Witchy Alice Tea

Witchy Alice Tea with the Hampden County Hexenbruts

Danielle and Pahl at the tea. Photo by Alan Kendzior

Back in early March of 2025, about the weekend after I went to the Doll Shop for Girls Day, Pahl and I went on an Afternoon Tea Adventure in Chicopee, Massachusetts. The Hampton County Hexenbruts were having a Witchy Alice in Wonderland themed tea party with an escape room and dance performance. I was intrigued on so many levels and was resolute in attending even though there wasn't a whole lot of information about the event. It turned out it was the very first time this event ever happened.  We learned about the tea party through a Steampunk group we are a part of, who has members that are both Steampunks and Hexenbruts. Hexenbrut is both a German dance group and a specific dance which originated with this group with the song, Schuttel Deinen Speck, "Shake your Booty" by German rapper Peter Fox.  This particular dance is loosely choreographed and Hexenbrut groups throughout the world perform it. We were lucky to see a live performance by the Hampton County Group at the conclusion of the tea event. And what was also great was that if you knew the dance and had your own broom (or something broom-like), you could also perform the dance with the troupe because it is universally the same thing throughout the world. Unfortunately it was maybe the second time I'd seen it performed ever and I had never learned it officially, so I was simply enjoying the performance. 

Hexenbruts Brooms decorated to match their outfits. Photo by Alan Kendzior

Unique Table settings

Every table was uniquely decorated with a time piece, a teapot, flowers, unique tea settings and a little goodie bag. There were plenty of specifically Alice in Wonderland themed teas to choose from and lots of tea sandwiches and sweets to eat. In fact they had a lot of leftovers and encouraged us to go up for seconds and thirds. It was AMAZING in that aspect as Afternoon Teas are not normally a gastronomically filling endeavor.

We only knew two other people who attended this event--Alan Kendzior and Kit Catlett, who both took amazing photos, for which I sourced throughout this blog post. We met them at other Steampunk events in the past so we all sat together for the tea. Kit also tried to help Pahl and I solve the puzzles in the escape room, but we were pretty much lost with the second puzzle with the cipher. There were 3 additional puzzles afterwards and well, we didn't get those either. It was a very hard escape room! But luckily it wasn't a serious one and if you had to leave early, you could without an issue. 

Some of the lovingly hand made treats and my tea

Trying to solve the first puzzle. Photo by Alan Kendzior

My Witchy Alice outfit

Now this was the second Alice in Wonderland themed tea I have attended, but the first one with a Witchy twist. I was excited to put my creativity to good use. I decided to start the outfit with the Gloomth Pink Cotton Maid dress with the original "Cake" artwork matching apron. The dress is innocent enough, but the Apron shows a woman wearing a bonnet with cloven feet about to cut a layered cake, while a skeletal figure (also wearing a dress and a bonnet) and several wrist watches waits in anticipation. It's morbid and weird, and kinda witchy. To drive home the witchy aspects, I added black and white striped tights with lavender scrunch socks at the base. Then I decided to make it a little punk. I added lavender and black mary janes that have spikes, a duo belted waist belt with excess rivets, a coffin shaped necklace with a real spiderweb in it, a headband with a black bow and additionally unnecessary but visually exciting rivets and charms, and a lavender bat shaped bag with spiderweb embroidery on it. Did I need to add lavender to this outfit? NOPE. Did I? Absolutely. 

Pahl as the Mad Hatter

Pahl likes to go to these events as the Mad Hatter. He's got it down. He started with these striped linen pants, and added his paisley earth toned waistcoat over a white blouse. He is wearing his brown oxfords and a dark brown leather top hat with embossed tentacles and hidden eyes. A blue octopus bow tie and a green velvet tailcoat complete his look along with other eye and octopus rings. He's the Mad Steampunk Hatter this time. 

Kit Catlett as the Queen of Hearts by Alan Kendzior

I loved Kit's outfit as the Queen of Hearts. All of her outfit was completely modified by herself. She had made most of the costume a few years ago for a similarly themed Steampunk event, but added the sash, diamond arm pattern, and the ruff recently when she acquired Valentines themed fabric on sale at a fabric store. I am always inspired when people make an outfit from scratch out of many different materials. I hope to be able to do this someday myself!

Group image of all the people who dressed up like Alice. Only me and the person to my right decided to incorporate any pink. Photo by Kit Catlett

Group image of all the Mad Hatters. Photo by Kit Catlett

Group photo of all the men in attendance with the Red Queen (host of the event) Photo by Kit Catlett

"The secret, Alice, is to surround yourself with people who make your heart smile. It's then, only then, that you'll find Wonderland"-The Mad Hatter. I would definitely say that the energy in the room was amazing and everyone was having a splendid time. The costumes other people made/wore were so incredibly creative too--I felt that my coordinate while carefully planned was simple in comparison. That's why for my next Alice themed tea (in April 2025), I made sure to dress up as a different character other than Alice. Between Steampunk, EGL fashion, and any other local tea place that has monthly themes, we are sure to run into more opportunities to reuse and rework our Wonderland outfits or generate new ideas completely as this is a theme we adore and apparently other people do too!