I Attended The Secret Garden Tea Party │ Coords

 

(Keep reading for a ton of photos!)

On the last Saturday of July I attended The Secret Garden, a tea party hosted by The Tea Garden Society. Helena organised the whole thing, and despite the obstacles posed by covid she managed to put together a lovely small first tea party! 

My original coord choice was with a tartan Putumayo jacket I had recently purchased and black skirt, but I checked the weather and decided it would probably be too warm. Instead I opted for a Cornet OP that I had also recently purchased and hadn't yet worn, which tbh probably fit the theme a little better.

Headdress - Baby the Stars shine Bright

One Piece - Cornet

Bloomers - Little Dipper

Socks - Metamorphose Temps de Fille

Bag - Metamorphose Temps de Fille

Backpack - Vintage

Shoes - Demonia

Necklace - Closet Child

I awoke early to get ready and take the train to York, where the tea party was being hosted; it was my first time in York and though I didn't see lots, what I did see was lovely. The weather was warm and close, with it forecast to thunderstorm around 4pm, luckily for us as the day progressed, the forecast changed and the sun came out!

The tea party started at 11am. The venue was the Middleton Hotel which was a 15-20(ish) minute walk from the train station. When I arrived several people were already there, so I joined them at their table. Although we were all a little quiet at first, as it turned out nobody was from the same comm (other than myself and Helena), we soon introduced ourselves and got to know one another. As we chatted the last of the guests arrived filling the 2nd table, and once everyone was there Helena gave us our welcome and invited us to open our gift bags as well as check out the bring and buy section. 

Photo by sandayselkie

The side eye lollll, I was caught off guard XD (Photo by sandayselkie)

Each gift bag contained these goodies

Afternoon tea was served at 12:30, though the two other vegan guests were sat at the other table. We all had to have a little shuffle around but we soon got settled again. This gave me the chance to talk to some of the guests I hadn't yet, which was nice. 

The vegan afternoon tea included two types of finger sandwiches, scones with jam and "butter", as well as 4 types of desserts: apple pastries, chocolate mousse, chocolate orange tart, and a chocolate rice krispie thing. And of course tea! I tried the apple pastry and the chocolate orange tart, which were delicious but incredibly rich and sweet. I unfortunately never tried the other two desserts, but I'm sure they were just as nice.

Photo by Helena

After we finished the afternoon tea, there was a raffle where everyone won something. Some smaller prizes, then some bigger brand ones. I won a little gift bag with things from Curiosity Cabinet Creations, Unicorn Paper, and Pret a Geek. Once that was done we all headed outside to take photos which took quite a while as lets be honest- most lolitas love a good opportunity for cute photos.

Thank you cupkate_alice for taking my coord photos~

emilyinferi getting some cute pics of starlightxforest

Me and _elouisecooke_ both in red

Not sure who took this one

We thought it'd be cute to get a shoe circle pic that used to be very popular in the old EGL days

A lil candid from sanayselkie

The tea party ended a little early but very successfully. Some people had to leave after the photo session, but the rest of us had some time to kill before catching our trains. Someone mentioned they had spotted a carousel on their way to the tea party, so we made our way to find it. After a ride on the very beautiful carousel, I and a few others left to head back to the train station and make our way home. 

Photo by starlightxforest

I really love this one of us on our way to the carousel!

Not me staring at my phone ; A ; I swear I was just saving a cute video I took

All carousel pics by jaeravens

I had such a wonderful time at the tea party and getting to know everyone, and it's made me excited to go to more tea parties in the future! The Tea Garden Society are planning the next tea party to be bigger and grander and even more fun!

I also made a tiktok of the event including our carousel ride which you can see here~