Buying a dress for Afternoon Tea in England hasn’t been easy for me and my daughter. 

Let’s go back a couple of months when my husband and I started planning our vacation. We decided one thing we wanted to do in London was go to an “Afternoon tea”. He started  doing research on what to wear to Afternoon Tea. 

Afternoon tea is a tea related ritual in England, especially popular with tourists these days. It involves tea, fine china, delicately cut sandwiches, pastries, scones with clotted cream and jam and more. It can last two hours and there are different places that provide different experiences. Some more formal than others. We have reservations at The English Tea Room at Brown’s Hotel. “Trainers, t-shirts, shorts and sportswear are not permitted.”

We were planning  our outfits for all three of us, my husband, our daughter and me for Afternoon Tea. We were planning on wearing jeans and a nice shirt. Then my husband found out if you do that they may put you in a corner where no one can see you. (At some places they may not even sit you….)

We certainly didn’t want that. We want to experience the full Afternoon Tea. Part of that includes dressing up. So we were on a mission to find two nice dresses. One for me and one for our twelve year old daughter. Our daughter who is STILL growing. 
A couple of months ago we found two dresses. A Calvin Klein dress for me and a dress at Kohl’s for my daughter. We were all set for Afternoon Tea! 

Then my daughter grew AGAIN and her new dress didn’t fit her anymore. You see we have this rule in our house dresses and skirts have to be below the knees or they aren’t allowed to be worn. There are no exceptions. 

So I decided to wait until we got closer to our time in England and our first Afternoon Tea experience. 

With it being weeks away now we decided it was time to find a new dress for our daughter. I’m not sure how we did it, but we managed to not buy one but three dresses that meet our standards for our daughter and one of those dresses is perfect for High Tea. We found the dresses at Marshals and the Dress Barn for her of all places. 

Hopefully between now and then she won’t grow any and if she does it won’t be that much.