Afternoon Tea in Austenland

 Oh you know me, such a fan of afternoon tea ... and this tea was just the best.  It was hosted by the Salt Lake Film Society as a fundraiser.  They were showing the Salt Lake Premiere of Austenland, and added an opening event of tea at the Grand America, where they host 'High Tea' every afternoon.

My friend Robin, who is also an Austin Addict, and member of the Jane Austen Society came along.  Here we are, all decked out in our finery ... ready for tea!

 We sat with two new friends, Sandy and Rebecca ... and as it turns out, Sandy lives on my nephew Andrew's street, and her sister-in-law, Rebecca, went to High School with my niece Megan.  Such a small world.

Here, Shannon Hale, the author of the book Austenland, as well as the screen play, talks about how she came to write the book ... and, like many, for her it started with the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice.

Austenland, the book, is one of my favorites, as are many of her others, such as Princess Academy and Goose Girl, both of which I read and loved before finding out she is a fellow Utahan, and lives 60 miles away from me.

 While Shannon was presenting, the dessert portion of tea was delivered ...

 Then it was time to say good bye to our new friends, and make plans to arrive back in Salt Lake at the Broadway Theater for the premiere some 3 hours later.

Here we are at the premiere with the cute photographer, complete with an antique top hat.

Robin and I were first in line, and got to see all the other Austenland and Austen groupies as they arrived.

Then we got to meet 'Darcy' for a moment on the red carpet!

Our friends Barb (Right) and Donelle (Behind the camera) joined us for a fabulous romp through Austenland.  We all loved the movie, though it was amazingly different in slant from the book.  We also got to meet Jerusha Hess, the Director (Most famous for her work on Napoleon Dynamite) ... all the insider stories were just delish!