‘It took a year to plan’: Mum throws lavish $1,000 Alice in Wonderland first birthday party for her baby girl – complete with a ‘Madhatter tea party’ and a bespoke two-tier cake
- A mum created a special themed Alice in Wonderland party for her one-year-old
- She says as soon as she knew she was having a girl, she started her preparations
- Planning for the event took 12 months and in total the doting mum spent $1,000
An Australian mum has thrown an extravagant ‘Alice in One-derland’ party to celebrate her baby girl Ella’s first birthday after planning it for an entire year.
Michelle Hadfield told FEMAIL she wanted to host an ‘Alice’ themed party for her daughter because she’d loved the movie as a child and wanted Ella to celebrate in style.
‘When I found out I was having a girl I straight away knew the theme of her first birthday had to be Alice in Wonderland. It was my favourite movie as a kid and I still love watching it,’ she said.
Party planning included sourcing everything from scratch and the event cost $1,000 to host.
The savvy mum revealed not only did she make things for the party herself, she spread the cost by buying something small ‘each week’ to spread the cost.
This dressing table (pictured) was the first thing Michelle Hadfield bought during the planning phase of her daughter’s party
One-year-old Ella (pictured) wearing a specially created ‘Alice’ dress her mother had a dressmaker make for her special day
So what did the mum do to create her luxury Alice One-Derland party?
The creative mum broke down what she did in stages and said first she’d bought the dresser secondhand from a woman who also sold her teacups and a cups from her Alice party.
‘I drove three hours to pick it up and with that beautiful old dresser it turned into a vintage Alice tea party.’
Once she had the centrepiece for her cake, she set about creating a backdrop. This was done inexpensively by framing portions of fake lawn and keys.
The outdoor setting for the children was created around the Mad Hatter’s tea party and featured teapot and teacup sculptures created by the clever mum
This bespoke Alice cake (pictured) was designed by the mum and was made by a local cake maker
Sourcing extra vintage teacups and teapots – essential items for the party – would take Michelle and her mum 12 months and would involve visiting op shops regularly.
The dress for her one-year-old also had to be specially created which meant a visit to a dressmaker with some vintage ‘Alice’ fabric in hand.
The event also required a bespoke smash cake.
Michelle said she drew up what she wanted the cake to look like and took it to her local cake maker.
Attention to detail was second-to-none with the mother including special touches such as this pretty photo frame for attendees to pose in (pictured) and an ‘Alice’ lolly table (pictured right)
Special treats at the party included this gorgeous selection of biscuits that have been stamped with messages such as ‘Ella is one’ and ‘Eat Me’
As well as an ‘Alice’ themed lolly table, the mum made sure children at the event could enjoy their treats at a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
‘For the kids’ food table I had assorted paper plates with floral patterns and an Alice side plate. There were also floral paper teacups,’ she said.
She said she created decorative aspects on this table by spray painting teacups in her party colours and gluing these together.
Adults at the event were also catered to and could enjoy the party sipping tea from a range of vintage teacups
Adults attending were able to enjoy bottles of chilled rose (pictured) served on icecubes which had been frozen with live flowers inside
Parents attending the party were also treated to an Alice-themed set-up with the main table boasting vintage teacups alongside tiny bottles of coloured water with tags attached saying ‘drink me’.
Fun events on the day included a ‘decorate your own teacup and saucer’ as well as a ‘decorate your own mad hatter top hat’.
‘I actually had a lot more planned for the party but ran out of time,’ the mum said.
‘As it was I was up at 3am with my husband the night before carving watermelon teapot and teacup sculptures.’