Little Darlings Secret Garden Mother's Day High Tea Experience with the InterContinental Wellington

Creating experiences is at the heart of why I started the High Tea Honeys. This not-so-little-anymore afternoon tea club has been my passion project for more than a decade. Over that time we've hosted more than 250 events and I'm most proud of the fact that these events have facilitated countless friendships and created space for our gorgeous members to connect and take some time out just for them.

If you'd asked me a few years ago about what sort of event I would dream to host, I would have described something at scale with a beautiful theme and with the little extras that take it beyond an afternoon tea to create a memorable experience. I would have described something that had mostly felt out of reach to bring to life alone.

When the InterContinental Hotel Wellington got in touch at the start of April about working together, I didn't hesitate to pitch them on an idea to bring families together for a special Mother's Day afternoon tea event complete with gift bags, a themed photo station and fashion parade with awards.

I waited anxiously thinking I had come on a bit strong in my typical over-enthusiastic fashion (lol) and literally did a happy dance when they said their team was on board with the concept. Realising we were only 5 weeks out from event day, I put my nerves about pulling this off to the side and sprung into action. We had tickets to sell, gift bags to collate items for, a bead bracelet session to prepare, a photographer to book, prizes to sort and a theme to bring to life both on the high tea menu and in the space that was going to be a takeover of the stunning GPO Restaurant, Wellington. 

It was an absolute dream working with the InterContinental Wellington team on what we decided would be our "Little Darlings Secret Garden Mother's Day Experience". Everyone adopted the vision and we all went to work on the things we excelled at, bringing it all together just in time for event day. The InterContinental team's attention to the finer details were above and beyond - themed place cards graced the tables, rose petals were scattered throughout the restaurant and let's not forget those mind-blowing Secret Garden themed coconut jellies. Thank you for entrusting me with the vision for this event and working as hard and fast as you did to bring it together. I was absolutely delighted for all of us that it was a sell out - we hosted more than 70 guests for our Mother's Day collaboration.

I am beyond grateful to the organisations that supported our event, contributing to our "gift for mum" and prizes for the fashion show. A special thanks to Boody, Trilogy, T2 and Salute Hair & Day Spa. If you were a lucky recipient of one of the gift bags, I hope you loved it as much as we loved curating it for you. 

Lastly, to Holly Couch from Holly Couch Photography, thank you for adopting my crazy vision for the themed photography station part of our day and for all of your support making sure it was going to work. I already knew but the sneak preview I have seen of the photographs just shows how you were the most perfect person to capture these memories for our families. You are such a talented family photographer, we were so lucky to steal you away on Mother's Day to be part of our event. 

I hope this is the first of many events at this scale for the High Tea Honeys. I really was in my element working with an incredible team. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to create these memories together.