Alice in Wonderland Bridal Shower

I know I've told you all that I'd been super busy the last couple months, but I thought I'd outline just how busy I've been.

After a year and a half of planning, FH (I suppose he's DH now - "Dear Husband") and I finally tied the knot! And, of course, following that was our awesome honeymoon!

What you probably didn't know, was that the craziness didn't stop after I got married.

DH and I got back from our honeymoon on a Tuesday. That Saturday I hosted my sister-in-laws bridal shower at my house (more on that later). The following Saturday was her bachelorette party. And the weekend after that was the her rehearsal/wedding!

I feel like I'm just now catching my breath!

Anywho, that's why I've been so MIA the past few months. Just because my wedding was over didn't mean I wasn't still crazy busy!

But I promised you a post about a tea party, so here we go!

A few months ago I came across the idea of an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party Bridal Shower. I was doing some research to help a friend come up with ideas and I loved what I saw so much that I wanted to throw a shower like that!

Then I got my chance! My sister-in-law became engaged and one of her all-time favorite movies is Alice in Wonderland. YAY! Tea Party!! :o)

I started with the invitations (cuz you know I can never just buy them). I looked around the web for ideas and loved the look of a giant playing card invitation (the queen of hearts, of course).

I even bought playing card scrapbook paper for the back of the invites so they looked like cards from the front and the back!

While the Disney version of Alice is the bride's favorite, I took inspiration from the book as well. So I addressed all the invitations to "For the Duchess ___________________" with a picture of the frog footman to boot!

I wanted guests to really feel like they'd entered Wonderland, so I had the outside of my house decorated as well. Card soldiers, flamingos . . . can you find the white rabbit? :o)

The inside of the house was filled with Wonderland/Tea Party decor as well! My bookshelves were filled to the brim with Alice art . . .

. . . tea pots, mini card soldiers, rose trees that were partially "painted" red . . .

. . . and even the white rabbit and his pocket watch!

I painted some cups from Dollar Tree in crazy designs, glued them together and filled them with flowers for the buffet table centerpieces. I even glued tiny googly eyes onto the flowers so they looked like the talking flowers from the garden scene.

Then, of course, there was the food! It must have been fate for me to throw this shower because my Food Network magazine for that month came with a little tear out booklet of 50 Tea Sandwich recipes! We had Pesto Chicken, Roasted Vegetable, and Salmon Cucumber. Yum!

For dessert we had Oreo Balls (the Bride's only request - I'll try and remember to post the recipe), mini lemon cakes, and fruit tarts. The food was adorned with cute little pennant flags (some of which, in true Alice fashion, said "Eat Me").

To drink, I made a batch of "Pretty Pink Punch". I had this punch at my other sister-in-law's baby shower and it was delicious! Thankfully the hostess of that shower has a blog and posted the recipe, so I was able to make it for this shower. I also used my Silhouette to cute some vinyl to decorate my beverage dispenser.

And what kind of tea party would it be without tea?? I spent about a month and a half scouring thrift stores for all these lovely little cups! :o)

Thankfully, all my hard work paid off and the Bride loved her shower! Heck, I loved it too! I loved it so much I saved all the decorations and such for the next time I throw a tea party! :o)

Tea, anyone?

*UPDATE: I've gotten quite a few e-mails asking for the template for the invitations. Unfortunately, I didn't keep the file after I was done with it so I'm not able to share it with anyone. Sorry! :o(