Everyone, raise your pinkies and your teacups – it’s Addison’s most delightful first birthday high tea! We are all aflutter at the elegance of this celebration, from the vintage teacups sourced from generous friends and neighbours of the birthday girl’s grandmother, to the just-so morsels displayed in such mouth-watering splendour on the party table.

The stunning vintage high tea theme isn’t typical for a first birthday but that’s exactly why we love it so. And personally, I’m a firm believer in mum Stephanie’s ethos that first birthday festivities are just as much for the adults as for the kids. With countless birthdays to come that are likely to be all about fairies, princesses and the like, Stephanie wanted this first milestone to double as a celebration of their first year together as a family.

The setting looks straight from the well-heeled world of Downton Abbey, with all that lace and fine china, but Stephanie is as thrifty as she is creative. Believe it or not, the whole affair cost less than $280! And that included alcoholic tipples for the grown-ups! You already know where all the porcelain came from after an initial plan to find pretty cups in op-shops fell flat. The lace tablecloth is really a sheer curtain from their bedroom and the sweet Love Mae stickers and wooden name were “borrowed” from the birthday girl’s room. How clever!

The vintage theme spilled over to the food, with asparagus rolls, lemon chicken sandwiches, ginger crunch, cheese muffins, scones with homemade quince paste, dark chocolate fennel ginger slice, savoury tarts, dark chocolate crackles, and finally, rosewater meringues and chocolate brownie pops that were both hidden at the back of the table after proving a slight disaster! I adore this next idea – Stephanie made her own old-fashioned coconut ice to anchor the little menu flags on the party table.

Stephanie made the cake too, a glorious rainbow concoction from another Donna Hay recipe, iced in white buttercream, decorated with teeny-tiny marshmallows and embellished between each layer with delectable chocolate raspberry sand from those Melbourne masters of cake, Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio. And if you’re admiring that tiered cupcake stand up there, it came from Cake Deco.

Rather than more typical ballons and streamers, Stephanie decorated the room with photographs of her darling daughter to show guests how she’d changed over the course of her first year. She “framed” them with removable frame-shaped wall decals from Love Mae. A copy of the sweet party invite from Alannah Rose also adorned the wall.

Stephanie fell in love with some heart-shaped tea strainers from Tbar and really, really wanted them as take-home party favours. We salute her for sticking to the party budget and sending guests home with plate-loads of cakes and other baked tidbits instead. She did settle for one indulgence – a cute little polkadot tea set from T2 (pictured above) for Addison to treasure as a memento of her very special first birthday tea, along with all these lovely images from family friend and sometimes snapper Chris Allsop, of Capture That Photography. Here’s the birthday girl all dolled up for tea, and with her doting parents.

Want to share your child’s wow-worthy partywith us? Then just fill in the form below. While we can’t reply to every email, we’ll certainly let you know if your party is chosen to be showcased on Babyology. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to seeing your amazing parties!

Related posts:

1. Show us your party – Koby’s superhero birthday
2. Show us your party – Mattea’s vintage carnival birthday
3. Show us your party – Hayden’s Under the Sea birthday
4. Show us your party – Max’s cute car birthday
5. Show us your party – Josiah’s farm birthday