If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE to read. And that I get very attached to my favorite books and favorite characters. Well, I have been in love with Beth Brower’s writing ever since I read her book The Q, and have adored The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion since I started reading them years ago.

Well, last year, my dear friend Angela went to a special tea party put on that was Emma themed. Well, it was happening again this year, and she bought me a ticket and invited me to join. I was torn, because as much as I desperately wanted to go, it meant taking a day off of work the second week of school, and leaving the day Kevin got back from his trip. But when I talked to Kevin about it, his words to me were, “Go. You need more things to look forward to.” 😭 Best husband ever.

So on Thursday evening, I was flying to Utah, and in spite of delayed flights and not getting into Salt Lake until almost midnight, I was on my way to all the fun.

On Friday morning, Angela and I went to the Bridal Veil Falls trail to go for a walk, and it was so wonderful! The mountains were showing off, and the conversation was wonderful – as it always is when Angela and I are together. (Kindred spirits and all that 😊.)

Later that day, we headed out with a few friends of hers to the “St. Crispian’s Society Tea Party.” The even was held at this spectacular house in Springville, Utah, and wow! The details and preparations were top notch!!! From the blue door out front to so many other things. When we arrived, they gave us our swag bag and we got to vote for who we want Emma to end up with in the end. Awesome.

One of the fun extra little things was a book exchange at the “Dalliance,” and both Angela and I brought a book for the exchange. We made the wrapping all fancy, and it wasn’t until we were dressed and ready that we realized that our outfits matched our books. So fun!

The setting was beautiful – tables set up for the tea party with towers of treats and other little special things.

We started wandering through it all, and luckily it was all marked on a map in our swagbag and on a big map in the center of everything.

There really were fabulous details all over the place, from the fountain, to the street signs, to the Reed and Rite store where they had all their spectacular merchandise. (If you look closely at the picture, you can see that someone dressed up like Archibald Flat 😂.)

One of the fun places they had set up was the drawing room of Mrs. Penuary, the banker’s wife, and if you could make her laugh, you got a rose.

They had Agnes’s kitchen (where a lot of the food was set out to eat), and LOVE that they had a painting of the Duke of Islington hanging in there. perfection. There was even someone dressed up as Agnes.

They had a cemetery with Maxwell’s grave, as well as some other characters who are still alive in the series. Maxwell’s headstone was heartbreaking as it was in the book.

They even had little rooms that were glimpses into things, like the dressmaker’s shop with the orange dress, or Hawke’s room with his desk – which I loved.

But before we did too much wandering, we had to earn our tickets to watch Julius Caesar by following the clues. We were given the first clue as we came in, and it took us to the cobbler’s shop.

From there, we were given a marble and another clue. This clue took us to the alley where the young boys were playing marbles. (He just happened to have stepped away when we arrived, but he was the cutest kid all dressed up in period garb.) There we got a coin to take to the Cleopatra.

The Cleopatra was the pub, and when they received our coins, we were given a “Cleopatra” drink like Emma had to drink, which was luckily nonalcoholic – it still burned though – ha ha! And not only did we get our next clue, but they even let us keep the beautiful mug.

Our final place to go was the Hound, a gentleman’s shop where we exchanged our final clue for two tickets for Julius Caesar (one of which was a yummy cookie that seemed too fancy to eat).

We finished up with just enough time to attend the first showing.

Since in the book the parts are all played by people from St. Crispians, other than Julius Caesar himself, they pulled people from the audience to play all the other parts. It was very fun!

After the play, we had something to eat, and then went exploring some more. When we found Emma’s garrett, we got to write notes to pass through the wall to Pierce. Angela and I especially loved how they even had little mice in there – Tybalt needed to do some hunting 😉. On the other side of the wall was the basket full of Pierce’s mail – nice.

At one point in the evening, the Roman (a ghost in the books) appeared. Such a fun thing to add to the night!

The Retrobates Ten were also wandering throughout the venue during the event, and you could get gifted a rose from one of them.

Later in the evening, they even had dancing at the Drunken Duck with nests on their hairpieces and everything. At one point, the Reprobates may have joined them on stage – ha ha ha!

We were also given a peach envelope with a summons to the second drawing room to meet with Aunt Eugenia, which was awesome. Just as Angela and I were about to go there, the heavens opened and there was a torrential downpour! The two of us ended up hiding out from the rain under the awning where they were putting everyone’s purchases to take home on their way out. Luckily the rain was only terrible for about 20 minutes, but it sure messed up a lot of their beautiful decorations.

Luckily, Angela and my last stops of the evening all seemed to be indoors or under cover. One of them was writing with fountain pens and testing out different ink colors. Then we got to pick one of the inks to use with a fountain pen they gave us in our bag of treasures. I picked “Treasure Island Blue.”

They also had a lovely setup of the drawing room at Emma’s home, and it even had the crown and scepter she was given by the Reprobates. And the pink chair and green sofa.

We also went to the studio of Saffronia March, Emma’s friend and the former pupil of her father. There they had watercolors for us to get to paint with, which was so cool.

Another fun little side thing was that throughout the venue, they had little things hidden that had been “disappeared” and ended up somewhere else. If you found one, you got to sign a book and turn it in. Angela found a vase, and I found embroidery.

It was such a fun night, even with the rain interruption. I am so glad I was able to go! I bought a few things for myself and as gifts, but I was shocked at all the awesomeness that was included in our bag and that we were given during our adventures. So many fun things to help remember it all. And the best part of it all was getting to do it with Angela.

Saturday just happened to be Angela’s birthday, and so before Rob and Angela took me to the airport, the three of us had a delicious brunch to celebrate her.

Then it was time to fly home. Sadly, my flights were delayed AGAIN on the way home – stupid Denver airport.

Eventually I did get home, and it was worth all the sacrifice. It was such an amazing few days of fun, joy and rest with Angela.