Alice in Wonderland Teen Birthday Party

I recently had the opportunity to design, coordinate (and even cater) an Alice in Wonderland inspired 17th birthday party. I’ve been super busy this past month preparing every last detail for the party. I started by creating this idea board and developed my ideas from there. Sara (the birthday girl) was smitten by a photo she saw of a black and white checkered floor. That photo become source of inspiration and then I added a mix of reds, purples and jewel tone colors to create her own Wonerland inspired party!

I made 65 large three-dimentional paper flowers in reds and purples. I also made several with white paper that I partially painted red to mimic the look of  the painted roses in the Queen of Hearts castle.

To add a bit of glamour (and contrasting texture) I used a black sequin fabric as a table runner. I rented the lovely jewel tone stemware and teacups from Dishie Rentals. I scattered them randomly amidst the paper flowers on each table.

Sara wanted there to be fun activities during the party so we had make-up, henna and air brush tattoo artists set up pool side.

Isn’t this cake amazing? Jennyfer Manncino of The Sugar Suite took our vision and made a gorgeous three-tiered cake. It was white cake with a vanilla bean buttercream (which also happens to be one of my favorites). I added an assortment of candy around the cake table for the guests to snack on.

We added faux ivy in the corners and on the outside of the room to appear as through the wild ivy was creeping onto the castle walls. We hung these simple Ikea pendant lamps to add more lighting in the room.

Here’s a snapshot of the kids from the party with Sara, the Queen of Hearts, in the middle. It was such a fun, magical night! I will share some of the food details (including the delicious menu) tomorrow.