The first afternoon tea party was held by the seventh Duchess of Bedford in England in the 1840s; before that, the English had breakfast then went hungry until dinner. She shared tea and snacks in her chamber at 4pm with friends, and it soon became an aristocratic English tradition that’s now popular in the UAE.
Pertaining to the Victorian ritual, your tea service is just as important as the drink itself. But rather than purchase the fine china to make a tea party picture-perfect, why not rent it?
Last August Angelique Lucero, 22 and her mother Monica Lucero, 40, decided to set up the only fine china rental company in the UAE – Once Upon a Tea Time.
And their most expensive tea party to date cost more than Dh10,000.
The pair, who live in Al Raha Gardens in Abu Dhabi, found several businesses offering such a service in other countries; for example Rentateaparty.com in California, and the English Tea Party in the UK.
“I’ve always loved pretty things” says Angelique, who combines the business with studying hotel management at the European International College. ”After buying my first tea set last year, I realised there are such lovely pieces out there. But I thought if we buy more, what are we going to do with them? So we decided to rent pieces out.”
They started promoting the company through Facebook and Instagram, and advertised on My Lovely Wedding, a Dubai-based blog.
“We keep advertising to a minimum, as we’d rather become known through word of mouth”, explains Monica.
Their first set for rent was a gift from a friend; a Dh1,000 Room Seven four-person tea set. Most pieces are bought on sites such as amazon.com. So far, they have spent Dh30,000 on start up costs.
The most expensive item to hire is a Dh50 sweets jar. Teacups with saucers and dinner plates start at Dh12, and dessert plates Dh10.
“Some items are antiques, such as a Czechoslovakian teacup from 1950, and some are replicas of antiques or shabby chic,” says Angelique.
The company’s first event was a baby shower for 30 people, and the mother-daughter team have also now provided crockery for dinner parties and as props for commercial shoots.
So are the duo ever tempted to eat off the china themselves?
“When there’s a special occasion we do,” adds Angelique. “But my four-year-old brother Hazzaa is certainly not allowed to touch it.”
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