Valentine's Day Girl's Tea Party

A few weeks back I threw this Valentine's Day tea party to get the girl's together, gossip, and basically have an utterly girl-mantic (girly/romantic) evening.  The concept stems from combining a classic tea party with a bridge evening with nods to the card theme in the decor with classic tea party nosh.  See after the jump for more pictures and tips for how to throw a similar shindig for your girls...
For the decor I wanted something girly, whimsical, and appropriate for the tea party theme.  What better than the four card suites, especially considering one is the heart, the icon of Valentine's Day.  I bought sparkly red wrapping paper and pink cardstock from Paper Source and cut these into varying sizes of the four suites.  I also found a special card deck in support of breast cancer research appropriately colored pink to scatter amongst the suites that I had created.  Together I used these to add pops of color to a linen tablecloth and to create a table runner down the center. Bonus, you can use them after to create Valentine's Day cards!

For the flowers I stuck with a classic monochromatic pink look buying various shades and flower types from Trader Joe's, my favorite budget friendly floral source.  DIY floral post to come later this week so stay tuned!
For the food, keep it simple with make-ahead tea sandwiches (recipes to come) and a combo of store bought and homemade desserts.  Dress them up with DIY toothpicks using leftover sparkly red paper cut into little hearts and voila, a masterpiece fit for Downton.

To drink I served tea, of course, and then a grapefruit champagne cocktail (recipe to come later this week). As favors, each lovely lady received a homemade Valentine's Day note and a delightful shade of Essie nail polish so they could indulge in some quality girl mani/pedi time.

Overall the night was a success with conversation that flowed into the evening, lots of tea (and bubbly, if we're being honest) and just overall high quality girl time.  How do you celebrate Valentine's Day?  Do you have a special celebration with just your bffs?