I just HAVE to share our latest adventure!For my daughter's 13th birthday, we had planned to throw a springtime UN-birthday tea party in the garden - Alice in Wonderland style. She came down sick with the flu, and we had to cancel at the last minute. This spring - the party was happening, no matter what it took.
My daughter begged to help with every element of this party. It was fun to put our heads together, and combine our ideas into one awesome party. Several of her ideas ended up being nothing like I would have imagined, but perfect! For starters, she created this adorable vignette inside our enormous lantern from goodies around our house. It sat as a sweet decoration in the dining room. We also strung my mother's hankie-collection as a garland from the wall between our living & dining areas, and created a "steampunk Alice" chandelier decoration with metal keys, feather birds, and mushroom Christmas ornaments.
The invitations to her four besties and her auntie, were hand cut and hand written to look like mismatched teacups & saucers. We purchased an Alice in Wonderland rubber stamp set, and the stamps were used ALL over the place. The first place was here, on the invitations.In our front yard, our lilacs were in full bloom. Due to a threat of weather, we ended up setting up our sun-shelter to keep rain from bay, but it ended up staying dry until JUST after we brought everything in. So our lovely tea table was set up in our "secret garden" surrounded by the lilacs.
We decorated the shelter with bright green tulle, fabric butterflies, and a paper lantern "chandelier". There were two plastic flamingos, a vintage croquet set, and crystal "mushrooms" (glass bowls overturned atop vases) in the front garden adding just a bit of whimsy.
For treats, we had: three types of finger sandwiches, fresh berries, two types of scones with apple butter, cocoa-molasses teacup & teapot cookies, and almond meringues alongside fresh strawberry lemonade, and an assortment of teas.
The meringues were actually a failed attempt at making French macarons, and were a complete hit! We will be making these again, and again, and again...
For the tea, we found vintage teacups at the thrift stores & via Craigslist, and each girl chose her own teacup - which she was took home with her. The drink-me bottles for lemonade were Frappuccino bottles - scrubbed out, with paper straws & labels on ribbon.
The girls sat and happily chattered in the lilac-scented yard for a few hours before it started to get dark.
Inside the house, we had set up a fascinator-decorating station at the dining room table. It was almost as much fun to put everything on the table, as it was to watch the girls sit and carefully decorate their own tiny hat to bring home.
Two of the girls actually wore their hats to church this morning - and were WELL received! Ladies were complimenting their lovely hats, and the girls were beaming.
After decorating the hats, my little sister headed home, and the girls curled up in the living room to watch a version of Alice in Wonderland. Nobody was awake by the end of the movie.
To take home, along with the teacups and hats, each girl was given a tiny bag with a tiny notebook, (recovered & stamped with Alice stamps) a googly-eyed daisy gel-pen, an itty bitty flamingo that my sister found, and the sweetest of tiny glass "drink me" bottle necklaces that were inspired by Etsy.
This was one of the easiest parties we've put together in awhile, but it was a ton of fun. Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely, and we're all ready for a long nap this afternoon.
I can't wait for our next party... I'm actually throwing one for MYSELF this year!
