Warning! Lots of Pictures!!
I have LOTS to show you....
After what seems like an eternity of brainstorming, planning, and putting together...the Alice in Wonderland birthday party finally arrived this weekend. The weather wasn't as cooperative as I would have liked, we were under thunderstorm warnings all day...but were blessed enough that we never got any rain. It just messed with our time table enough that we couldn't set up early and were rushing around at the last minute. As a result, I left the
Photo Booth props at home (so mad!) That will teach me to put everything into boxes and have it ready to just grab when I'm rushing out the door.
But we still had a good time over all and the party turned out to be alot of fun.
The party was held in the common area in front of the birthday girls house. It was perfect for a Mad Hatter Tea Party since it was a lush and beautiful outdoor space. There was both lots of trees and lots of space for the games and activities. I started by putting up my 10x10 tent as a base.
Then we added the
Teapot Chandelier to the center of the tent. This allowed the chandelier to hang right over the table and be very eye catching. (It really ended up being the talk of the party with ALL the girls wanting to take it home.) As you can see I added a little to the chandelier so there was a little more bling and 'danglies'. Turned out really cute.
Around the chandelier I made a colorful crepe paper ceiling. In the midst of the paper streamers were colorful dot streamers and a playing card banner. We had some fun putting that up with the wind and the humidity in town is so bad that by the end of the party, the streamers were almost dripping went and tore pretty easy.
I put a long table in the center of the tent with a 5 yard piece of blue sparkly fabric that I purchased a while back on clearance at Walmart.
In the center, I placed all the teapots that I found at Garage Sales and Goodwill over the past few weeks. I loved how there were so many different types, shapes, and styles.
We used a light blue paper plate (so we could throw them away after) and a hodge podge of teacups and saucers at each place setting.
We used a variety of different chairs around the table and added a colored sash around the back of the chair. I picked up 4 different kinds at the Walmart fabric clearance isle (can you tell I shop there alot?) It was funny because when the party was over, this was the girls favorite thing to play with. They begged to have them and wrapped them around their hair and faces in different styles. Who would have guessed?
We did give the birthday girl a bigger, fancier, fluffier chair so she stood out at the head of the table.
Next to the tent table, we placed the
Painted dresser as the buffet table with all the food and sweets on it.
If you remember, I was really struggling with the food for this party, but I think it turned out pretty cute after all that. We ended up with
Cheshire cat cupcakes (made by the birthday girl and her family). I put these on a cupcake stand that I made using a red charger, a cute themed dinner plate, a beautiful red rose saucer, and 2 candlesticks from the dollar store.
I absolutely love how these Guardsmen snack cakes turned out. I made them using Little Debbie snack cakes. I didn't like the icing on the front, so I used the back and piped melted chocolate into card numbers. Then I added faces for all the guardsmen using
THIS file. I placed all the guardsmen in formation on a red piece of card stock.
We didn't want everything to be too sweet, so we added some Tuna fish and Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to the table.
Behind the sandwiches and cakes, we made brownie flower pops and piped chocolate icing into flower shapes.
Next, we had a mini candy bar.
Cheshire cat Tails and drinks consisting of grape koolaid and pink lemonade.
Next to the dresser, we placed a large pasta pot that we dressed to look like the Mad Hatter's hat. Inside we placed frozen Popsicles so when the girls got hot from running around playing, they could grab a Popsicle as a treat.
It worked great to use the dresser because we were able to put extra food inside the dresser and away from the bugs. We also opened one of the drawers and used it as a trash bin for all the Popsicle sheaths. That worked great!
You can purchase the file for the table food cards
HERE. They come in 6 theme styles with the Mad Hatter, a White Rabbit, Alice, the Tweedles, the Cheshire Cat, and the Queen of Hearts. Simply add your food names, your guests names, or your activities onto the graphic file and print.
Next to the tent and buffet, we set up the
Flamingo croquet. The mallets stood up to the girl's beatings really well over all. We only had one that came away inside, but it didn't affect the mallet really at all. It stayed together and didn't fly apart at any point. The flamingo head graphics even held up really well over the day. I wouldn't recommend going this route if you want yours to be permanent, but for the party and a while beyond, you can purchase the directions and flamingo head graphic file
HERE.
For the other games, we played Pin the grin on the Cheshire cat
We had a White Rabbit sack race
And a Caterpillar Bubble Blowing Contest
The girls were ready for cake and presents at this point, so we adjourned to the table and let the girls sing and eat.
After we ate and opened gifts, the girls played croquet and had "free time" until it was time to go. I had other games planned, but we didn't end up playing them.
For the party favors, the birthday girl and her mom made Wonderland drinks and cookies for the girls to take home.
I learned ALOT of tips and tricks on this party and with everything that I bought, I probably only spent $75 (at the most) after making, clearancing, and thrifting everything that I could. I know that not everyone is as obsessive about parties as I, so I'm planning to write up ALL the instructions, tips, and ideas so that you can create your own Alice in Wonderland party on the cheap too! You can see that file HERE.
