This year’s bonus bank holiday weekend, in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, is approaching fast. Hopefully, the weather will be good where you live, and you can invite all your friends and family round for a garden party. Here are some tips for how to plan and host a garden party worthy of Buckingham Palace!

Make a proper afternoon tea spread

Garden parties have been a feature of the royal family’s social life since the reign of Queen Victoria, and – as with all royal activities – they are steeped in tradition. Among these is the serving of sandwiches, cakes and tea, in the time-honoured English tradition of afternoon tea, or ‘high tea’. To make your afternoon tea feel special, go hunting in the antique shops and charity shops in your area for a vintage afternoon tea set complete with a traditional three-tiered cake stand – you’ll be amazed at what bargains can be found with a bit of luck and patience!

Give your garden a makeover

A garden party is the perfect occasion to give your garden some much-needed TLC. You are still in time, if you hurry, to install some new garden decking, replace broken tiles or spruce up your lawn. Decking is a particularly good option if you want a low-maintenance garden that will still look good in a decade’s time.

While it might be too late to sow new plants and have them flower by the first weekend of June, there’s nothing stopping you from buying some beautiful seasonal plants in pots and transplanting them into the garden when the time is right. Choose perennials and you will have flowers again this time next year and every year to come!

Invest in some good drinks

The best parties have great drinks, and your garden party might be the perfect occasion to indulge in some champagne. These days you can actually get some pretty good champagne at very affordable prices from budget supermarkets, so even if you have limited means, don’t discount the possibility of being able to afford champagne until you’ve had a browse!

For a summer classic, you can’t go wrong with Pimm’s, which uses this season’s favourite fruit – strawberries. We can’t guarantee that the royals are Pimm’s drinkers, but hey, it tastes delicious, right?

For those who don’t drink alcohol, the ever-expanding range of Belvoir soft drinks is a great choice. The sparkling elderflower and the rose lemonade are particularly suited for the season, and extremely refreshing!

Buy some lawn games

Finally, you want to keep your guests entertained, and what better way to do that than with some good old-fashioned lawn games? To make your garden party ‘proper posh’, invest in a garden croquet set. You and your guests could even recreate the spectacular pall mall scene from the latest season of Bridgerton! Pall mall was a precursor to croquet that used to be played in the street, and – to go back to the royals – it is believed that the wide road which stretches between Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace is called Pall Mall because it used to be a popular spot for pall mall matches.