Leading party venue Oxford Abingdon Hotel, has put together 15 tips to creating the ultimate Mad Hatters Tea Party for an inspired wedding day theme!
Invitations
The maddest guests needn’t be invited, they will simply fall through the rabbit hole and stumble across your party by chance. Or you could try these?
Dress code
In three words; colourful, bold and avant-garde (ok, almost four words).
Hair code
No one is allowed to have similarities in hair colour or style, other than that, anything goes.
Décor
Matching furniture is forbidden; the more quintessentially Wonderland, the better!
Guests
Be specific when choosing your guests based on personality, if they aren’t at least slightly crazy, they won’t fit in.
Tea
Earl Grey is the only tea to be served.
Sandwiches
There are three sandwiches which are appropriate for a Mad Hatters Tea Party; minted cucumber, egg mayonnaise and mustard cress, and smoked salmon and cream cheese. Cutting your sandwiches into heart shapes is cute, but would Alice approve of your allegiance to the Queen of Hearts?
The Abingdon Bun
A favourite amongst Oxfordshire hotels, the Abingdon bun is known predominantly for throwing, so get involved, it’s what Tea Parties are made for.
Shortbread
Height should not be discriminated against, therefore shortbread is totally acceptable at the tea table.
Floristry
Floral perfection should be avoided at all costs. If you have a budget for plants, stick to twigs, decaying leaves and fungi.
Hospitality
Being hospitable is essential. This can be achieved through planning a range of unrecognisable party games.
Weather
If you’re worried about being outside and it raining, it doesn’t matter too much as the best Mad Hatters Tea Parties are set in very little sunlight. For big budget tea parties, rain and mist machines are encouraged.
Seating
If you can’t get bums on seats, bums on anything is fine. Stools, shelves, giant mushrooms; anything goes.
Cheshire cat
One ginger cat is required as ‘purr’ its Cheshire heritage.
Time keeping
This is banned as there is no time in wonderland. However, we would only suggest this tip as optional as if adhered to it can cause havoc, after all, you don’t want your guests to be late for this very important date!
V I S I T Oxford Abingdon Hotel
