Wednesday

Wedding China

 I'm joining Cuisine Kathleen's Wedding China Challenge.  I'll start with the story of my wedding china: My youngest daughter now has my wedding china and she lives in another state. I don't have pictures of it to share so I copied these off Replacements: 

 Symettra by Castleton. It is eggshell with a platinum band around the edges:

 I wanted plain china so I could use it with pretty patterned tablecloths, etc.

My daughter also has my crystal and silver, it all went together so nicely I didn't want to separate it:

 Silver Surf by Stieff. Notice how it matches the stem on the crystal:

Fostoria crystal "Contour."

I still think it is all so beautiful! Sometimes it's hard to believe I went from the simplicity of all this in 1960 to Old Country Roses and gold trimmed flatware! We purchased this in the late 90s. I do love both styles!

Since I don't have my first china here and both my daughters live out of town, I decided to do memories of my first wedding, using clear china that my Aunt Catherine gave me (she died last month.) In her younger days she catered wedding receptions and used this. She had a large collection of these clear plates and she gave me a lot of it. It's hard to photograph though.

                         I'm using the wedding lace tablecloth layered over a pale yellow tablecloth.
 It's one of my favorite tablecloths, sheer embroidered lace:
 

The white sheer embroidered napkins have pearl napkin rings (representing wedding pearls!)
 

 The clear crystal look flatware matches very well.


 

The centerpiece is actually a bride's bouquet of silk yellow roses. I carried yellow roses in my wedding.

A vintage vase is a perfect fit for it.
 
           
 



 

 
This brought back lots of sweet memories.

I'm also linking to Susan's Tablescape Thursday.

 



Katherine

Friday

Tea Time at Disney World

 My blogging friend, Janet, and I have been blessed with three different years of meeting at Disney World when she and her family come down from Canada.  Janet and I met online about 15 years ago on a decorating group. We starting writing privately and found we had a lot in common other than decorating and crafts. We hoped to some day meet in person, but didn't really think it was likely since she lives in Canada and I live in central Florida. It finally happened and we have been meeting yearly!

This time we decided to go back to the Garden View Tea Room at the Grand Floridian Resort at Disney World since we enjoyed our first visit there two years ago.


 

Our husbands were also invited and they get along really well, talking constantly!
 

                                         Tea cups waiting:
 

 

 


                                     The menu:
 
 We all ordered the Buckingham Palace tea which is shown below:

Five finger sandwiches: cucumber and watercress, egg salad, salmon, curry chicken salad, roasted pear with gorgonzola cheese, and a tiny onion tart. Served with a pot of tea.

We were so happy to see they have casual Old Country Roses china now.

Each of us ordered a different tea and shared with each other. Janet had Princess Breakfast Tea:
 
Her husband, Norman had Imperial English Breakfast:
 
My husband, Joe had Eros tea flavored with sweet mandarin orange and vanilla.

I had the Gardenview Blend, the signature blend made exclusively for Garden View Tea Room:


These pretty tea cozies kept our tea pots warm:
 
 We wondered about the name Garden View "Lounge" instead of tea room!


 The second course was Raisin scones with clotted cream, strawberry jam, lemon curd and a small strawberry tart:


For dessert a tray of goodies was offered. We could choose two desserts each:


We chose the swan cream puffs and the eclairs:

I had the white chocolate covered strawberry with the cream puff.
The others had the eclairs:


Janet with her cream puff:


The cream puffs were almost too pretty to eat!

But, that didn't stop us!


So nice to have a husband who will go to tea rooms with me!!

                       A look around the Garden View tea room:
 
Pretty statues:

A beautiful mirror:

It isn't a large place and reservations must be made a long time in advance.



 The Garden View from inside the tea room:


As you enter the tea room:

These mosaics are on the floor:

Mrs. Potts, and Chip (from Beauty and the Beast)


The huge lobby is decorated marvelously:

A pianist entertains when the orchestra is taking a break:

Large vases of fresh flowers are everywhere:



The ceiling above the lobby:

                                                      The chandeliers are gorgeous!



We strolled the grounds outside the tea room:

The tea room is behind Janet and Norman.

The garden outside The Garden View Tea Room:


A fountain in front of one of the swimming pools:


Across from the tea room:




We decided to walk over the the Disney wedding chapel which is nearby:

                             The Disney Wedding Chapel

                                       Inside the chapel:


Looking to the back of the chapel:


 The doors with Cinderella's carriage leads to a photo op outside:


We took advantage of the photo op and reminisced about our wedding days:

Across the lake from the chapel and centered in this arch is Cinderella's Castle, it was getting late and doesn't show up in the pictures, but it is so pretty!


Beautiful Florida setting, that's the Grand Floridian Resort!!


Disney Wedding Chapel:


As we strolled over to see the wedding chapel, we were delighted to see other tea time adventures! Here is the new pool decor of Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter Tea Party!

This is at the new Grand Floridian time share property.

We were able to walk through the time share building and what fun to see this fountain with penguins haveing a tea party!

We had to take pictures to go along with our tea party theme of the day!







                                    How cute is that!


                                                   We also posed at a fountain outside:

Other fun photo ops, the vintage Rolls at the Grand Floridian Hotel:

                                                          And the Horseless Carriage

 Janet and I feel so blessed that our prayers were answered and we have enjoyed meeting, not just once, but now three times! Twice at the beautiful Garden View Tea Room and once, (last year) we went to The Holy Land Experience together with our husbands. It was also wonderful!

So many special memories with our special Canadian friends!


Katherine