I've been asked by my church to organize a mother daughter tea. The time frame is long--next spring. The tea would be the first our small church has had and would expect the guest list to be between 25 and 50 people. They wanted to advertise it to the public but I told them let's walk before we run.

The church has a full kitchen attached to a large gymnasium and plenty of tables and chairs. Nothing is particularly lovely, but it will do.

I have never hosted or organized anything for a large group of people. The church has little money to cater something, so much would come from Costco and perhaps there would be a donation requested of $5 per person. We could decorate the tables, someone from choir could perform, tea, pastries etc. The purpose would be purely social. I sense they would like to have something nice, a tradition to start, and have asked me to kick it off.

The only type of mother daughter event I have attended was a massive, 800 person event at a local "mega" church complete with singing ensembles, full catered meals, signage outside etc. Obviously this will not compare to that.

Do you have any suggestions of what you would expect or like to see if you were invited to such an event? I am less worried about food than entertainment and decorations. My husband suggested involving the Fellowship committee in it, but then the Fellowship committee is mostly very senior ladies who don't drive or use the computer.

I'd like to do a good job and honored to be asked. But just in a bit beyond my experience level.

Is this primarily for older daughters, or little ones? Or Mother/daughter in general? The ages of the youngest ones will determine what activities or entertainment is provided.
BE Sure to designate someone to TAKE PICTURES!!!

This could be something very special and there should be some kind of 'formal posing area' for these mother/daughter photos for a keepsake. Find some kind of fancy garden chair or a bench under an arch with flowers on it for the photo.

Maybe you could ask a Sunday school class to help provide the cookies, and another one provide sandwiches?

I hope you come back and tell us all the plans and let us know how things are going.

Thanks for the notes. Interestingly enough I ran across this website which also has some great ideas (down to choices of food, skits, songs, and devotional readings) for a variety of women's chirch events.

I like the one with the coffee theme and think this might work as we even sing those songs.

Not sure what we can do for children. While the one I attended at the megachurch had children there, nothing was specifically for children, if you know what I mean.

Our church is very small, with a typical non holiday Sunday being in the 40's in attendence.

I'm planning this to be young and old daughters if we get a good turnout from our preschool parents. We have a large preschool but interestingly most if not all of the parents go to the local Catholic church. When the Catholic church closed their preschool, our attendance surged, but these families don't have any interaction with our church (Presbyterian). I think that this type of activity might be good to make awareness of the church itself (which is all housed in the same place).

I will speak to the Fellowship chair this weekend to get her thoughts. I definately want the older ladies to be involved (most of the women in our congregation are over 65) but don't want them to feel as though the event rests upon them.

This is the theme that appealed to me. I'm pasting it from the site I linked above. I will share this on Sunday. Also, our church has a drama club and the skit might be something they are interested in doing. Or perhaps I can ask if the preschool wants to arrange a small song. Mom's love to see their kids sing.

Life In Christ--Good To The Last Drop!
Women's Ministry Theme

---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------
Using "coffee" as an inspiration, this theme revolves around how having life in Christ can enrich our lives.

Mocha you know that if you blend this theme just right it should be a latte fun and a real perk me up!...Just had to pun:)...Julia

Alternative Theme Titles

Grounded In Christ
Wake Up To Serve The Lord
A Latte Fun!
Overcoming The Daily Grind
Perkin' Up To The Christian Life (Could be "perkin' up to"...whatever biblical truth or principle you want to focus on)
The Perks of The Christian Life
Grounds For Improvement (Improving Our Christian Life)
Laughter and Latte
Blended To Perfection
The Best Part of Wakin' Up Is Jesus In My Life
Fill Your Cup
Mugs and Muffins

Theme Verse Suggestions

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." Ephesians:3-20

"…Be ye holy; for I am holy" 1 Peter 1:16

Devotional

A Bad Cup of Coffee http://www.juliabettencourt.com/dev/coffeedev.html

Color Scheme

No Suggestions

General Decorations

If you are using tables, you could make your setting look like a coffee shop.
Use coffee grinders and old time coffee pots.
Have some soft music playing.
Check within your group, see if any of the ladies have coffee themed kitchens (which is popular). See if they may have some decorating items to contribute for your meeting.
Display some fun coffee sayings. Print them out and hang in various spots or print out to fit into frames and place those around. (Check online for saying sources.)

For The Tables

Assortment of coffee mugs filled with flowers.
Plates filled with coffee beans and candles placed in the middle. You could press several votive or tea lights down into the beans on the plate.
Pour coffee beans at the bottom of clear candle holders and around the sides of the candles.
Use Coffee scented candles or made with coffee beans.
Make Coffee Topiaries. (using styrofoam and coffee beans)

Games and Ice-breakers:

Icebreakers Index

Music

As The Deer (Martin Nystrom)
Here I Am To Worship (Tim Hughes)
God Is So Good (Chorus)

Favors

Package your own personalized coffee blend.
Individual pack of specialty coffee. (Some companies will personalize the small packages.)
Coffee scoop. Tie up with ribbon and hang tag.
Coffee Mug/Cup
Coffee scented Candle (or decorated with coffee beans)
Coffee flavored candies tied up in cellophane. (Check your Dollar stores. Our Dollar Tree and 99 Cent Store both carry them.)
Coffee Themed Favor Tags.
Favor Index.

Just For Fun

Share a little coffee history or some fun coffee facts. (Check online for sources.)
Do a group craft using coffee filters. There are many ideas online from angels to roses. Just do a search for coffee filter crafts in your favorite search engine.

Just For A Pun

Stealing someone's coffee is called a "mugging".
When he spilled coffee on her shirt she showed him dis-stain.

Doorprizes

Anything With Coffee - Check out dishtowels, novelties, etc.
Set of Coasters
Cream and Sugar Set
Coffee Thermos
Specialty Coffee
Coffee Mug
Gift Certificate to Starbucks or your local coffee shop.
Coffee Related Gift Basket - Fill with specialty coffees, specialty flavorings, coffee cup(s). Search "Coffee Baskets" in Google's Image Search and you'll get plenty of ideas. (Make sure your safe search is on:)
Doorprize page

Skits

CLM Skit Links

Food Suggestions

Coffee Cake
Large muffins like they sell in Starbucks.
Serve donuts and coffee.
Serve coffee with things that go well for dipping. Sugar cookies, biscotti, harder crunchy type cookies, etc.
Serve breakfast.
Serve coffee with all the fun things. Special flavorings, specialty creamers, whipped cream, sugar cubes, flavored sugar, etc.
See if someone has a cappuccino maker you can use for the evening.
Don't forget to put out coffee stirrers.
www.juliabettencourt.com

What a fun project!

My kiddo's preschool just threw a mother's day tea for me and the other moms and it was truly one of the most special days of my life. Invites were shaped like tea pots and hand colored by the kids. Not sure how involved the kiddos will be at your event, but at our event the kids served us (imagine that) tea and heart & flower shaped sugar cookies with sprinkles and lemonade and little tea sandwiches and fruit. They created centerpieces with paper flowers with their photos on them planted in tiny flower pots and made little corsages with tissue paper (fresh flower corsages are a good idea too and carnations are not expensive). They performed songs and skits and the decor was simple but lovely. It was a blast. Made me cry and also made me want to host one for someone else. You'll be touching these ladies lives with this special occasion. Nothing like the bond of mother and daughter!

I love the baking contest idea above. Women love to be fussed over, don't we girls?

I didn't know about this until DIL told me about it. :)
So I figured a tea party would be perfect.
I decided to do it the day after Thanksgiving since her MeeMaa would be here that weekend. All female family members in town were invited. It was decided to have it late afternoon right after nap time. (which gave everyone time to go shopping if that is what they wanted to do)

Ahead of time little Molly helped me buy and make things for the party. We talked about manners and what tea parties were all about. We set the table and cleaned the house.
Her Mom bought her a new 'tea party' dress. My best friend made a Strawberry Shortcake hat and purse for her and she also did the video and took pictures. We used my best china, and silver serving platters, had fresh flowers, and soft music.

I picked up a vanity chair just for Molly to sit on, since it was _her_ special day. (that, and I had just gotten brand new living room furniture. :)

It was a delightful late afternoon get together for all the ladies. We've decided to do it every year and Molly's other grandmother plans to do one for her other grand daughters too.

The thing that Molly was the most interested in was pouring from her own tea pot, (which I picked up at GoodWill) and sugar cubes!!! Yes sugar cubes.. I guess she'd never seen them before! OHHH and the chocolate covered strawberries, she loved them too.

Little girls and Moms and Grandmas do love those dress up tea parties!

I just emailed the preschool director to see if she is interested in having the children perform a song.

What I worry about are the preschool boys. Wont their mother's feel slighted this is only for girls?

Growing up I didn't have a Mom. I didn't get to do any Mother/Daughter stuff. (and no Father/Daughter stuff either for that matter)

Pre-school boys are still pretty tied to Mom...if this is just for the pre school kids maybe you'd better think of another name for it and include boys? Just a thought, or enlist some men in the Church to reach out to the fathers and sons have a pancake breakfast maybe? Many kids these days don't have both parents at home or available for these kinds of things.

All food is served in our kitchen that is not a kitchen!! No stove at all, or walk in. Last year my husband brought over two refrigerators for the event. We cook every thing at our homes and haul it to the church in coolers.
Several of us women have been planning and doing this for years. We give each hostess a list of what she must have on her table and her responsibilities.
It is a challenge each year to come up with great menus that don't require last minute cooking. We do have lots of roasters to keep things warm and a grill.

We also have an extremely popular photography set up so families can have their pictures made. We charge 5 dollars for that. They are given their nicely presented picture before the end of the tea.

And we have an auction! People donate items for the auction. the items are on tables and it is a silent write it down auction. This is also very popular. The auction winners are announced at the end of the tea. Lunch and shopping!

We also have entertainment such as a singer and a speaker.

The ladies and I who plan all this each year organize people in the church to be in charge of the different events such as the photography, auction, hot tea service, programs, music, clean up, kitchen help, speaker, etc.

Last year we had 1 dessert on each table and 3 of us made all the desserts. The hostess of the table served her table.
I made a dozen key lime pies garnished to the nines.
I also made all the rolls ahead and froze them. The menu was a grilled chicken pasta Caesar salad with rolls and dessert.
It was very good and looked beautiful on the plate.

All the money we make goes towards sending women who have never been on a mission trip before. Last year we sent 2 women on a first time mission trip to Colombia.

We usually start seriously planning in January of each year
and every year I usually say this is my last year!

The problem is that you have so many ages -- adult daughters and preschool daughters are hard to plan for at the same event, whether it is an activity or entertainment. Consider an age range.

Also make sure activities aren't just for 2; some people have more than one daughter, or may bring both Mom and Grandma.

I wouldn't worry about the boys; they'll have their turn another time. But as one poster above noted, it would be nice to be sensitive to those who have no mom or daughter in town or at all. Maybe put something on the invitation indicating that it's fine to include "like-a-mom/daughter" special person in the invitee's life. My daughter once brought a friend's grandpa to a preschool grandparent event, because her own lived far away -- he was so thrilled to be invited, he brought her a red rose. We still call it her "first date."

Also, some years the men of the church dress up and serve the ladies. Usually it's the men whose children are teens or grown, since the dads of young children have to keep the little boys.

One year our church had a fashion show which was very popular. Some women loaned out their wedding gowns from years ago, one woman in her late fifties/early sixties loaned out her old Girl Scout Uniform.

You are very sweet to take on this challenge. I hope your tea is a wonderful success.

The event is still on I THINK. I scheduled our first getogether to plan last Sunday. No one showed up. There was some conflict with a deacon's meeting (3 women in that one), and the rest (about 20) of the women simply didn't show. We held it right during the fellowship after church and I made a special announcement during service about it. People occasionally came to me and said "oh let me know if you need help" but in that non-commital way that sounds polite but you know they don't mean it to the extent you will need them. I mean, I know we have a small congregation but I think they seriously think I am doing this entire thing myself and they just need to bring a pack of cookies or something.

The lady who originally asked me to do this didn't come to the meeting either. She wasn't a deacon. She just drank coffee and chatted in the gym. I have to tell you I was annoyed!

So we are planning a second try this Sunday after church. 20 minutes tops. Bring your coffee and cookies with you. I have printed off the theme and devotional reading from the web. I will need women to choose what role they want to play (decorations, food, hosting a table etc). I already have a budget of $200 from the church and a lot of tea and sugar with scriptures on it from a nice lady from Scripture Teas who read this thread.

Wish me luck!

I recently asked people to be on a committee for a huge project. I promised them ONE meeting. Everyone said yes! Most of them won't be able to make even that one meeting, but that's okay -- they will still be able to work on pieces of the project.

Everyone is busy, and most people hate meetings. So try that.

Good luck with the planning and the event.

Theme Verse Suggestions:
• "...Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. " I Timothy 4:12

1. Consider the basics.
o Your budget.
o Where it will be held.
o How many are likely to attend.
o What type of food you will serve.
o Do we want a speaker and who might we choose.
o What you already have to work with such as tables, table coverings, florals, placemats, etc.
o What you'd like your color scheme to be. Try not to use more than 2 to 3 colors together.
o Dishes – paper or plastic?
o Any "extras" you want such as door prizes.
o Table décor – gather all the tea pots you can find – a hodge podge of tea posts of various sizes, colors and shapes makes a wonderful display (place tent cars in front of each one with the name of the lady who brought it)
o For table decorations use tea cups filled with flowers
o Fill a teapot with flowers for a main table or display
2. Decide on a menu.
Keep it light. You can serve a full course meal, just don't make it something heavy.
3. Make a focal point.
Use a child's size table and chairs set up with a children's tea set. Place dolls or stuffed bears in the chairs to sit with a small teapot full of flowers in the middle of the table.
4. Use door prizes.
o Basket filled with 2 tea cups and specialty tea packages.
o Sprinkle candy inside of the tea cups. Wrap with cellophane tied up with ribbons or raffia.
o Individual Teacup filled with candy. Wrap with cellophane tied up with ribbons or raffia.
o Serving tray
5. Use favors.
o Purchase specialty flavor tea bags. Make sure they are individually wrapped packages. Tie with a hang tag that says "Tea with special friends improves life's aroma." along with your church name and date.
o Use tea strainers as favors and use the same hang tag suggestion as above.
6. Have fun.
o Assign tables ahead of time for a group of ladies or one designated lady to serve as hostess and allow them to come up with a theme and decorations for their table. Each table will be unique.
o Have your ladies wear hats and dress for tea.
o Have special music.
o Sing the "I'm a Little Teapot" song as a chorus.
o Play Victorian Parlor Games such as charades.
o have some old time etiquette information of interesting facts.

I wish we could sit down together
And have a cup of tea
But since we can’t
When you have this one
I hope you’ll think of me.
source unknown
--------------------------------------
I cannot sit and chat with you,
the way I'd like to do.
So brew yourself a cup of tea,
I'll think of you, you think of me.
source unknown
---------------------------------------
When you’re feeling sad & blue
And have no clue what to do
Sit down and have a cup of tea
And a hug or two or maybe three
Feel those troubles melt away
And start you on a better day.
by Paulette, 1998~~TLC Creations.

I had 6 women at my little gathering. 4 women are hosting tables. We have a speaker and music. We've chosen a date and time. One woman went on FOREVER about how she'd been to "5 professional" tea parties and knew just HOW it was to be done and OH YOU NEED TEA COZIES and TIERED SERVING PLATTERS (OH YOU DON'T HAVE THOSE??? she lamented) on and on and so I told her since she knew so much more than anyone else about how it should be that she was in charge of working with the food and beverage team. We were all rolling our eyes. Always one in every bunch!

I put a formal announcement (half page) in the bulletin for next week. So hey, we're having a tea party!

Well ladies, the tea party is THIS Sunday!

I have over 60 people coming! In fact, people kept telling me they were coming long after the RSVP date and I kept saying yes.

We have 8 tables of people, all hosted and decorated by church ladies.

I've arranged a PA system, devotional reader, opening prayer, music, tea quiz, programs, name tags and seating charts.

I'm feelin' exhausted!

There is a team of people making cucumber sandwiches and all sorts of fancy foods. I thought we'd have something simple but they went nuts with all the trimmings of a high tea. I told them that was lovely but they had to organize the food etc and they have.

Wish me luck!

Here's the poster I had made: