Victorian Tea Party

Laura Beth and Sasha Gott
Gran and Laura Beth
Me and Laura Beth

The first Saturday in May is now a special day for our family. The Freed-Hardeman Associates (a group of ladies who raise money for scholarships) host a Victorian Tea Party at the historic Hardeman House. There are events for all ages and it has proven to be a huge success. This year as you made your way through the house an FHU student played classic piano pieces in the parlor. From the parlor, you could move into the sitting room where older girls and ladies learned to shadow stitch. In the past, we have learned to smock and quilt in this room as well. From the sitting room, we moved to the dining room where we were able to see and experiment with different ways to set a table. They did a great job showing how to use things you have around your house to set a beautiful table. In the main room, a tea boutique was there for you to buy tea related items. They had the tea we would be sipping on, different tea goodies, tea cozies, miniature tea sets and tea jewelry you could purchase. Upstairs little girls could decorate Victorian fashion dolls, have their silhouette made and dress up for their own princess tea party. Off the back porch, we were seated under a tent where we tasted cucumber sandwiches, three cheese tea sandwhiches, apricot cream scones, cinnamon honey butter, high tea lemon cookies (that just melted in your mouth), black-eyed susans and decadent chocolate cupcakes. The teas of the day were Lady Londonberry Tea and St. Paul's London Breakfast Tea. You could take part in croquet on the main lawn and in the gazebo make gumdrop flowers. It was truely a wonderful day one that we remember and one that we will look forward to for next year. If any of you would like the recipes for these items, leave a comment and I will post the recipes for all.