Some nice thinly sliced pear and you could make a nice pressed sandwich. Maybe make a compound butter of Branston Pickle, Colman’s Mustard, and a touch of lemon and parsley. Spread that on a sandwich of Continental Toast Bread, Aged Wensleydale, and thinly sliced, skin-on pears. Do the Italian Press and cut in squares.
Scones:
Butter, then jam, then cream
or
Butter and jam
or
Jam and cream
or
Just butter
or
Just jam
Personal preference which toppings, but butter first if you’re using it!
Raspberry, strawberry and sometimes blackcurrant or apricot jams would be the standard jams. Orange marmalade, while yummy, is strictly for toast at breakfast and isn’t typically served with scones.
Please don’t substitute grape jelly for proper British style jam.
Branston pickle is a type of savoury chutney thing that is often used on ham or cheese sandwiches. It is very British, but NOT posh, so wouldn’t be a part of a fancy hotel cream tea, but might be a part of a tea you mum did for the neighbours.
Try to have nice black tea too, Liptons probably won’t cut it (I know my sister hated it when she was living in NY, so I sent her some Suki tea in a care package).
Gluten free suggestions- a nice flourless Sachertorte type cake would be good. There are good recipes that substitute ground almonds for flour, and ones which are basically baked chocolate mousse and which don’t have anything except eggs, chocolate and sugar.
Tea’s important to we Brits!
For Heaven’s sake get some decent tea - the stuff from Boston’s well stewed by now. 
More seriously, for the tea, you’ll need a light cream (not milk) and sugar, and please use leaf tea, not tea bags, so you’ll need strainers. You might want to cut down on the varieties you have available, or you’ll be left with lots left over. I suggest three: Lapsang Souchong (delicate flavour), Earl Grey’s (medium), and Yorkshire (strong). You only need 2-3 teaspoons per pint of water if you give it time to brew.
For the food, really, you’ve got too much. Scones, sandwiches done with plain white bread, jam tarts (for the kids), and sponge cake. Make it simple for yourself!
This is going to be a sit-down affair, with porcelain china and service by a butler, right?
Sit-down and china, yes…the butler didn’t make it through the budget process.
Actually, we’re gong to have hostesses for some of the tables to allow it to be a little more formal.
The variety is intended to allow us to broaden the appeal to some of our guests. While we want an authentic feel for people who understand what we’re doing, we want the people who don’t “get” it to feel comfortable. I’m willing to work harder at some variety to give us a chance at a larger audience.
But it’s a good point, and one I need to keep in mind before the final menu is set.
For the loose leaf vs bag…I’ve been lobbying for loose leaf too. Lots of people down here don’t know how to deal with it. I think the tables with hostesses work, since our hostesses would know how. As easy as it is, I’m afraid that some of our guests will not be able to make good tea on their own, and would have a bad experience. We need to have bags for them. 
We’re still discussing how to pull this part of right.
(I’m a big fan of loose leaf myself…I get the difference…)
Thanks!
-D/a
I have never heard of people purposely using cream for tea, only if they’ve run out of milk. I’ve only heard of people using it with coffee.
I know loose leaf tea is better, but for ease, tea bags are the best option. the last formal event I was at, though not a tea, had a tea and coffee set up for after the meal. they had about 5-6 types of tea (two or three “common” ones, two herbal teas and one green tea)
Bah! Get some handsome young men in tailcoats!