This is my latest article published in Grandma Rae's online newsletter for tea enthusiasts called The Cracked Teapot.
A FAMILY TEA AFFAIR
How an impromptu tea party at a dining room table evolved into
an annual full 3-course afternoon tea for almost 50 guests
Little did I know four years ago when I took my cousin in Texas a teacup and a box of one of my favorite teas that it would be the beginning of a lovely family tradition. My cousin suggested that we invite a few of our female relatives that lived nearby for a “little tea party” to be held a couple of days later. Because I had recently hosted a tea party back home for a dozen of my Red Hat friends, I had wonderful recipes for Pecan White Chocolate Scones and for Mock Devonshire Cream.
As we were going to have an afternoon tea anyway, we decided to include other nearby sisters, cousins, and nieces, and soon we had a dozen on our guest list. We set the date and time and started calling everyone, suggesting that they might like to dress up a bit and wear a pretty hat. We started making a list of everything we would need to buy for the tea party and began pulling out teacups, saucers, dessert plates, teapots, and table linens. The next day we shopped for the supplies, ironed the tablecloths and napkins, washed all the china and teapots, and baked the scones.
My 87 year old cousin wearing hat. She is now 90
On the day of the tea party, we set my cousin’s large dining room table, made the Mock Devonshire Cream, prepared the teapots, and awaited the arrival of our guests. In addition to the Scripture Blackberry Tea from Cracker Barrel that I had given my cousin, I had taken with me to Texas two other teas that I had served at the Red Hat tea party, Tisano Cacao Tea and American Classic (the only tea grown in the United States). Our guests enjoyed trying the three different teas with their scones, Devonshire Cream, and lemon curd, and for most of them it was their first afternoon tea experience.
There were eleven of us around the table that day for our 1st Annual Moore Ladies Afternoon Tea. Everyone had so much fun that it was unanimous that we should get together for another tea party again the following year, and that is exactly what we did.
For our 2nd Annual Moore Ladies Afternoon Tea, invitations were sent out via email and snail mail to every single female in our family, and we held the tea in the fellowship room of my cousin’s church. Fortunately, the church had plates and tableware that we could use, but they had no teacups. The solution was to ask everyone to participate in a teacup exchange by buying a thrift shop teacup and saucer for $10.00 or less. The idea was that each guest would use the teacup that she brought and later rinse it out to take part in the teacup exchange.
On the day before the event, my cousin and I went to the church and arranged the banquet tables in an open square configuration, laid out tablecloths and flatware, and even set out some centerpieces of silk flowers. This was to be a full three-course afternoon tea: scones with Mock Devonshire Cream and lemon curd, three different finger sandwiches, and three kinds of bite-size sweets. I had pre-printed our menus on fancy paper (with a short list of tea time etiquette guidelines on the back) for each place setting. My cousin and I spent hours and hours in planning, shopping, baking, and preparing sandwich fillings and sweets, as well as setting up tables and chairs in the days preceding the event, but all of these efforts paid off because our 2nd Annual Moore Ladies Afternoon Tea was a resounding success.
Sitting around the table
There were thirty-two guests present that day, with ages ranging from six to eighty-six. Needless to say, it would have been impossible for my cousin and me to serve all thirty-two guests. On the morning of the event, two volunteers helped us assemble the various sandwiches at the church and then wrap and store them in the refrigerator there. During the tea, we had a couple of volunteers in the kitchen helping to fill trays with food for each course, prepare pots and pots of tea, and help serve. It was really a fun day, and many of the ladies asked for recipes and offered to help with next year’s tea. My cousin wrote an article about our family tea party for the local paper and submitted pictures, which were indeed published the following week.
Because the guest list for our tea was expected to grow even larger for our 3rd Annual Moore Ladies Afternoon Tea, it was decided to change the venue again, this time to the local hall where our family reunion is held on the day following the tea. And because it was becoming humanly impossible for just two people to do all the work involved in putting on the event, I had to come up with a way to involve more people in the food preparation, set up, and serving. Fortunately, I came across an article in the local antique advertiser about having “table hostesses.”
Here’s how it worked: I asked six ladies to serve as “Table Hostesses” for the tea. After I explained what all was involved, I followed up with an email to them with a detailed list of what they needed to do. The first step was to decide on a theme and then to develop a tablescape around that theme. Each table hostess would provide a cloth tablecloth, cloth napkins, teacup and saucer, dessert or salad plate, flatware, and a centerpiece that went along with her theme. Then, on the day of the tea, each table hostess would act as a server, pouring tea and delivering trays of food to her table for each of the three courses. She would come to the kitchen, pick up the teapots or trays of food for each course, serve her table, and return the empty teapots and trays to the kitchen at the end of each course.
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On the day of the tea, I was really impressed with the variety of delightful tablescapes created by the table hostesses. “Vintage Spring” featured china that had belonged to the table hostess’s husband’s grandmother, a green linen tablecloth and pink and yellow linen napkins, two huge bouquets of fresh flowers, party favors, and pink gauzy bows tied to the backs of the chairs. The striking red-white-and-blue Texas Bluebonnets table was adorned with a red tablecloth, white napkins, Texas-flag dishes, a table runner of blue with white stars, and a huge Texas boot vase containing silk bluebonnets and other wildflowers of Texas. Next was a lovely “Sunflowers and Roosters” table highlighting the table hostess’s collection of ceramic rooster pieces with touches of delicate ivy and big, bold sunflowers, white dishes, a green tablecloth under lace, and crisp orange and yellow napkins folded into an upright position.
Across the room was a simple but elegant table that represented “Texas Summer,” featuring a pale blue tablecloth, white napkins, white dishes, and a centerpiece of white flowers and seashells. The color scheme of “Cowgirl Click” was established by the red napkins and western print tablecloth laid on top of a larger turquoise one, and featured two ceramic cowboy boots at one end of the table, a turquoise graniteware coffeepot and red flowers as a centerpiece, and red canopied chuck wagon at the other end, clear glass dishes, and goodie-filled Mason jars for each lady that sat at that table. Finally, there was “A Lovely Irish Table,” representing our Irish roots and featuring a white lace tablecloth over a green tablecloth, a large centerpiece of ivy and Irish knick-knacks, green-and-white Irish china, and soft yellow napkins.
Another part of delegating the work that my cousin and I had done ourselves for the first two teas was the food preparation. Although I again baked the scones and made the Mock Devonshire Cream and the Homemade Orange Curd, I called on six volunteers to prepare three sandwich fillings and three different sweets. Once I had decided on the menu, I saved these recipes in .pdf format and then emailed them to the ladies who had agreed to prepare each of the sandwich fillings and sweets. My cousin and I purchased the bread and butter and prepared the various shaped finger sandwiches on the morning of the tea, with the aid of three volunteers.
Names of our Grandparents' offspring incorporated in menu
We didn’t do the teacup exchange for the 3rd Annual Moore Ladies Afternoon Tea because I wanted to come back to it the following year with better organization, but I did again print the menu for the three courses on pretty floral paper. One improvement for this tea was the addition of soft background music which helped create the ambiance that such an event deserves. I had saved five hours of light classical music, primarily piano and violin, on my iPod and then played this during the tea using the sound system at the hall. Also, there were a few small tea-related gifts that I shared with the guests as door prizes. Every one of the 48 guests agreed that this was our best afternoon tea yet, and several guests signed up to help next year.
In 2014, we will have our 4th Annual Moore Ladies Afternoon Tea, which will move again, this year to a lovely gathering room in a larger church. The tables for six are round (rather than rectangular), and the room itself is more elegant than the hall where last year’s tea was held. The kitchen is much larger, and there’s a wonderful sound system available to us. Save-the-date emails will be sent out very soon, and then I’ll be planning the menu, selecting the teas to serve, calling on ladies to be table hostesses and to prepare the food, and emailing recipes. Then the official invitations will go out as the time for our tea draws near. Before we know it, we’ll be donning our pretty hats and gathering together again to share in this lovely annual family affair.
