The Future Mrs. Darcy » alice in wonderland

Mad as a Hatter

The Future Mrs. Darcy — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:04:19 +0000

Good day everyone! As promised we have some BRAND NEW SUPER FREE Alice in Wonderland Invitations that I’m leaving you with before I head to Ireland this weekend.

While I was immersing myself in all things Alice (umm, except the movie, I suppose, because we can’t leave our pup at the moment- stitches, long story) and I came across some illustrations by Katogi Mari and really liked the idea but I wanted the flowers to be made of the suits of cards* and (obviously) there to be room to write so yada yada yada I turned it into an invitation for y’all. And by “yada yada yada”, I mean I’ve spent the last 3 days at my computer drawing drawing drawing.

So. If you download these you need to take the following oath:

I do solemnly swear that I will tell someone who: is engaged, planning on getting engaged, recently married, planning a party, having a baby, moving, or requiring a designer about The Future Mrs. Darcy.

Excellent.

These come 2 to a page and have spaces for you to fill in: “arrive promptly at:” time, “we’re all mad here:” location, “curiouser and couriouser:” for what and any other infomation and “the adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time” for RSVP.

For you very own download here: Alice in Wonderland Invitations #2!

And there’s a slew of more Alice party stuff for you to download here and here.

Also to keep you occupied for 5 minutes of the week I’m gone:

Photo by One Love Photo

I came across this LIBRARY WEDDING on Snippet and Ink in my monthly skim of all wedding blogs and I don’t even need to mention how much I love it, do I? It’s a freakin’ library wedding. I want to store everything in old card catalogs. Make sure to also read Linda’s (the bride) Planning Tips at the end. Linda, you rock, I shall drink a Guinness in your honor next week.

photo by Pam Sattler

Secondly, I came across a color palette on one of my design blogs and how freakin’ lovely?! Also it’s “Color Happy 68″ which means there are 67 other ones for you to peruse.

Images: dried flowers by Elizabeth Messina, long table by Small Masterpiece, calligraphy by Kathryn Murray, floral by Adebond

Lastly, Jane. Austen. [Pretend.] Wedding. Okay so it’s an inspiration post but I was fooled for like 10 seconds and they were good 10 seconds and good inspiration so soak it in kids. I think doilies are a little much but don’t give a crap what I think, it’s your wedding after all.

Go forth. Have a great week and a half. Be 110% Irish tomorrow and pinch people who don’t wear green.

*And yes, I do realize (now) that making a spade into a flower starts edging into the line of phallic but we gotta do what we gotta do and from what I hear, I think Lewis Carroll would have liked it that way. And what a great hen party** invite!

**Have I mentioned that I plan to use the English “hen”/”stag” party instead of “bachelorette”/”bachelor” party? Sounds so much cooler their way.

Alice in Wonderland Party Invitations (more free stuff!)

The Future Mrs. Darcy — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:27:16 +0000

I’m so happy that everyone liked the free Valentine’s Day cards! A big “thank you” to Snippet and Ink, Dress, Design, & Decor,¬† Mustard & Sage, Everything Fabulous, Bunker Complex, Modern Toile Photography, I Like Nice Things, Petit Plaisir Pattiserie, Swizzle Events, Thoroughly Modern Megan and anyone else who helped spread the word!

A big “I hate you and I wish you were a physical entity so I could show you how much I hate you” to my stupid order form which stopped working. And the real kicker is that it pretended to work and said “Thanks for your order and I’ll get back to you shortly to finalize” (or something like that) and then NEVER SENT ME THE EMAIL! Please please please if you sent me something about invitations or anything else and haven’t heard back from me PUH-LEAAAAASE email me at kristenhcox (at) gmail (dot) com.

A GINORMOUS thanks to Monica who contacted letting me know it might not be working in the first place.

So now onto the goods. I’ve had a lot of visitors come to the site to check out the Alice in Wonderland 30th Birthday Party Extravaganza we threw for Jenn back in October. The Lady Ga Ga Valentine’s Day card were loosely based off some of the designs we did for the party so why not complete the circle and actually make some printable invites for an Alice in Wonderland party!

They are print your own, come 3 to a page, and will fit in a standard envelope. You add hands to the clock to note the time and write the other pertinent information below (i.e. date, location, if it’s a surprise party, who’s birthday it might be for, if there’s an RSVP, etc…)

Download your FREE Alice in Wonderland Invitations here!

I’ve also created updated (matching) “eat me”/”drink me” flag which can be downloaded here!

Alice in Wonderland Party

The Future Mrs. Darcy — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:14:59 +0000

Edited to add: check out the new Alice in Wonderland invitations for free here! I keep adding more “Alice in Wonderland” stuff since people seems to like it so make sure to click on the “Alice in Wonderland” tag to make sure you get it all! (Like another print out invitation!)

Happy November everyone! As promised starting off today we have some awesome DIY party planning bits. My friend Mandy and I planned an elaborate Alice in Wonderland themed 30th birthday party for our friend, Jenn, a couple of weeks ago in NY and it was so fun and adaptable to other parties (bachelorette, baby shower, wedding shower, birthdays of all ages, etc) that I thought I’d share.

We started off our party with a Mad Hatter Tea (and Champagne) party at her house with some fun (relatively) easy decorations.

The photos aren’t the best quality. I took them with the flash off b/c the flash was blinding but the pom poms were in front of the lights so there were weird color things going on. Brandy helped a bit so now they look a little retro but anyway- long story short here they are:

Alice in Wonderland Party Decorations

I made little “Drink Me” and “Eat Me” tags for all of the food and drinks. In addition to the tea and champagne we had tea sandwiches (Mandy made these but if you need the recipe just ask and I’ll get it from her), chessmen cookies, macaroons, cupcakes, jelly beans, and chocolates.

We printed out poems from the book and posted them on the walls along with LOTS of card suits (hearts, spades, diamonds, clubs) along with some very cute cut-outs of flamingos (with which Alice and the Queen played croquet) and the Cheshire Cat (which I was quite proud of but didn’t get a picture of him). And for the birthday girl Mandy found a top hat (it helps that Jenn’s birthday is near Halloween), put a nice red ribbon around it and added a 10/24 30 card in there (10/24 being her birthday and 30 being how old she is) instead of the Mad Hatter’s customary 10/6.

What really made it in my mind though was the pom poms which you see hanging from the ceiling. It’s a very easy Martha Stewart craft with instructions online here. They sell kits for them at Michael’s but you still have to put it all together and just buying your own tissue paper is cheaper. One of the best things about them that night (besides being easy and cheap to make yet totally show stopping for your guests) is that they are TISSUE PAPER. So if there’s a mishap and one, say, falls on the head of one of the guests while you’re talking to them- they barely notice. It’s lighter than a beach ball so it’s great for all sorts of kids parties as well.

There was also lovely “Happy 30th Birthday” garland which you can see a smidge of in the last photo which I adapted from this Martha Stewart how-to. I printed out the letters on red, white and pink paper and bought some very cool printed paper (zebra print, silver swirls, magenta swirls and brown embossed to look like a basketball or leather) which I used on either end to frame it. All the paper was less than $1 a sheet at Michael’s- you can find a lot of stuff in the scrapbooking section just make sure that your printer can handle whichever pages your going to print the letter on, i.e. it should probably be 8.5 x 11 instead of the normal 12 x 12 scrapbooking paper. The scrapbooking paper is fine, though, for the circles on either end.

Anyway don’t think I’m just rambling on without giving you all the tools to do this yourself!

Here are the “Eat Me”/”Drink Me” straws and toothpicks: download.
[Print out on desired paper, cut into strips and fold around straws or toothpicks, glue shut and trim a "v" shape into ends]

Here is the “Happy 30th Birthday” garland: download.
[The colors are named on top but you can choose any 3 colors you like. I alternated red, white, pink, white which is why it looks like it's not in order. If you would like different text, Martha has you covered.]

Again the Pom-Pom instructions are here.

And lastly, I found the email I sent to Mandy after some Alice in Wonderland research:

Here are other links that I’ve amassed although most of them just have touches of things i like
http://www.projectwedding.com/wiki/show/diy-decor-alice-in-wonderland
(obviously this is a little too complex for what we can do but i like the kind of mismatched craziness of it all)

http://www.projectwedding.com/wiki/show/diy-weddings-cherry-harvest-table
(i like the flags for the “eat me” and “drink me”)

http://www.hostessblog.com/2009/10/real-parties-chic-colorful-birthday/#more-8072
(i like the flags and the bright colors. it seems a little too pretty though for alice in wonderland)

http://www.hostessblog.com/2009/09/free-printables-cirque-du-bebe-pink/
(I like the concept of the feathers- maybe not the execution. I can see what Michael’s Craft store has to offer)

http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/party-hats
(probably more work than I’m willing to do but i’m throw it all out there)

http://jordanferney.blogspot.com/2009/08/tea-party-shower.html
(the more i see it the more i think lots of big things hanging from the ceiling are a good easy thing)

http://jordanferney.blogspot.com/2008/04/party-hats-101.html
(more hats and ceiling hanging stuff)

Other Alice in Wonderland elements:
cards/suits (queen of hearts, jack of spades, etc)
flamingos
cheshire cat
tweedledee and tweedledum
white rabbit
dodos
mushrooms (fake ones for decorations?)
jaberwoky
doormouse

If you fall down the rabbit hole for your next party make sure and send us some photos! Oh, and remember to use the flash unless your a super cool photographer (apparently I was acting out of my pay grade!)

Edited to add: check out the new Alice in Wonderland invitations for free here!