Wednesday, May 12, 2010

How to throw an Alice in Wonderland party

For those of you interested in the play-by-play action of throwing a wonderland themed party, I thought I’d round up all the details into one post. Here’s the timeline I followed:


At least a week in advance:

Make yourself a fun and girly Alice dress.


Send out invitations

The week of the party:


Make tissue paper pom-poms

Make “Eat me” and “Drink me” tags. For the drink me tags, glue the drink me circle to the circle with the drink name and punch a hole in the top of the tag. Tie to the drink containers with string. For the cupcake toppers, glue two eat me circles together with a toothpick sandwiched in between.

The morning of the party:


Make iced tea. I made a gallon of regular sweet tea (bring a pan of hot water to a boil, remove from heat, let four tea bags steep in the water for fifteen minutes, add a cup and a half to two cups of sugar, stir until dissolved, pour into pitcher and add water to make a gallon, stir, and chill) a liter of mango passion fruit iced tea (heat water, add two tea bags, let steep for fifteen minutes, add two packets of truvia or other sweetener, and pour into bottle) a liter of ginger peach tea (same method) and a liter of berry lemonade (purchased from Trader Joe’s).


Make cupcakes. I made lemon cupcakes from a mix. I let them cool for twenty minutes then used a Wilton tip and pastry bag to fill them with lemon curd (bought from Trader Joe’s) Once they were filled, I used a 5M Wilton tip to swirl lemon icing on top. They. Were. Awesome. Lemon curd is a magical thing; it belongs in all lemon cupcakes.


Make tea sandwiches. I made cucumber cream cheese (Thinly sliced cucumbers and Philadelphia cream cheese and chive spread) Chicken salad (chunks of cooked chicken, mayo, golden raisins, chopped walnuts, a dash of pepper, a dash of seasoning salt) and ham biscuits (party rolls, butter, and thinly sliced brown sugar ham)

An hour before the party:


Decorate. My sister and I worked together to hang the pom-poms with thread from the canopy, and wrap the legs with crepe paper streamers. We threw two vintage cloths over a folding table, dragged all my chairs outside, and set up the food tables.


Set the table. I rounded up a bunch of vintage jars and sent my sister to scour the yard, armed with kitchen shears. We lined the table with the flower-filled jars and added paper plates and napkins and real tea cups and saucers.

A few minutes before party time:

Bring out all the food and enjoy!

What's the best party you ever hosted?

<3
Hattie

2 comments:

Marla Rae Morrison said...

Wow! Everything looks amazing! You did a great job!!! : )

Jennifer Juniper said...

L.O.V.E. this! "Eat me" cupcakes!