Charlotte's Sweet 16 Alice in Wonderland Party

The Birthday Girl's Pre-Party Photo Shoot

The Walrus & The Carpenter Oyster Bar

One month before the big party I started a craft adventure with my kids. We used an old Frankenstein decoration as our base and started on a paper mache project in hopes it would produce a jumbo walrus. Later Charlotte's friends joined in on the project.

A few family members (raw oyster lovers) and I desperately wanted an oyster bar at this fabulous party. We checked out the best seafood market in our city and found it entirely possible to have super fresh, great quality oysters. I talked to my dad about this, he was totally on board, but we both decided we needed a walrus. My dad asked me if we could rent one from Sea World. LOL. I told him I think we have to make one. :)

I took this on as a special project and I really didn't think it would turn out as fun, rewarding and awesome as it did. I LOVE the walrus and this was such a hit.


We decorated around him with oyster shells (Duh... we just had to sample them first! Yum -they were amazing), pearls, part of the poem, and a crab. For the backdrop we used fabric and strung sand shovels to add to the beach theme. The walrus's tusks are 'ear candles'. The eyes we used from a stuffed animal, and the mustache -we stole fur from a werewolf decoration we have. So not one but TWO Halloween decorations helped us create a walrus! lol. I found this jumbo fake cigar complete with ember and ash at the Dollar Tree. What a lucky find that was. It completed his look. A regular cigar really would have been too small.I had everything on hand except the 'toy' cigar and bow tie. I think the walrus cost $3.00 to make.

This isn't the best quality photo, but it's the only one I kind find to show the carpenter I painted.

I sat up late a week before the party and wished I could draw an oyster. With the help of a picture online I managed to paint the swirls, colors, shapes and shading to create one. I don't think I could do it again! Charlotte and I were so very pleased with the results!


Charlotte's dad and I found him this hat the day before the party! It was such luck.

Read the Lewis Carroll Poem here

See the Disney movie segment here
Below is a photo of the Disney version of the walrus

Dinner Menu

The Tea Party

I made Charlotte a special cake for birthday-singing and candle blowing and decorated it with the Alice and Mad Hatter Lalaloopsy mini's.

My sister Heather and Charlotte draped fabric on the table like this and used a couple pins to hold it in place when needed. What a great fancy tea party effect!

Decorations, Posters, Etc...

The Happy Birthday Charlotte banner I made on Vistaprint. I used some of the images that I used on her invite (also made at Vistaprint) on the banner. I chose some Alice quotes to put on it as well.

We had glow sticks for later in the evening, they were a big hit. Karen really captured the ceiling decorations in the picture! One thing about glow-sticks: quality matters. Unfortunately the cheap ones really aren't very good at all. The expensive ones are bright and last all night.

We hung 24 blow up flamingos, hundreds of cards glued to yarn and some other decorations. We searched for 'casino party' and other related things online and found card suit decorations for our party.

life size chess pieces all hand made by Charlotte's Grandpa

The cut outs, posters, Etc that I found online were ridiculously expensive and limited in characters. So I went to work on painting our own.

While we handmade at least half of our decorations we bought a lot too. here is a small link-list of things we bought from Oriental Trading Co.

Dangling card suit spirals

Jumbo card cut outs

Smile face flower pin wheels

Flower decorations

Card suit dinner plates

Green doorway curtain

Jumbo flower cut outs

We went to lots of thrift stores too. We found old clocks, fabric, old keys, glass bottles, a decorative oyster shell, and many more things.

-We had themed tables that were extensively decorated: Click here
-I was careful to use many different versions of characters, not just Disney ones.
-We printed up poems and quotes and had them at tables and in different places.
-We had Alice in Wonderland books on every table. They were 1.50 each when I bought them on Amazon. They have a great paper back of Through the Looking-Glass, too. These make great party favors. We had 100 people at our party so we didn't give them out individually, but for a smaller party they'd be awesome as party favors for each guest.

We glued google eyes on fake flowers in our flower garden.

I don't know if I have pictures, but we had a bunch of huge butterflies

We had a young children's area with Alice in Wonderland coloring sheets, toys, paint dots, flamingo ring toss game. We also had play tea sets and play food.

Dressed for an Alice in Wonderland Party!

We asked that our guests dress up with a character in mind if they wanted to. If not then to just dress for a party... a fun, festive, fancy, dance, tea, dinner party... we were very pleased and wowed at our wonderful guests. I appreciate the hard work and consideration that went into their Alice in Wonderland costumes or outfits!