Event Wednesday - Tea Party Recap

Hello everyone.  Today is Event Wednesday and that means it is time for me to share the details of my tea party with you.  For those who have not been following along, I am doing a series of posts on Wednesday in March and April highlighting preparations of two spring event I will be hosting.  The first event was a Palm Sunday Tea Party with some of my girlfriends.

I thought it might be fun to have some of my girlfriends over to just sit and chat.  We often get together to scrap, but we rarely get together just to sit and chat. 

The so-called Spring weather cooperated wonderfully for my tea party; it was raining and in the 40s.  Everyone was ready for a nice cup of tea to warm them up.

I used my dining table as a "self-service" tea area.  I made two large pots of hot tea - Earl Grey and Darjeeling (my favorite).  I also made a pitcher of southern sweet tea for those who might want iced tea.  I actually had three iced tea drinkers, myself included.  Everyone else consumed hot tea - again, myself included.  Yes, I had both cold and hot tea!!

In the living room I used my coffee table to serve the tea snacks.  I had china plates, embroidered napkins (thanks to Carole Beath), and forks laid out around the edge of the table. In the middle of the table I  had four severing dishes:  a three tier tea party server with three different types of tea sandwiches - Traditional Southern Chicken Salad, Egg Salad with Capers, and Pineapple Pecan spread sandwiches;  a small pedestal server with mini custard tarts topped with fresh strawberries; a low tray with lemon bars; and a raised plate of iced cookies.  I had originally planned to make scones, but decided to make custard tarts instead.

I used an end table and a small folding table to allow those not on the sofa to have a place to sit their tea and plates.  In the photo above my friend Susan is looking sweet in my antique rocker.  To the left of Susan you can see the tea pot banner I made for the mantel.  You can also see the tea pot I crafted with my Cameo.  After the fabulous birthday flowers from my husband I decided to use the tea pot as a table decoration and to use my birthday flowers as a center piece.

Above you see MFK - my friend Kathy and MFB - my friend Beth along with the sweet Susan M.  We had a lot of lively conversation covering topics from children, lent, different Christian Lenten practices, to embossing/die cut machine comparisons.   We compared sizes and benefits of various tools.

In the photo below you see MFP - my friend Pat and MFS - my friend Suzanne deep in conversation. 

The MF? title started when I referred to my friend Kathy so frequently on my blog that I nicknamed her MFK.  Beth then called me one day and identified herself on the phone as MFB - my friend Beth.  And then a whole army of MF?s were born... MFK, MFB, MFS, MSP, MSP2, MFT.... You get the idea.  I am blessed with friends and I am especially blessed that my friends are very amusing women and make me laugh!

Below Toby (left) and Peggy (right) posed for their photo. Smart women - they knew I would post the photo no matter how they looked so they made sure they both looked beautiful!

Back to food for a moment - I made cut out cookies for one of the sweet tea items.  I found a teapot cookie cutter and used pink icing.  I also cut out rounds and made sandwich cookies, filling the cookie layers with strawberry jam.  The cookies were a huge hit!

And speaking of posing, here I am posing with a Portuguese Easter teapot (the Darjeeling tea).  The color is off in this photo, but it was by far the better photo of me.  Beth insisted on photographing me as proof that I too attended.  I tried not to cry too loudly when she took the camera behind which I like to hide and turned the lens on me.

Remember that full tower of sandwiches at the top of the page?  Yes, we DID enjoy the food.   The poor tower is looking quite picked over. By the way, the decorative tower and the raised cookie platter were from a children's birthday party (tea party theme) retailer.  I decided not to use my three tiered Crystal server for fear of being too formal.

I truly enjoyed my Palm Sunday Tea Party and I would like to consider making this an annual event.  It truly was not as much work as it looked and I think everyone had a nice time.   They all left with a paper crafted teacup with three servings of tea inside.   I packaged the cups in cello bags tied with sheer ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by for my Tea Party write up.  I will be back with a new project to share tomorrow and not nearly as chatty of a post!