Intergenerational

Bridgerton High Tea

Dec 1, 2021

$251-500

Your name

Irene Johnson, Library Program Specialist, Collier County Public Library, Naples, Fla.

Bridgerton High Tea is a program that combines a discussion of the "Bridgerton" novels and Netflix series with a classy afternoon tea and flower-arranging demonstration.

Some participants dressed to the nines in gowns, gloves and tiaras. Regardless of attire, participants were treated to a spread of scones and teapots filled to the brim with hot tea.

Advanced Planning

We started planning three months ahead of the event. A team of eight met to discuss how to implement a Bridgerton event at the library.

This brainstorm resulted in our idea for a high tea that included flower arranging and a discussion on book one of the series, "The Duke and I," and season one of "Bridgerton" on Netflix. This was presented to our director for approval. A few weeks later we were approved for the event.

Marketing

The marketing for the event started roughly two months in advance with beautiful displays onsite along with save-the-date cards.

We had staff take photos and short video clips in period clothing and used these to promote the event on our website and on Facebook and Instagram. The photos were a successful marketing tactic!

Budgeting

The cost of the event was roughly $500. This was spent on the food and the flowers for flower arranging.

As a cost savings, we had everyone from the library bring in their own teapots to use for the event. We also made some of the decorations in-house, including the hanging wisteria flowers. Our tea sandwiches were also made by staff to cut costs.

Day-of-event Activity

Set-up was an all-morning affair of making the tea (we used Gatorade sports canisters to keep 180 cups of tea warm). We filled teapots at the tables 30 minutes prior to the start of the event.

In the morning, we also made all of the egg salad, tuna salad, and cucumber and cracker sandwiches. We had 10 people managing the crowd for book discussions and 10 as servers of tea and food.

Program Execution

This was our first large indoor program since COVID. It went very well with 82 guests!

We kept the book discussion to five questions instead of eight. During the event, we also raffled off the flower decorations. All the feedback on the event was positive, and many came just for the high tea.

We also set up photography areas with a life-size cardboard Duke on display. This was a huge favorite.