As a long-time childhood attendee of an annual tea party for neighborhood girls, Marissa's charming soiree brings back lots of happy memories. Marissa shares: I wanted Joselyn's 3rd birthday party to be magical and sweet- and beautiful. Photogenic. And since planning parties is another passion of mine (besides photography), I really enjoyed putting together all the details on this one. I decided to do a vintage paper doll tea party.

Invitations:
Inspired by Martha Stewart, I made folding paper dolls for the invitations and included the information on the back of the dolls. I cut out cute scrapbook paper and glued it on to the dolls for their dresses and fastened the invitation with ribbon. I also put together little boxes of tea cookies with invitations which we hand delivered to all of Joselyn's friends.

I had originally planned to hold the party outside under a beautiful tree- hoping for beautiful fall weather at a local historic park. But when the day came, it was just absolutely too cold, so we ended up having it at our home. Our house is not huge, so I knew it was going to be crammed a little, but I was determined to make it cute anyway! Not only did my friend Stacey help with photography, she also helped me put together some of the decorations too... what a great friend, huh?

Decor:
A couple of months leading up to the party, I kept my eye out for cute things to use at the party. I found a lot of small old school chairs painted different colors that I knew would look adorable around a small table, some vintage hankies, vintage containers for centerpieces and even some vintage paperdolls- which I actually didn't even up using, sadly, because I didn't have enough time to cut them out! I found some plastic lace table cloth at my local party store, plastic "glass" plates, and small porcelain tea sets at Wal-Mart. $5 for a set of 4!

We used the vintage hankies as place mats, and tied cute happy birthday napkins with ribbon. Each place had a little tea cup, and for the centerpieces we placed flowers in the vintage tins found at a flea market. I scattered some fabric flowers on the table to fill empty space :)

I made wooden plaques ahead of time for each girl with their names on it. I tied them to the back of their chair and they took them home as keepsakes- perfect for hanging on their bedroom door or above their bed!

Food:
Since most of the girls there were pre-school age, we kept the food really simple. Grapes, goldfish, tea cookies, cupcakes and "tea" (apple juice) with flower sprinkles. The tea with flower sprinkles was a HIT with the girls!

Favors:
Besides the plaques, I also sent the girls home with hand-made goodie bags (sewn by my talented friend Melanie Noe- no relation to me) Each bad had a fabric "paper" doll complete with outfits and a name bracelet.

Thanks Marissa! Readers, you can see more of this fine party (as well as her other beautiful photography) at Marissa Noe Photography.

(Images: Marissa Noe Photography)