inside the card, write "We Can Hardly Contain Ourselves for Excitement!"
• Impress a rubber stamp on plain card paper for instant beauty. You can find many intricate portraits of Victorian women: donning an extravagent hat, holding a teacup, clasping an umbrella, and so on. You might write a little something next to the image, witty or formal, depending on the mood you want to evoke.
• To adorn a blank card, punch a couple of small holes in a row near the top edge. Weave a colored ribbon through the holes and tie it into a tight bow. Scraps of lace and pressed flowers also make charming embellishments.
• For an added touch of elegance, close your invitation like they did in Victorian times: with sealing wax. Instead of a simple card, create a vertical, tri-folding card. Only use a heavy paper such as cardstock for this. Fold the bottom of the paper up high enough so that when you fold the top portion down, it reaches to the middle of the bottom section. Let the wax drip a few times onto the spot where the paper meets, and stamp a seal of your choice into it (look up a tutorial for using sealing wax to catch all the nuances of getting it right)! It's best to put the wax on the invitation itself. Wax seals can break off of envelopes in the mail sorting process.

Tea Party Invitation Poems
Lend a lighthearted, fanciful air to your bridal shower tea invitation. Precede the details of the shower with a poem!

A beautiful backdrop, a hot cup of tea,
All we need now is your company.

Dust off your brooch or a large flowery hat.
If you haven't got one, don't worry about that.
(Bride)'s getting married, and to help her succeed,
a surprise shower is in order. It's a tea party!

Invitation Wording
Drawing on the "modern interpretation" above, these wording ideas nod at the traditional tea party invitation while remaining grounded in the present.

Miss Emily Potter and Mrs. Janet Holden
request the pleasure of your company
at a bridal tea
in honor of Miss Margot Holden
at The Opus Tea Room
on Friday afternoon, October sixth
at two o'clock.
Our guest of honor is registered at Macy's.

Please join us in celebrating
the upcoming marriage of Margot Holden
at a bridal shower tea party
at the home of Emily Potter
on Saturday April twenty-third at noon.
Given by her bridesmaids.

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