We had a mad Hatter Tea Party for our daughters bridal shower. This was so much fun and also elegant enough for a bridal shower. Our shower was in January and our weather was too cold to do this outside but it would have been fun to have outside as well and could easily be adapted to outside in the future.
I made the sign above from an old pallet that I painted. It was a fun addition to the outside of the house and just set the mood before guest entered.
I gathered all the books of Alice and Wonderland or similar fantasy stories and also older books and books that fit the theme in some way to stack around. I also collected old clocks and all the tea pots and tea cups I could find. Other items were cards and keys, bird cages, rabbits and flowers.
I gathered all my tea cups and had them available. It was fun to use different ones and mix the sets up. You could also find tea cups at a thrift store or antique shop.
We had a variety of teas to choose from. and each person chose their cup and the tea they wanted. We had hot water in thermoses for ease of making tea and all our sweeteners and creams were on the table.
We chose to have finger foods, tarts, and finer sandwiches, as well as fruit trays and veggies. I used candle sticks to hold hats and tea cups between plates for the serving trays. That turned out very cute and functional.
We also had fruit infused water available for those that didnt want hot tea.
One more thing I did in preparing for the party was painted my chairs different colors. We have a lot of wood chairs and I wanted to make the party fun and colorful. I chose chairs that I was okay with painting and knew I could always paint them back after the party. I painted them all different colors. It was fun to have the colors at the party and afterwards my family voted to keep the colors on the chairs.
Some of the games were to have the guest draw a picture of the groom and let the bride choose which one was most like him. We had the groom answer a list of questions and then the guest had to answer the same questions the way they thought the groom would answer them.
We had a small photo album of the bride as a child and the guest had to guess her age in each picture.
It was a fun shower and every one enjoyed the day. Some ideas to consider if the weather is warm and you wanted to have it outside would be to pick a spot under trees. I would still paint my chairs different colors and still use white table cloths on the tables. I would hang lanterns and lights in the trees. Most everything I would do the same just move it all outside.
