In honor of Pride and Prejudice‘s 200th anniversary, my dear mother and I decided to celebrate in style with our first ever Elegant Tea Party! This momentous occasion is one that does not come around often, so I wanted to do something special to honor this grand day! My dear mother, while not a Jane Austen fan-girl like her daughter, loves to cook, entertain, and collect tea accessories. We thought it would be great fun to combine our common interests and put together an elegant tea party to celebrate Jane Austen and 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice.
We have all the details of our Elegant Tea Party below. We invite you to join us in a “virtual” cup of tea as you peruse this post!
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| Yes, the tablecloth does have Easter eggs and bunnies on it…something we didn’t realize until after the tea party, of course! LOL! 🙂 |
~ OUR TEATIME BLESSING ~
Lord, grant that our time together
be steeped in serenity,
sweetened by sharing,
and surrounded by the warm fragrance of Your love.
~ OUR MENU ~
first course
~.~
Raspberry White Chocolate Scones
Clotted Cream
Raspberry Jam
second course
~.~
Cucumber and Lemony Dill Cream Cheese Sandwiches
Fruit and Vegetable Sandwiches on Pumpernickel Bread
third course
~.~
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Tea Cup Sugar Cookies
beverage
~.~
Emma’s Perfect Match by Bingley’s Teas
The recipes and menu used in this tea party aren’t necessarily from Jane Austen or her time period. We hope to incorporate some authentic Austen-inspired fare at our next tea party. This time around, we enjoyed trying out some of our new kitchen toys (I simply had to make something using my new mini-cheesecake pan) and revisiting some favorites (we are big fans of the Sticky Finger scone mix!)
After delighting in all these delicious and delectable refreshments (and before a much anticipated viewing of Downton Abbey), we played a rousing round of Pride and Prejudice, The Game! A game my dear mother bought for me close to ten years ago. I like this game because you can play it with all types of Jane Austen fans. My mom has only seen Pride and Prejudice on film and she was still able to beat me at this game!
The object of the game is to collect all the “tokens” needed to fill your two cards. One card is filled by answering easy questions about Jane Austen’s beloved novel, like: Who does Caroline Bingley want her brother to marry?
The other card is filled by travelling around the board, being lucky enough to receive tokens by chance, or purchasing tokens from specific locations.
Once your cards are filled, you must get both your bride and groom to the Parish Church to win! In this round, mom’s Darcy and Elizabeth beat my Jane and Bingley by a lucky roll of the dice! (You need the exact number to enter the church).
And so concludes our happy and festive celebrations of the Bicentennial of Pride and Prejudice! Mom and I so enjoyed our first attempt at an Elegant Tea Party and hope to plan another one real soon! We have so many more recipes and treats we want to try out!
I am so excited to share this special day with you, my dear readers! If you ever find yourself in the vicinity of Wilmington, North Carolina, please let me know! I’d love to meet you in person and invite you over for some tea and refreshments! Mom and I are just dying to find another excuse to take out all this finery and take our fill of some tasty treats!
Happy 200th Anniversary Pride and Prejudice everyone!
What a gorgeous party! And such great food. I’m jealous. 🙂
Lovely idea, and it sounds like it was a delightful time. 😀
What a wonderful idea! The food looks delicious especially the teapot biscuits! They are so cute! 🙂 I’ve wanted to play the P&P game for ages, but sadly they don’t seem sell it outside the US.
You really had a delicious tea party!. I’m getting hungry while seeing the photos.
Teresa.
Sounds like a perfect day! My friend has that game, and she and my daughter and I have even persuaded the men to play with us, too. 😉
I’ve played that game I think with some friends a few years ago!
Love that you are having a celebratory afternoon tea – it seems very fitting, and I love that you and your mother are able to share the occasion even though you have differing levels of interest in the subject.
The food looks gorgeous! Enjoy!
Cassie xx
That looked like so much fun. Now I want to do that with my mother who read the book in a read aloud with me when I was a little girl. She deserves something lovely like this for putting up with all my interruptive questions during our reading time.
Thanks for sharing!
What a lovely Tea Party! I’m glad you were able to celebrate with your mother. Happy P&P Day!
What a beautiful teapot. What great pics of the food and game. I’d love to have a party like that. I’ll have to do that with a friend or two. I’d never heard of that game. I had the Jane austen one but this looks much more fun. I’d love to come by for tea. For the moment WA state is just a bit too far to pop over but you never know. Some year it might just work out. smiles….thanks for the invite
Thank you for posting it. Just by looking at this beautiful things makes me happy and makes my day.
What a wonderful way to celebrate….your tea party looks delicious…
Thanks for sharing your tea party with us. It looks like you had a lovey afternoon with your mom.
I think I may have to take a road trip to North Carolina. I’ll bring the tea if you can make the scones. And pretty, pretty please can we play the P&P game?
And…you have to pull out the board game. FYI – I’m very competitive, but I’ll try to show a little decorum!
I am so jealous, Meredith! How delightful this must have been! 🙂
Meredith,
How beautiful, delicious and fun this looks!! How wonderful that you and your mother got to celebrate together!
🙂
Reading this was fantastic! I really enjoyed my imaginative travelling with you as I read it 🙂
Oh good! I’m so glad you enjoyed our virtual tea party! 🙂 Thank you for stopping by!
Thank you, bettielee! We enjoyed indulging a little – I think the scones with jam and clotted cream were my favorites! 🙂
Thank you, Beth! We had so much fun!
My mom got the teapot cookie cutter a while back. I thought they were adorable! Maybe you can find the game on ebay or something?
Thank you, Teresa! Everything was delicious…well, except for maybe the cucumber sandwiches. Mom accidentally added too much lemon zest and they were…quite tart! :*
Oh wow! Kudos to you for getting the men to play! I bet that made it all the more fun! 🙂
Thank you, Cassandra! It was the perfect way to combine our interest and we had such a great time! The game was a lot of fun too!
Oh you definitely should, Sophia! What a sweet and memorable introduction you had to Jane Austen! 🙂
Thank you, Candy! Happy P&P Day to you!
Thank you, suzan. All the tea accessories and finery belongs to my mom – some of it came from her mother and some of it came from antique shops. The game, I think was originally sold in a magazine called Victorian Trading? I think you can find it on their website Ashgrove Press or maybe on ebay. Yes, please let me know if you are ever near by! Hope you are doing well, suzan!
I’m so glad, Aurora! Hope you enjoyed celebrating the day!
Thank you! We have a great time! 🙂
Yes, yes, and YES! I love those scones and am anxious to try all the flavors (there are about 12 I think!) Would love to have you over, Heather! Any time!
LOL! Bring it! I’m sure we’d have a great time! 😉
It was indeed, Alyssa! Thank you for stopping by and sharing a virtual cup of tea with us!
Thank you, Marilyn! My mom sure does know how to set a pretty table! We had fun using such elegant finery! 🙂
The pics are lovely! I have my little tea parties by myself…LOL A little music, some tea, some lovely foodstuffs and some Austen. Looks like you ladies had a great time. I’m a little jealous… =D How was the Emma’s Perfect Match tea? I’ve been eyeing that one.
It is just a perfect combination, isn’t it? We loved Emma’s Perfect Match – sweet and light (I was able to taste the strawberries from Donwell Abbey!) 🙂
Never heard of that board game. Where did she get it? I think the only literary one I have is 221B Baker Street, a Sherlock Holmes game. You read the case story on the card and then you have to figure out maybe four or so things such as the murderer, weapon, and how the crime was committed. I even have some of the additional stories that you can buy for it.
Cinnamon tea is my favorite kind.
She found it in a magazine years ago, here is a website I found for it: http://www.ashgrovepress.com/Pride_and_Prejudice.html
That sounds like a fun game – I love the idea of boards games based on books…it’s very intellectually stimulating! Wish they’d make more!
I love tea with spices in it – the spicier the better!