Many a little girl has dreamed about having a garden tea party with some of her best buds. Fresh flowers, tasty treats, frilly dresses?! Who wouldn’t want to partake? In celebration of Disney’s Alice Through the Looking Glass, my daughter and a few of her friends dressed up for the occasion and had a tea party, complete with pretty manicures using OPI’s new collection inspired by the movie.
Living in southern Arizona, it can be tough to find gardens. If you’re in the same boat, make your own garden! We brought in tables, chair, and lots of flowers (both fresh and paper!) to help us feel like we were enjoying tea with the Mad Hatter himself! Assorted cake stands stacked atop colorful books were filled to the brim with treats and cakes. We basically bought out the entire dessert case from our local Whole Foods Market’s bakery, including colorful macarons, fruit tarts, miniature brownies and giant cupcakes. Small details like the stacked books and the gold pocket watches gave the party a “Wonderland” feel!
Of course, no tea party is complete without a big cake to devour! A crooked cake covered in marshmallow fondant seemed fitting for the occasion. It started out as a simple white fondant, but we added a little color to match the OPI polish collection using some food coloring. You can recreate this watercolor effect at home by mixing a drop of food coloring with lemon juice or rubbing alcohol. The liquid will evaporate, leaving the beautiful saturated color behind. Bonus points for a delicious purple surprise when cutting into the cake! It was a buttered buttercream tinted a light purple to add a little whimsy!
Giant tissue paper flowers were placed around the table at times to help the girls feel like they had shrunken down like a miniature Alice in Wonderland. Mismatched teacups and saucers were lined down the table along with other dishes to hold tea, cream, sugar and cookies. You can recreate the look by borrowing tea sets from friends or scouring your local thrift store for goodies. Almost all the china for this party was sourced from Goodwill! Thrifting is an excellent choice for working with a budget.
To go with a mismatched “Mad Hatter”-esque theme, we layered different tablecloths and linens over the table and brought in assorted plant-stands-turned-garden-stools. Regarding the flowers, an “anything goes” attitude is perfect. Choose wildflowers and arrange them among some of the season’s stars like peonies and spray roses.
After everyone filled up on snacks, it was time for a little nail-painting! Bold colors from the new OPI collection like “Having A Big Head Day” red and “A Mirror Escape” gold put an instant smile on everyone’s face! The dry time is super fast, so we didn’t have to worry about color messes getting all over clothes.
Check out Alice Through the Looking Glass in theaters May 27, 2016!
This post is part of a sponsored collaboration between OPI and SheKnows
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