Frequently Asked Questions

What to expect:

Afternoon tea is a wonderful way to celebrate many different occasions or to simply celebrate the ritual of tea itself.  Either way, tea is an opportunity to step away from the hustle and bustle of the day and enjoy the moment, those you are with and the memories you are making together.  Tea is not to be rushed and we allot an ample two hours for our Cottage Afternoon Tea experience. 

We ask that you and your guests do not arrive early to your appointment.  If for some reason you do, we ask that you remain either in your vehicles or outside the Cottage until the time of your booking. Our waiting area is limited and if you are to be seated at a table that had previous guests dining at it, they may be checking out and the table will need to be re-set for your party.  Therefore, we need to be able to move freely throughout our modest space to do that in a timely manner.  

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We do our utmost to keep your reservation time prompt, however, we may on occasion be running late to seat you depending on circumstances with previous groups. We kindly ask for your patience.  

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Once you have been seated, you will be asked to make your tea choices so that we can brew them for you. We are excited to offer you a variety of tea options during your visit. We pre-steep each pot for the proper time before serving it to your table.  We prepare hot water throughout the day and offer as many individual pots of tea to our guests as we can.  Larger parties are sometimes asked to share large pots, knowing that they can be refilled with new blends.  At times, we need to wait for pots to be washed and or water to be heated before we can brew tea for both new groups and refills.   

Your tea service will usually begin being served within about a half hour of your arrival.  We prepare our menu items fresh and there are many intricate details and finishing touches that need to be completed for each tier.  We wait to do some of these until you arrive so that everything stays fresh. For this reason, the food is not waiting to be served as soon as you are seated.  We understand that it is a fast-paced world we are living in, however, we ask for your patience at busy times. We assure you that are doing the absolute best we can.  We love serving our customers and helping you make special memories with your guests, and we think our reviews are a testimony to that.  

Although many times our tea services can be finished in about an hour, if you are in a rush and do not have the proper time set aside for the full experience, or simply cannot finish all of the offerings, we are happy to provide boxes so that you may take what is left home.  

Is signing up to be a member of this site the same as signing up to request bookings?

Becoming a member of the site has many advantages, including keeping track of your orders, adding pictures to our member gallery, keeping track of subscriptions and events, and viewing your rewards among others. As stated on our booking page, however, this is a separate log in from our Booking System.  To request bookings and view your pending requests, you will need to sign up or log in when you make your request.  We use Simply Book Me as our booking software.  You can either request bookings right from our website, here on our Booking Page or visit us at our Additional Booking Page at Simply Book Me.

Did my booking request go through?

When you submit a request for a booking, you will receive a code showing that your reqeust went through.  If for some reason you do not see the code, scroll up or down to be sure.  You can also log in to your booking account to view pending bookings.  

When will my booking be approved?

We approve bookings about a month in advance of the requested date.  You can submit a request up to 3 months in advance.  We approve bookings on a first come basis, so if yours is the first we received and we have the space available for your party, you will be approved first, then we move to the next group.  If the date that you are requesting is less than a month away, we will approve it as soon as we are able.  Please be patient with us as we are doing our best. 

Do I need to prepay for my booking?

At this time, you do not need to prepay for your booking unless you are requesting to come to one of our Mother's Day or Christmas events.  If you would like to prepay, you are welcome to do so once your booking is approved and you receive the confirmation email with instructions.

Can I make a booking over the phone or through email or messaging?

To request a booking, you must go through our booking system.  You can either use the above information, which takes you away from our site to our booking page, or stay on our site and click the View & Booke Tea Services tab.  You will be asked to log in or create an account.  Then, you can answer the questions on form before clicking submit.  Every field with an asterisk is required.  We are unable to make any bookings for guests.