MAD HATTER/ALICE IN WONDERLAND THEME IDEA'S

Disney’s Alice in Wonderland was one of my absolute favourite films growing up. I was amazed by the weird and wonderful world down the rabbit hole such as the talking flowers and the cards painting the roses red. More recently there was the more adult vision of the film released in 2009 with Johnny Depp, which seems to have made the film very popular again, resulting in many Alice inspired party and wedding theme’s for adults and children.

MANY DIFFERENT THEMES

Whether you want an unusual wedding or party theme, intimate tea party with some friends, or simply a big Alice in Wonderland fan, the possibilities are endless. As there are so many different and memorable elements to the story, you could choose to combine them all and have a crazy looking party, which your guests will never forget. Or simply draw on one or maybe just a few elements if you do not want anything too full on.

For Example:

·         Mad Hatters Tea Party Theme

·         Croquet with the Queen Theme

If you choose the Mad Hatters Tea Party theme for example, you can decorate the tables with mismatching teacups and saucers, teapots, cake stands and plates of various styles, mismatching table cloths and chairs in different colours. The food would have an afternoon tea feel with finger sandwiches, mini cakes, cup cakes, scones, jam and cream. Ask your Grandma or older relatives if you could borrow some of their tea sets, cups and saucers, as they are the type to have something you can use which has been shoved to the back of the cupboard or gathering dust, but would look very elegant and vintage on your table display.

Croquet with the Queen would have an outdoor feel, Topiary three’s with red roses attached standing plastic flamingos (www.partypacks.co.uk £1.56 each, buy more than 10 price drops to £1.40), large cards on display, balloons shaped as club, diamond, spade and jack (www.partypacks.co.uk £4.14 each, buy more than 10 price drops to £3.72), and heart shaped table runners (www.partypacks.co.uk £2.94 each, buy more than 10 price drops to £2.64), to represent the queen of hearts, with a red and black theme. 

Or by sticking to one theme you can create something equally as Alice, such as a fancy dress party where everyone dresses up as characters from the film. Check out these great masks,

ALICE IN WONDERLAND MASKS

(www.etsy.co.uk) Then you only need to add a few decorations to your venue, as everyone will be dressed up already which will add to the atmosphere. Then there are the crazy looking woods with talking flowers, the Cheshire cat and the smoking Caterpillar, 

TOADSTOOLS PICKED UP FROM THE MANCHESTER CHRISTMAS MARKETS

ect, you could have lots of tree’s and greenery, and many flowers and toadstools on display, and oversized butterflies. Or having eat me, read me and drink me on various food and drinking bottles, or a Queen of Hearts and card theme, drawing on the different suits such as jack, shade, queen and king.

Quite simply in the world of Alice in Wonderland, the more weird and wonderful the better, and I say anything goes!

IDEA’S FOR YOUR BASH!

For those with a bigger budget and more space, the possibilities are endless. If you are having a large event, each table could be named after a certain part of the story such as ‘The Cheshire Cat Table’ or the ‘Queen of Hearts Table’ and the top table or guest of honor table could named as ‘The Mad Hatters Table.’ There are many ways to have a wow factor do, such as hiring Alice in Wonderland props, (www.eventprophire.com) to really wow your guests.

You can really go to town with a larger budget, and even dedicate each corner of the room in a different part of the film, therefore your guests will be constantly entertained. 
However for a very large event and budget, to make sure your event goes off without a hitch, you will need to hire an event planner.

ALICE BUNTING I MADE MYSELF

If you are on a small budget don’t despair! There are so many cheaper alternatives to make your event look fantastic. 
Follow this link for tutorials on how to create some Alice decorations:

http://thegrapevineevents.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/vintage-alice-in-wonderland-birthday.html

For cost effective decorations make your own bunting like I have. It is so easy! Firstly I scanned in photos from the original Alice in Wonderland book by Lewis Carroll, created a bunting shaped template and cropped the image in Photoshop. Then I printed the bunting, cut them out and hung them over some string. They look very effective. If you have a colour theme in mind, simply print the bunting templates onto coloured paper.

Also using the Alice photo’s from the book, print off your favourite images, and place them in different shaped and size frames and place them on tables. Check out charity shops for vintage crockery, teapots, teacups, and saucers for budget tea sets, for any items you can use (or raid Grandma’s cupboards) for your vintage tea party, wedding or event. These can be displayed as centerpieces on the tables, maybe using some of the teapots to display table numbers. 

DECORATIONS

MAD HATTERS HAT

To tie the theme together, there are several elements you can include from the story. Such as:

• Large playing cards
• Topiary tree’s, artificial or real, such as cone, conifer, topiary ball or spiral shaped trees.
• ‘This Way’ or ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ signs at the entrance of the venue, 
• Red carpet at the entrance as well lining it with the trees.
• The Mad Hatters Hat or top hats (http://www.hatsandcaps.co.uk)
• A black and white dance floor. There are many places in and around Manchester were can hire a black and white checkered dance floor (http://event1.rtrk.co.uk).
• If you are on a budget, you can buy a large black and white chess board can possibly double up as a dance floor. Or you can buy the large chess piece from £250.00
• Plastic flamingos.
• Rose petals or red roses
• Bottles placed on the tables with tags around the neck of the bottle saying, ‘Drink Me’.
• If you have printed material on the tables for guests to read, whether it’s a corporate function, or a program of the evening events, with ‘Read Me’ printed on the front of the booklet written in old fashioned letters, and printed on brown card, tied with string. Old fashioned labels can be bought from (www.etsy.co.uk)

LARGE PLAYING CARDS

CHECK OUT OUR LATEST ALICE INSPIRED POST, WHICH INCLUDES HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN DECORATIONS! fOLLOW THE LINK BELOW...

http://thegrapevineevents.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/vintage-alice-in-wonderland-birthday.html