Alice Tea at Old Lyme Inn

Alice in Wonderland Afternoon Tea

Pahl and Danielle arriving at the Alice in Wonderland Afternoon Tea, as the Mad Hatter and Alice, respectively

One of the activities that my fashion club loves to participate in is any sort of Afternoon Tea. I've made a database about the different places that offer Afternoon Tea in Connecticut, which includes the location, type of reservation, cost, days of the week offered, as well as if they can make vegan or gluten free accommodations. I'm always a little overwhelmed collecting money for reservations in advance, so I prefer to plan meetings around places that folks can reserve and pay for on their own, at a specific time and location. The group hadn't been to the Old Lyme Inn yet for their themed Saturday afternoon teas, so Pahl and I made it a reconnaissance mission (and a cute little date for ourselves!). 

Every Saturday in April, the Old Lyme Inn offered an Alice in Wonderland themed Afternoon Tea. Now the way it works is that they set up their menu offerings ahead of time and make EVERYTHING in house (so it's super fresh). It is definitely one of the pricier Afternoon Teas, topping off at $45.00 per person, (before tax and gratuity), but it's honestly one of the best ones we've ever had (in Connecticut). Unfortunately they cannot change their Afternoon Tea menu to accommodate  vegan or gluten-free dietary needs, BUT you can email them and ask in advance if they have anything on their regular lunch menu or if there's ANYTHING on the tea menu that works for your dietary needs. 

Reservations must be made in advance on Open Table at the time of day you expect to arrive. (You need a credit card to reserve, but it's only charged if you have an unexpected cancellation without 48 hours notice). Then you just show up at your time. The Inn offers Afternoon Tea between 11:30am-2pm, but it's not a private event like other tea rooms, so people will filter through, enjoy their tea service, and move on with their lives, like a regular restaurant. You will also get a bill like a regular restaurant. (Other tea rooms will charge the host EVERYTHING UP FRONT before the event including the tea service, tax, and gratuity a week or two before the scheduled event, and then if someone can't make it...oh well :-( !)

Our tea service had just arrived and I was excited to try it.

The tables were nicely decorated with flowers and playing cards with Alice and other characters from Alice in Wonderland on them. Cream and honey with lemon were already on our table paired with our tea cups. The inn staff was great at making sure our tea cups didn't stay empty, and our food service was available right away. 

I even tried the Lavender Blueberry Prosecco Cocktail (an additional $5 charge, but well worth it)

Mad Hatter and Alice Outfits

Pahl as the Mad Hatter

Pahl really got into being the Mad Hatter. Alice in Wonderland is actually one of his favorite books, so this was a really big theme for him. He is wearing striped pants with the green waistcoat I got him for Christmas, a white shirt underneath with a green ALICE IN WONDERLAND bow tie (that he tied so that you can see both Alice and the Mad Hatter in it), a reddish purple tail coat, his tigers eye skull pocket watch holder, gray and black pinstripe spats, and black oxfords.  His hat is also black but a little uneven with it being bigger in the front than the back (purposely as he is the Mad Hatter), with a cream and black pinstripe hat band and a piece of paper with some fractional nonsense tucked into it. Everything cleverly matches in color and design.

Danielle as Alice in blue and white

 While Pahl's outfit was very complementary and full of vibrant colors, I decided to focus on pattern and color within the blue and white scheme. In Disney's version of Alice in Wonderland, Alice was wearing a blue dress with a white apron, so I wanted to take a nod to that concept, but in a more mature and elegant way.  First I pulled out the 100% cotton NyaNya Opera Theatre JSK in Navy that I had purchased last year. This was a pre-order that I purchased in April 2023 and received in September 2023.  By the time it arrived, it was kind of too cold outside to comfortably wear it. This piece is absolutely gorgeous though and it has pockets too! I also got the matching headband that I ordered at the same time. The blouse that you can order with this set is a beautiful off-white tulle, but since I was going for white and blue, I swapped it out for the Yilia Princess Sleeves Slim Lolita Blouse. For tights, I wore the antique blue lace printed tights from Red Maria, and for shoes, the Angelic Imprint~Elegant Princess Lolita Heel Shoes in Dark Blue. I also paired it with a key necklace, that falls below the waist. I wore rings and earrings that either had blue, silver, or pearl accents in them as well. 

Meanwhile, across the street...

Technically the back of the house? of the Florence Griswold House

We finished our tea around 12:45pm and wanted to explore the area for a little bit. Old Lyme is known as an artsy town, and just across the street from the Inn is the Academy of Fine Art Gallery, Old Lyme Art Gallery, and the Florence Griswold Museum. The Florence Griswold Museum has beautiful grounds, walking trails, gardens, and the Florence Griswold House is an iconic landmark...all of these things you can visit and walk around in on the outside FOR FREE. 

Right next to the parking lot there's an old building with stone steps. Did you catch my outfit change? I changed to my stone colored oxfords for walking around the trails and avoiding goose poop. I'm also wearing my wool Unideer coat as it was pretty windy that day. 

So windy, that I could not have captured Pahl's tail coat going up on one side without it. He looks like a character straight out of a Dickens novel.

Further along the path, I decided to commune with the daffodils

Impressive columns next to the door window

Someone who worked at the museum told us to buy a ticket to go inside, but I've already been inside. I just wanted to stay outside and take cool pictures.

Pahl's outfit perfectly complemented the colors of the Florence Griswold House Museum

Overall it was the perfect date and we had so much fun at the tea and our impromptu photo shoot. I decided after all to host a meeting for the Wizard of Oz theme Afternoon tea in June, so if you think Pahl was feeling green in this particular outfit, wait till you see him as OZ!