Retro Chick Reviews – Style Me Vintage Tea Parties

The Style me Vintage series just keeps on rolling!

The clothes, hair and make up books have now been bundled into one handy volume. The Style Me Vintage Look Book, and there’s also Style Me Vintage: Weddings due for release very soon. I came home the other day to find the latest release,Style Me Vintage: Tea Parties, on my door mat, so  it was obviously review time!

Much like its sister books it’s a great “beginners guide”. Personally I would say it wasn’t really a book on “tea parties” but more just “parties” but maybe that doesn’t sound vintage enough?

The book is written by the owner of the Betty Blythe tea rooms in West London and has the same layout as the others in the series, with a nice textured cover and retro wall paper prints on the layouts. It starts with the basics; choosing a venue, invitations, food and drink; before moving on to a few specific suggestions for parties, including suggestions for decorations, outfits, entertainments and a selection of recipes to go with your theme.

Overall this is a good, basic, book on party planning. Given it’s subject matter comparisons with The Vintage Tea Party are unavoidable, but they are actually quite different. While The Vintage Tea Party is an amazing recipe book, with some great ideas for parties, Style Me Vintage Tea Parties is actually a book about party planning, with a few recipes thrown in. Like the rest of the series, it is aimed at beginners, rather than seasoned party throwing professionals. It’s also about half the price on Amazon.

There are some  nice sections on party etiquette, how to serve champagne, and a handy check list for each stage of the party planning to make sure you don’t miss anything. The party ideas themselves aren’t, perhaps, astonishingly original, (1920s speakeasy,  1950s street party and a Victorian Tea Party to name a few) but the ideas for them are well presented and the recipe and decor suggestions are good and detailed.

If you were looking for ideas and help with planning your first party, then I would heartily recommend buying Style Me Vintage: Tea Parties as a beginners guide, it’s just £7.99 on Amazon at the moment, and at that price is a bargain (but if you have the money I’d also suggest you buy The Vintage Tea Party Book
as well.)

Basically, if you buy one book on Vintage Tea Parties, buy The Vintage Tea Party book. If you buy 2, then definitely buy Style Me Vintage Tea Parties.

I am an Amazon affiliate, so if you do fancy buying the book and you buy it through one of my links then you’ll earn me a few pennies to spend on cocktails. If you hate me and want me to be poor, then feel free not to click!