Co-Hosting the Annual Alice Tea

Alice Tea: A New Annual Tradition

Group Shot of Alice Tea attendees; Photo taken by Rick

March and April seem like the time of year for Alice in Wonderland themed tea parties. In the past I have attended two at the Old Lyme Inn, one of which I hosted last year. This year I wanted to do it differently. What if instead of spending time in one thoughtfully decorated room and having a creatively curated on theme menu for a few hours, we had an entire property with a pot luck based menu and a few rousing games of croquet?

The location of the venue was obvious. My partner has been collecting Alice themed tea cups  since moving into his home and has decorated his entire kitchen with characters from  Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I would be the communications lead and defacto party planner and his house would be the destination.  Color me shocked when we had 16 people RSVP to the tea party. (This is more than we can usually fit inside the room the Old Lyme Inn reserves for our group). I was initially worried about parking in the driveway, but then I learned that my partner intended for folks to park on the lawn as well so we could probably have had twice as many. 

I told folks to wear something inspired by a character from the books/movies, or just to have motifs that work like sweets, rabbits, time pieces, etc. Pahl of course is always the Mad Hatter, and I seem to vacillate between being Alice or the White Rabbit. Looking back at the group photo, I see a number of other Mad Hatter interpretations, as well as Rabbit themes. Perhaps they are the most popular to try. I also enjoyed Ren's version of the Red Queen on the lower right. I hope to one day be able to pull something like that off myself! 

The Mad Hatter Host

Pahl's Mad Hatter outfit seems to keep getting more and more refined with each iteration. He pairs a cream colored collared shirt with an Alice in Wonderland themed light green bow tie, an earthy colored paisley waistcoat, matching striped pants, a long wine colored tail coat, brown oxfords, and a slightly off center black top hat with an emerald green hat tie on it. His posture and the expression on his face is utterly deranged.  But don't worry, this is about the extent of the madness he exhibited during the event. He is good at getting all those little details down like acquiring themed paper plates, putting finishing touches on the decor well into the night before,  and making sure guests have so much to eat that there are leftovers the next day.

Alice with White Rabbit Friend Hostess

I decided to be Alice while wearing a navy blue and white printed dress with rabbits in a dream state on the skirt. This is actually one of the first dresses I ever purchased, along with the blouse I am wearing. I've worn this dress for several group meetings at this point, so to make the coordinate a little different, I wore it with a long sleeved blouse (instead of short sleeve like in the past), as well as a half apron. This year I am also becoming more comfortable with wearing bows on my head, and I had this one for about three years before finally putting it together with an outfit. It is navy with gold trims and gold and pearl beading. To repeat the gold, I also added gold based jewelry as well as gold tea party style shoes. I am wearing printed navy tights as well. I wouldn't have normally had navy on navy, but the white apron visually broke up the navy more than if I had worn it without. For bags I had two--a functional pearly gold bow fanny pack, and a white rabbit stuffy backpack. I put the ruffled rectangle headpiece that came with my dress on my white rabbit bag--another thing I did not think to do in the past. It is one thing to dress one's self, but another to also dress up your bag!

Sarah M as the White Rabbit

Sarah M. pulled together a very nice white and black themed coordinate for her White Rabbit interpretation. Details like a floral dress with a white apron and a large black cape, black and white striped floral under the knee socks, and white boots with black accents soles and lacing tie it altogether. She craftily made the ears to her straw hat, and I was surprised when she told me her white rabbit head cross body bag was actually a gift card holder she found on clearance! You never know where you'll find accessories for an outfit!

Margot and Jax wearing spring colors with rabbit motifs. Photo credit to Sarah F.

Erik as White Rabbit and Sarah F as Mad Hatter; while Aly and I remember the rules to croquet in the background

Barbara's sweet style rabbit coordinate. She is also wearing a rabbit tail that matches her coordinate on the back. Later she added a striped top hat to her coordinate. Perhaps she was both The Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit!

Sarah F and Colleen as Mad Hatters

Potluck Delights

Just some of the Alice themed teacups and Tiered Trays ready for our guests and treats

Delightful treats brought by attendees

The attendees brought so many delicious treats to the event!!  We requested that folks bring items that were either gluten free or vegan friendly. We've been to so many teas where food sensitivities or diets were not really available and we wanted to change that. Pahl made cucumber sandwiches (both vegan and vegetarian friendly varieties) while I made deviled eggs as well as spicy chickpea curry sandwiches (vegan friendly). Colleen made the pink vegan cake, Cole made salad and cookies, Jax made bagels, Van made protein muffins and brought purple peeps, Gary brought a no bake peanut butter chocolate pie, Sarah M brought the blue and purple macarons and spicy deviled eggs, Sarah F brought vegan spring rolls, and Aly brought a variety of cream puffs. Ren made a gluten free shepard's pie, but applied the mashed potatoes like icing on a cake (center). What I've learned thus far is that not only does this group know how to dress on theme, but also that they are quite skilled at speciality food production!

Croquet on the Lawn

Jax reads the game instructions while Ren foreground and Aly (not pictured) set up the field

After a few hours of sitting and socializing, my body always yearns for movement, and I am glad that Jax volunteered to bring their partner's croquet set for the tea party. Outside of the table top Pall Mall game I played at the Masks & Mischief Bridgerton Masquerade Ball, I think this is the first time I've played actual croquet. Luckily Aly had played before and knew roughly about where we should be putting the wickets (or metal arches that the balls go through) on the lawn.

Getting ready to take my turn

I definitely had a huge learning curve in Round 1 of croquet. It took me a few turns to figure out how hard to hit the ball with the mallet and get it to go anywhere in particular on the grass. Aly, Jax, Ren and I were the players in the first round. We only played a half game, so we zig zagged through the middle and right wickets to the other side and back. We were very cordial to one another, but what I learned is that every time you hit someone else's ball and/or go through a wicket, you get additional turns to hit your ball.  And that can be great and necessary with more competitive players. 

Cole aims to hit the blue ball and go through the wicket in Round 2

Round 2 of croquet brought much more competitive players.  These folks frequently took advantage of the wicket and ball touching and ruthlessly hit other players balls to knock them off course and gain additional turns. 

Sarah M recounts the number of turns generated from Erik's turn

Playing croquet with this group I must admit I was more focused on watching other people's turns than my own. It was fascinating to see how the players positioned their balls to stay on course and knock others off while gaining so many additional turns in the process. Sarah M was way behind and the last to go in this round, but going last definitely is an advantage in this game. You can see the other players balls and plan accordingly your rise to the top. We thought the boys might be the ones duking it out, but Cole and Sarah M were very close at the end, with Sarah M becoming the winner!

Obligatory good sportsmanship photo

After the second round of croquet and the group photo, most of the attendees left around the same time, but a few stuck around for some posed porch photos. 

Sarah, Barbara and Colleen

Pahl and his stuffy Timmy

Danielle seated with waving stuffy bag

Aly, Barbara, Danielle, and Colleen looking up

Colleen, Danielle, Pahl, and Aly

We realized afterwards that we underutilized the porch as a place for guests to hang out. It is a fairly large porch and we probably could have fit everyone on it at once rather than socializing in two separate rooms inside. 

It was a pleasure to co-host the Alice Tea! I keep hearing about how much fun people had at it (and it's the end of June as I am recounting this wonderful event).  We are already planning to host it again next Spring, but to invite more people, including some of the neighbors! 

Tired but successful hostess and host!