Just days before the christening of Princess Charlotte, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, a group of Royal-Watchers threw a birthday celebration tea in Stettler.
Hosted by Sylvia Telford the tea, held on Friday, July 3, joined others held to celebrate the birth of Princess Charlotte's older brother, Prince George, and the marriage of their parents before that in 2011.
Held at Telford's Stettler home, both the inside and back patio were decorated with House of Windsor paraphernalia, from magazines and books about the Cambridges and the Duke's parents, the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, and the late Diana. The back patio was set up with lace over a colourful tablecloth, special Union Jack napkins, and baby napkins and British candies.
"I've just always loved it," Telford said. One of her earliest memories is getting on the train with her father to ride to Saskatoon in the winter, so she could see Queen Elizabeth – then still just a princess – on a tour in Canada.
"I just thought it was amazing," she said.
Though she's not part of a monarchist league, she keeps abreast of the happenings in the royal family, collecting mementos as she goes. For the tea, she decorated her home with the books and magazines she'd collected, but also brought out wedding and special occasion plates depicting pictures of the Prince and then-Princess of Wales and the Cambridges.
The ladies invited to the tea arrived in style, dressed to the nines, in a limousine provided by Aspen Ford for the occasion. Retiring to the back patio, which was under the full glare of a hot prairie sun, the ladies sat under a canopy to enjoy homemade rhubarb punch and chat about the new baby Princess, the decision to honour her grandmother through her middle name, and other happenings from the community.
For tea, they headed indoors, where it was cooler, and socialized until it was time to clamber back into the limousine for a ride through Stettler to their individual homes.