The "Summer Tea on the Porch" Hat Contest

I am still savoring the wonderful time I had at the Senoia Area Historical Society’s “Summer Tea on the Porch” on Saturday. Yes, it turns out, you CAN host 40 ladies for tea on your front porch if your front porch is big enough, and the Pearman porch was indeed. Here, the historical society’s Nancy Roy, at right, thanks the historical society’s president, Dub Pearman, for hosting the tea.

And here is Mrs. Dub, Mary Pearman, at left, along with SAHS Museum Director Maureen Schuyler, whose birthday happened to be Saturday. I was so pleased when Maureen won one of the raffle prizes!

Whenever someone wasn’t speaking, I was trying to take in all of the pretty decorating the tea's organizers did, and I just know I missed some things. Still, isn’t this a gorgeous teacup?

And all the tables had pretty fresh floral arrangements. Charming!

Several of those attending the tea shared teacup stories, including Gloria Downing, who brought a teacup that was a gift to her from her grandfather on her wedding day. Isn’t it wonderful she still has it and brought it to share?

Salli Rees shared a sweet story about an aunt and uncle who were like a second set of parents to her, and from them she inherited a Japanese tea set with this teacup.

And Martha Gill Clark, who will soon turn 90, shared a small teacup she bought on a trip to New York in 1947. You can just imagine how charming it was to hear all these great stories "live" on the porch. I'm sure I was beaming as I sipped my tea, and I’ll bet some of you are smiling even as you read their stories!

But on to the Hat Contest! I served as a judge along with Danny Harrison of the East Coweta Journal, at left, and Coweta County Commissioner Paul Poole, at right. I couldn’t have had nicer gentlemen to serve with. Someone who’d heard the judges would be a woman and two men said, “Oh, in other words one judge and you two men just go along with her decision, right?” I thought that was funny, but I must say the two of them did have their own opinions about who should be honored, so we agreed on a winner but also added two Honorable Mentions, which was a perfect solution. (Danny, interestingly enough, was serving as a missionary in England and met his wife there — and tea was involved! Definitely hoping I get to meet her at some point.)

Our Hat Contest winner was pretty easy to spot. It was Cheryl Bains, whose lavender pansy hat was pretty and looked summertime perfect with her dress, but what sold us all on it was that cute little china teacup she had hot-glued to the side!

Here’s a close-up of the side with the teacup, which she told me she can pop off and use again if she likes. I thought we should give extra points for her creativity (or creativi-tea), and the other judges agreed!

We also agreed we were especially impressed by one of the vintage hats and one of the more modern hats, so we gave honorable mentions to those as well. So here are our winners: Katie Rees, with the modern style hat; overall winner Cheryl Bains; and Martha Gill Clark with her pretty vintage pink hat.

And the generous hostess, Mary Pearman, apparently loves to decorate hats and allowed me to select from a rack on the porch one of her own hats to take home with me, so I chose this gorgeous rose one with peachy pink colors to match my outfit. (Maureen Schuyler kindly sent me this photo after the tea!) I hope you've enjoyed hearing about “Summer Tea on the Porch” half as much as I enjoyed attending this lovely and most memorable tea!

"Summer Tea on the Porch" in Senoia

If an organization has ever hosted a fancier tea than the one I had the privilege of attending Saturday afternoon, I’d like to hear about it! Members of the Senoia Area Historical Society absolutely outdid themselves with their “Summer Tea on the Porch” event, and oh, I wish you all could have been there.

Actually, one of you was! As soon as I pulled up, I noticed the lady parked in the car in front of me was wearing a pretty hat, and when she got out I saw that it was my friend Cynda Pierce, whom I got to know through this tea blog. We now run into each other all over the place — church, the Chamber, a summer Bible Study — so I just smiled when I saw Cynda was going to be at the tea. (Yay!) Here is Cynda, at left, with my friend Nancy Roy, who is a longtime member of Senoia’s historical society. Nancy is very dear to me because she took me under her wing when I was a young reporter fresh out of college and covering Senoia's historical society. We've been friends ever since!

The hosts for the tea were Dub and Mary Pearman, whose beautiful old home is on Pylant Street in Senoia. Doesn’t it put a spring in your step when you get out of the car and see a pretty tent set up near the porch? That was my first clue this tea was really going to be something quite special! (And for all you zombie fans, their home was featured in episodes 9 and 11 of “The Walking Dead” last season. So there. You have a friend who has been to tea in Zombieland.)

When guests started arriving, I was so happy to see the nice ladies from Peachtree City that I met when I spoke to the historical society earlier this month. Here are Gloria Downing, who is originally from England, center, with her friend Carol Allessio, at left, and daughter Cheryl Bains, at right. It was fun to run into them again!

Nothing says summer quite like a row of wicker chairs all lined up, yet another touch that made everything look so welcoming and inviting. I must admit I was rather surprised to realize this would not be a buffet tea as I had assumed but an individually plated tea. For 40 people? On a porch? How on earth would they pull this off?

The tables were elegantly decorated with fabric cloths and napkins, silver and china, glassware, fresh flower arrangements and delightful favors.

Maybe they were just faking it really well, but everything looked perfectly serene and calm when I got there 30 minutes early to get my instructions for judging the hat contest. I had plenty of time to wander around and snap some shots of the pretty teawares on the tables, like this teapot!

The table favors were quite impressive. Someone(s?) went to the trouble to make these handcrafted paper fans, which were a) gorgeous and b) useful! There were electric fans all over the porch (which actually made it comfortable for August in Georgia, no small miracle!), but if anyone needed the individual fan, it was available. I never actually needed mine, but it was so pretty I definitely enjoyed having it to take home!

And this was another great idea: they printed the menu on handmade bookmarks! So I didn’t have to ask, “Now what kind of tea sandwich is this?” as I normally do, and I also have a fun memento of the day.

My other memento of the day is probably the five pounds I must have gained eating the scrumptious food! I haven’t had a Cucumber Sandwich in a while, so it tasted extra good to me, but so did the Chicken Salad en Croute (in pastry), the Pimento Cheese Sandwich, the Cheese Buttons, and oh my, that Scone was good! They served them with the jam and cream on them, and they were cooked perfectly and not one bit soggy. We had lots of iced water and an Iced Peach Tea that I loved. (Again, how they managed to pull this off for a crowd remains a mystery to me unless Mrs. Patmore and Daisy were back in the kitchen slaving away.)

And the sweets? Oh. My. Goodness. This Peach Crumble is one of the best sweets I've had in a long time. It was like a custard/trifle with peaches and sugared pecans, and absolutely perfect (and elegant) for a southern teatime. The Lemon Square was terrific in texture and taste, and I also enjoyed the Strawberry with Cream and the Chocolate Truffle. And it’s hidden at back in the picture here, but behind that delicious Peach Crumble was …

The tastiest, prettiest Petit Four I’ve ever had! The cake was delicious, the filling was creamy, and as you can see, it was beautifully decorated. And a historical society member made these! Can you believe that? If it sounds like I’m gushing, well, I am. And because I’ve carried on so today, I guess I need to wait until tomorrow to share more photos and tell you who won the hat contest. You are going to *love* the unique twist to the winner’s hat … and I'll bet some of you will want to copy the winner's idea for yourself!