Give Good Party - Downton Abbey

 What to do when your British ex-pat friends haven't seen the latest season of Downton Abbey? Have them and all your friends over to your Brooklyn apartment for some TV viewing...high tea....themed cocktails...Downton Abbey drink-a-long bingo...and fancy dress.

If I could swan about in gorgeous clothes every day of my life I would, and what is a nod to Britannia without an excuse for a fancy dress party? So as my first event planning foray ever I ask you to break out the the fascinators and white bow ties, we're Giving Good Party - Downton Abbey.



Tips:

Divide & Conquer: Like with all complex systems, the high tea component alone has many moving parts, so divide and conquer! To keep myself from feeling overwhelmed I immediately decided on a budget then started shopping for non-perishables and sourcing tea cups and props two weeks before. (Etsy vendors Fine Romance, Tiger Lily Vintage, and especially the fab Nancy's Tea Cup ladies were super helpful. You can also rent mismatched vintage china and cake stands from Something Borrowed Vintage.) I learned about the history and ritual of Edwardian high tea from The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea , then finalized the menu and signature cocktails. I found great cocktail recipes for The Lady Mary, The Lady Edith, and The Lady Sybil but because Plymouth Sloe Gin is integral to The Lady Sybil I made sure to leave enough time to track it down. I was finally able to get my hands on some Plymouth Sloe Gin from Drink Up NY, a delivery website for a Brooklyn (Park Slope) based liquor store.

 

Know your limits: The variety of food I wanted to provide I could not realistically produce myself, so with the help of the pot-luck feature on the e-mail invite website Pingg.Com I had some very generous friends bake ginger scones and crumpets. Our local Anglophile eatery extraordinaire Tea and Sympathy catered Treacle Pudding, Lemon drizzle cake, and Branston pickle and cheddar finger sandwiches. While I whipped up four variations of cucumber and smoked salmon finger sandwiches.

We used sugar cubes as bingo  markers.

Don't re-invent the wheel if you don't have to. I am not the first person to throw a Downton Abbey viewing party, and after pooling my ideas on Pinterest I found politically cheeky Downton Abbey paper dolls from Vulture that I printed out on card stock to use as a basis for my invitation template then continued the theme by making a DIY bunting with clothespins attaching the print-outs on twine. I then cut out the dolls and stashed them in extra tea cups and as decoration for people to discover on their own. I also found printable Downton Abbey Bingo Cards which I printed and cut out the week before. Also be creative about shopping in your own home first and using what you already have. I re-puposed my Grandmother's vintage linen lugagge as a cake stand, used the chalkboard wall in the kitchen to announce the signature cocktails and the social media hashtag. I also got creative and used clothes I already had to suggest a 1920's flapper.

Have a time line of next-action tasks: The night before, I cleaned the apartment, made sure I had all the produce and perishable groceries I needed, threw together a costume, put some berries in ice cube trays for frozen cocktail garnishes and violà! Though I didn't actually write it down, having a time-line of next-action tasks will help progress your ideas forward to build towards your ultimate goal. I use Google calendar, and it's a great way to literally "invite" your boyfriend to pick up the catering. Lol. The task you have created will e-mail the G-mail user you have invited and prompt them to respond "yes" or "no". It's an easy no-hassle way to get things done and it doesn't hurt that most smart phones send reminders of the Google Calendar task the day of.

My Grandma's 1930's linen luggage was a re-purposed cake stand. (If you look closely you can see E.P. monogrammed on the front, her maiden initials).

 

 

In front of our chalkboard wall announcing the signature cocktails. I used a triple-barrel curling iron to quickly make finger waves.

Total Planning Time: 2 weeks
Invites: I used the "create your own template" feature on Pingg.Com and borrowed from the Vulture Media paper doll images.
Social Media hashtag: #DowntonJacqui
Shout Out: The wonderful ladies over at Nancy's Tea Shop (Wales. U.K.) did a blog feature about our party in their "Nancy's China around the World" section.

                                                                           

Full Menu:
Earl Grey tea
Cream
Wildflower honey
Tea Biscuits:  Honey/Lemon, Chocolate/Raspberry, Vanilla/Cream, Ginger/Lemon
Scones
Lemon Curd
Clotted Cream
Blood Orange Marmalade
Raspberry Key Lime Preserves
Fresh berries

 -Finger Sandwiches on Peasant Bread-
 Branston pickle and cheddar
Mint cream-cheese and cucumber
Scallion cream cheese and cucumber
Crème fraîche and smoked salmon
Cream cheese and smoke salmon

Cocktail recipes, sourced from The Kitchn full links are in 1st paragraph of "Tips" section:

The Lady Mary
1.5 oz Lillet Blanc
.75 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice
 4-5 basil leaves brut champagne, chilled (we used perseco)

The Lady Edith
1 1/2 ounce ruby red grapefruit juice (fresh-squeezed!)
1/2 ounce of Plymouth sloe gin (*if you can't get Plymouth don't bother, your Lady Mary will taste more like an Alabama Slammer, may still be fun but for a different party. Lol.)
Sweet roseé champagne, chilled, such as Ballatore Spumante Rosso

The Lady Sybil
1 oz gin
3/4 oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur
brut champagne, chilled (we used perseco)
 
We also had ice cubes on hand with frozen raspberries and blueberries inside.

                                                                       

*****Coming soon to Give Good Party: a vintage Rio themed birthday party, Battlestar Galactica board-game night, and a Glamping bachlorette party at The Standard Hollywood!*****