Mother’s Day Tea Party
This year was the first Mother’s Day that I have been around for several years. Living in Hawaii had its obvious perks, but it has also meant that I forfeited many holidays shared with my family who is sprawled across the mainland. Since moving home, I have been prioritizing time spent with my mom after all the years away. With Mother’s day approaching after I arrived mid-April, I knew I wanted to throw her something special.
The idea to throw a tea party had been living in my dreams while in Hawaii, but I toiled over where to throw it and for whom. My mom is a collector of fine things and has never been known to throw anything away. Years of hosting extravagant parties, organizing crystal ball fundraisers, and all the other thralls of being a suburban house wife meant that all that the event designing accoutrement were lying dormant in cub-bards dreaming of finer times. All I had to do was set the table, plan the meal, and recruit my closest friends to showcase their talents and bring their moms.
I went all out. I felt like all of my hospitality experience the past ten years culminated into this moment where I could treat my mother, the queen of elegance like the royalty she is. A friend and I discussed possible tea sandwiches and crudité options, I sorted the ingredients necessary and headed to Costco for my bulk items. The night before, my mom and I discussed table design and mapped out what the experience should look like.
We went with fan-folded white linens for the napkins, cutlery from my grandmother on my father’s side, gold-accented dishware to support the Italian hand-painted plates, and crystal tea and wine glasses. It was extravagant, but I never shy from going above and beyond when given permission. This trait I fortunately inherited from my mother.
I worked the afternoon before and was desperate for some exercise so by the time I got home to prepare the sandwich fillings It was already 8:00 P.M. Four hours later, I had prepare the egg salad, chicken salad, cucumber filling, cream cheese and horseradish spread, mixture of the frittatas, the crust and filling for the pecan tarts, and made three layers of the chamomile cake and frosting. It was a lot of work, but really fun. My mom, hung around in the background cleaning and preparing the house and yard for the next day’s guests. My mother is from the south, so keeping up with appearances has always been top priority. A trait I have not inherited, but deeply appreciate.
The day of consisted of putting the finishing touches to the food; baking what needed to be baked fresh, decorating the cake, and assembling the sandwiches for which I enlisted the help of my boyfriend. People arrived pair-by-pair, my friend Stephen went to arrange fresh-cut flowers from Chanticleer Acres in Lichfield in the garage, while my friend Rebecca put her crudité and dips into our dish ware. Everything was set by the time the rest of the mother’s arrived. It was a beautiful event, the food was enjoyed, while the men created cocktails and poured tea for the ladies.
It was so special to see everyone enjoying the food and company and making themselves comfortable on the porch as it was an unseasonably nice day. It felt so good to provide a special experience to the women who had a hand in raising me and to see everyone smiling and sharing laughter. My dog was even able to tax a few squares of her favorite sandwich, chicken of course. It felt nice to follow-through with a dream that I have been sitting with for over a year and to execute a simple event for my loved ones.
What I made:
The Spread
Smoked Salmon Canapé
The Desert
Russian Tea Cake
Chamomile Tangerine Cake
The Drinks:
French 75
Prosecco
Honey Sweetened Black Iced Tea
Coffee
