MAD HATTER/ALICE IN WONDERLAND THEMED BIRTHDAY PARTY

We recently had the pleasure of putting together an Alice in Wonderland 7th birthday party. We love this theme, like so many people, as you really can be so creative! There are many idea’s for an Alice theme that sometimes its hard to know where to start. We first started planning this party around 6-7 weeks beforehand. The birthday girls Mum wanted a vintage look, but still appeal to the kids at the party. We thought the best way to do this was to include the original pictures from Lewis Carol’s book. We decided to use them on some decorations, and the invites to really set the tone for the party. And of course we wanted to use the party girls two favourite colours: pink and purple!

So join us down the rabbit hole and see how we put our Alice party together...

THE INVITATIONS

The old fashioned style text put together in a jumbled up fashion, but still easily readable. I got a few people to read it through first to make sure it flows easily.  

The vintage pictures from the book work so well with the miss matched text

We wanted the invites to be fun and vintage to appeal to the children. (You may need a few Illustrator skills for this one!) In the text for the invites we used classic lines such as, “We’re late! We’re late! For a very important date!” and “Off with your head!” all to add a bit of fun yet in keeping with the theme. You might what to use these in your Alice invites, as they are easily identifiable lines that all the kids know.
The pictures we used we’re of Alice defying the Queen at Croquet, the White Rabbit image at court and Alice at the Mad Hatters Tea Party. Though there are many others you could use instead such as Alice with the Cheshire Cat, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum or Alice eating the cake, saying 'Eat Me' or the bottle she finds saying, 'Drink Me'.

Our invites were rolled up like a scroll and tags were tied round them saying ‘Read Me.’ The kids at school loved them! Apparently they were running around the school playground and opening the scrolls to all their friends and reading them out!

PLANNING PROCESS

Early on we knew this was only going to be a small gathering of kids as the space we were working with was rather small. We wanted to go with a Mad Hatter themed party with a bit of a girly twist.
The idea was to transform their dining room into a forest-like setting, just like in the story and try and include various different elements from the story, such as the flamingo’s from the croquet, Mad Hatters Tea Party, and the playing cards.
We ordered many decorations from a party supplies store, and for a more unique look we also made some as well.
We started making the decorations around a month before the party to make sure they looked right, and to test them out. Then we left them for a few days to make sure they held together. After all you don't want your decorations you spend lots of time on to have them fall apart at the party.

HOW TO MAKE SOME ALICE DECORATIONS.

All the decorations we have made are easy to put together, and very budget friendly.We decided early on to make some hanging decorations.

How to make some Alice in Wonderland vintage masks:

• After designing your masks using Illustrator, print them off and cut them out carefully.

• Using a long barbeque skewer place it on the back on the mask to the side

• Using some sticky tape, stick the skewer to the mask, and you are ready to go and be your favourite Alice In Wonderland Charactor!

Scroll down to see the finished product on the day!

How to make hanging Alice decorations:

These can easily be hung from the wall or ceiling from self adhesive hooks which you can buy from pound stores, Wilkinsons, ect. We used easily identifiable objects from the story such as clocks, club suits and keys. (You may need your skills here in Adobe Illustrator again!) 

• After designing your object on the computer, for example a clock, copy and paste, then place it next to the clock so they are slightly overlapping. When you cut them out, you don't want them to be falling apart. The reason for this is that one clock is for the front, and one is for the back.

• Printed the clocks out, carefully cut around them. 

• Glue the back then fold them together so they line up and are now double sided. 

• Using a hole puncher, punch a hole at the top and bottom of clock, then thread a long piece of string through the hole, tying a knot at the back so that the clock doesn’t slide down the string. 

• Repeat until you have around 3-4 objects on each piece of string. They also work well if the string is cut to different lengths, so that when they are tied up they all hang at different heights.

How to make Alice inspired Loot Bags:

We also make some vintage looking Loot Bags to take home, and they were so easy to make, and budget friendly. We purchased our bags from a budget store for 79p - bargain!

• Firstly, design a nice label around 12cm wide and 10 cm in height. On our labels we had 'Take Me' at the top to carry on the Alice theme. Also we used the Alice picture where she discovers the bottle that says "Drink Me" on it. 

• Print them off and cut them out

• If you have any pattern cutters they look great around the edge. You might want to practice first before trying this on your final printouts. 

• Make sure your brown paper bags are lay flat on a table or hard surface, then glue the label to the bag

• Voila! You have yourselves some vintage loot bags! 

Scroll down to see the finished product.

THE DAY OF THE PARTY

We got their nice and early to start setting up our Wonderland. The last thing you want is to leave yourselves short of time and be rushing at the last minute. We started with the large objects first, such as putting up the backdrop, laying the table cloths on tables and then applying the shirts around to make it look a little more sophisticated. Then we added the fake grass to the breakfast far which became our loot bag display/food and cake area.

Our Mad Hatter Tea Party Set up, using lots of pink and purple, just like the birthday girl requested.

We also made some drink labels to tie around empty glass bottles we saved. If you want to do the same for your party, start saving them at least 1-2 months before hand.

A spot of croquet anyone?

Our hanging decorations

FOOD

They had cupcakes instead of a cake. The plan was to not have the cupcakes match, with different coloured wrappers with hearts all over them, we also used abstract looking cake wrappers, 'Eat Me' food mpicks we made, floral cake toppers all iced in pink, blue, white, gray icing and some even had with sugar roses and Queen crowns. The top tire of the cup cake stand had happy birthday candles and a number 7 on top. 

Even the sandwiches got a makeover!

Our Loot bags

We even had a bunny come to the party with his giant clock

We designed some Alice in Wonderland playing cards that we stuck to the alcove that separated the kitchen and dinning room

Room Shot

Which way????

The Birthday Girl!

Girls just wonna have fun! The girls at the party playing with the masks

WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY AFTERWARDS:

“Thanks for making Elena’s and the other kids day so memorable and for sharing it with us”

Did you like what you see? We hope you enjoyed reading about our Alice party. Let us know if you use any of our idea's at your party. We hope this has inspired you to make your party fantastic!
Please share your comments below!