Mad Hatters Tea Party

Mad Hatters Tea Party party theme - thumbnail image

My sister, June and her husband Peter celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary with a party. Since June was seven months pregnant the party was also going to be her baby shower. Peter called my parents for help with the planning. The theme was "The Mad Hatter's Tea Party".

The invitations were shaped like tea cups. Inside was a picture of the white rabbit looking at his pocket watch and holding up a finger. Beside the white rabbit were the details of location, date and time, looking as if they had been written by a child in colourful crayons.

On the day of the party I showed up early to help set up. The ten metre long table had already been put up. It was made from four rented banquet tables. I helped cover it with white linen and set the tapestry place mats in front of every chair. Ten rented chairs had been placed on each side and two beautiful high-backed wooden chairs from a prop rental warehouse were placed side by side at the head of the table. Between the floral centrepieces was a row of ten teapots of all shapes and sizes. Most were from Aunt Blanche's collection, but she picked up a few at a charity shop. The teapots were filled with wine instead of tea.


Behind the main table was a ten-foot table where the buffet would be set up. My Mum and Aunt Blanche made some of the food, but the rest was being delivered by a caterer. After I was done with the placemats, Mum put me to work wrapping napkins around sets of plastic utensils to make them into easy to grab packages. These were put into a wicker basket at the end of the buffet table.

June had made some cardboard rose bushes and flamingos and she put them around the garden. She even made some of the white roses look like they had been painted red.

When it was almost time for the party to start I took my camera out of my bag so I could take some pictures of the set up before the guests arrived. I nearly burst out laughing when my father came out of the house dressed as the Mad Hatter. My Mum was right behind him wearing a Queen of Hearts costume. June was dressed as Alice and Peter was wearing a white rabbit costume. They all looked great and I took a group picture.

Guests started arriving and of course headed right for the buffet. Dad had a hard time filling his plate with food because every time he tilted his head, his oversized hat slid off. Once it almost landed in the potato salad, but I caught it just in time.

When we had finished eating Mum and Aunt Blanche brought out a cake in the shape of a table set for tea. Mum had also rented a chocolate fountain. It was amazing and looked like a three tiered chocolate wedding cake. Belgian chocolate cascaded off each layer and we all gorged ourselves dipping skewered fruit into the flowing chocolate – yummy.

Afterwards we played croquet and Peter knocked over one of the flamingo cut outs. Everyone laughed especially when he couldn't get it to stand up again. Peter left the croquet to the women and played horseshoes with the men.

As a leaving gift each of us were given a copy of 'Alice in Wonderland' signed and dated by June and Peter. The party was fantastic. I want my fifth anniversary celebration to be as much fun. It shouldn't be too hard; I still have two years to plan it.

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