Royal Tots New Year!

When the guests need to be in bed before 9 pm it makes a traditional News Year Eve celebration a little hard to pull off. New York based PR maven Elizabeth Blitzer had a clever idea to host a royal New Years Eve tea for her niece Charlotte and invited some of her friends to join in! Naturally she invited the super cute twins, Fanny and Lucy, the daughters of Traditional Home Design Editor, Tori Mellott to join Charlotte in the fun. As everyone knows, you need a handsome prince when there are princesses around, so the delightful Augustus appeared on scene the escorted by his mother another New York PR whiz, Natalie Markoff.

Elizabeth's tea even featured a gluten free selection of treats for Augustus which made this little get together a very modern way for these royals to ring in 2016!

A collection of vintage cake plates held the the treats including star shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. 

Tell me about the occasion and meal you made.

This was a New Years Eve princess/prince tea party.  Lets just say that the menu was mostly pink!

The super cute table complete with a special crown lighting treatment. 

What influences your menu choices when you entertain?

Theme parties are the best! A party with a theme gives you a direction, and more importantly…boundaries. I have a tendency to totally go overboard so more is always more. In this case, I wanted the party to feel like a real tea—tiered cake stand with party sandwiches and small sweets and something that vaguely resembled tea (cotton candy in tea cups).  Since the children were so young, I also wanted to make sure that there was a mix of something healthy so that when I sent them back to their parents, they didn’t leave on a complete sugar high.

I spy- Lucy checking out the table.

Who or what has most inspired your entertaining style?

Definitely my parents and my grandparents. They had parties constantly and everything they did was an event—flowers, too much food, serving platters, centerpieces. I remember my mom always set out her table weeks in advance with sticky notes on each platter to organize her food selection.  

Aunt Elizabeth with Charlotte enjoying a cuppa.

Has anyone been a strong influence in teaching you the l'art de recevoir?

Entertaining is a way of life in Louisiana. My grandparents lived a block away from us growing up. We were there constantly. There was never a time that she didn’t have a full bar and snacks out for us. Its part of the enjoyment of having guests and of collecting things. You want to have people over. You want to use your china and silver and garage sale finds. And…it turns any visit into a party.

Augustus and Charlotte (with a little help from Auntie).

Do you have a favorite china or tabletop item that you collect?

I don’t collect anything specifically, but I like anything that is for entertaining purposes. I can’t resist a platter or a set of china or a silver serving utensil.

The cotton candy, pink of course, was a hit with the adorable Fanny and Lucy.