Onederland

I love birthday parties. Period. I love planning our kids birthday parties even more. This past year our youngest daughter celebrated her 1st birthday as Harper in "One"derland with one of my favourite themes - Alice in Wonderland of course.

I had slowly started collecting items from our local Buy Nothing group and kept an eye out on local marketplaces for some key pieces to begin crafting. This included clocks, greenery, fake flowers, teacups and saucers.

Instead of spending money on disposable paper cups that looked like teacups I wanted to go authentic for this one. Don't get me wrong, I also love using disposable cups from time to time and also purchased these teacup inspired floral print cups as backup. I spent weeks combing facebook marketplace for second hand china teacups and saucers and luckily stumbled upon a perfect set complete with a teapot, cream and sugar dishes, and several serving plates. This entire 32 piece set was $40 on marketplace - I had hit the jackpot and this set became the inspiration for the rest of the decor.

The celebration took place during a lessened restriction window of time but still during the pandemic. We still wanted to be Covid cautious and therefore the entire setting was outside. We stuck giant playing cards in the ground, throughout our garden and placed fake flowers with glued on whimsical eyes. One table was set up with DIY mushroom stools for the littles. So many clocks, greenery, tea cup artwork and floral arrangements covered the exterior walls and side tables.

Then there was the guest of honour herself "Alice". It is incredibly hot in the midst of the summer here in Ontario and instead of a heavy dress I found a super cute floral two piece still in Alice's shade of pastel blue. I completed this look with second hand black velvet Mary Jane's and a black headband. To add one more element to her look, I also decorated her high chair with a very plush tule skirt and apron with a little red heart.

I'm often all about making a gift match a theme and this case was no different. As she was receiving a few gifts from her relatives and had lots to play with, our gift was a bit more of a keepsake. A special volume of "Alice in Wonderland" of course with a special note to remember the day.

Some other details:

• Favours - Alice in wonderland bookmarks and these amazing cookies from Sweet Queen Ottawa.
• Food - pandemic style individual servings of everything; Muffins, tarts, sweets, mini sandwiches in muffin papers.
• Drinks - Kid staple juice boxes and of course a dispenser of iced TEA!
• Cake - homemade (allergy friendly) cupcakes made in teacup holders with a teapot cake at the top of the tower.

This was one of my favourite events to style and I actually still have much of the decor I plan to package up and reuse.

Note*-We were not in lockdown at the time and were well within the limit of outdoor visitors.