High Tea Hospitality

Last week I helped produce a high tea.  And by produce I mean as in staging an event, because an event it was.  A committee from our church women's group created this glorious gathering, serving over 200 women tea, sandwiches, scones, petite fours, and several more delectable treats.

Those of us who were hostesses set a table with our mother's or grandmother's china tea cups, and teapots.  In my case, I pulled out all the stops since I ended up setting two tables as our numbers swelled.  I used my Nana's sterling silver tea set as well as her assorted teacups, the same ones she set on her bridge tables. I unpacked, washed up, and polished my mother's wedding china and sugar and creamer sets.  I used my grandmother's water pitchers.  Assembling these props from a finer and more hospitable era (or at least it seems so to me) is always a nostalgic experience for me.  I sense my lineage looking down in approval.  My mother would have been especially pleased to see her things used for the women and girls of her church.

Daughters brought mothers, mothers brought daughters, sisters came in tandem, and others invited friends.  My friend Patty, a woman who was my first real "best friend," is back in town caring for her mother. She came with me, not only for tea but also to help welcome and register all our guest.  I treasure her presence still sitting beside me after all these years.

The men of our church donned white shirts and black ties and served us, pouring tea like champs and delivering trays and tiers of goodness.

It was a lovely time...time to dress up, slow down, share a cup of tea, revisit our past, and make new memories.