Alice in Wonderland-themed Wedding

How to: Create a "Wonderland" Wedding

Alice in Wonderland is all the rage right now. The newly released Tim Burton version has all, who remember this delightful Disney animation as children, even curiouser and curiouser. There are so many obvious choices that would transform an ordinary wedding into an extraordinary Wonderland.

When thinking of a Wonderland location, what is the first thing that crosses your mind? A whimsical garden with lush green topiaries and aromatic florals blanketing the countryside.

Photo courtesy of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

With hundreds of amazing gardens across the world, it can be hard to find the perfect one. I've narrowed it down to few of my favorites right here in the United States:

Cheekwood Botanical Gardens

Nashville, Tennessee

Cheekwood is a 55-acre botanical garden that includes a Japanese garden, herb, perennial and wildflower gardens, as well as a woodland sculpture trail and a nature sanctuary.

The Biltmore Conservatory
Asheville, North Carolina

The Biltmore is not only America's largest home, but it also holds world-class gardens and an award-winning winery. The glass–roofed Conservatory nurtures flowers, plants and tender bedding plants for the gardens. Its central room is the Palm House where a large collection of palms, ferns, and other foliage plants thrive year round. Annexes include a cool house, hot house and orchid house.

Niagra Falls

Niagra, Ontario, Canada

Niagara Botanical Gardens and School of Horticulture houses 100 acres of immaculately maintained gardens. Take in the subleties of the plant world in the herb garden, the vegetable garden, the rose garden or the splendid arboretum, as well as Canada's finest collections of several hundred trees and shrubs.

The original Alice dress was blue with a white pinafore apron, but the newly revamped version, as seen in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie, put an elegant and modern spin on the childlike babydoll dress.

Photo courtesy of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

Photo courtesy of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

These are a few amazing "Alice"-inspired wedding gowns, in the perfect shades of blue.

1950's Vintage $880

Photo courtest of Timeless Vixen on Etsy

This Ceil Chapman dress is an early-label designer couture original. It features metallic-embroidered rhinestone & sequin steel-blue tulle, a sweetheart fitted strapless bodice, and a heavily-pleated white-lined princess maxi circle-skirt.

1950's Vintage $880

Photo courtesy of Timeless Vixen on Etsy

This vintage baby blue tulle and lace dress has a tea length maxi circle skirt and a corested lace sweetheart neckline.

#841 RS Couture by Renato Savi $498

This baby blue dress has a fitted bodice with a cinched natural, dropped waist atop a gathered and pleated bouffant tulle skirt. It has a strapless, lace scalloped neckline that leads to the satin overlay and rosette detail. Bustled seen on right.

Your can't have an Alice in Wonderland look, without a little hair accessory borrowed from none other than the Mad Hatter himself.

Monsoon Accessorize $37

Black mini top hat with netting veil on a hair band.

Diamond Star Halo $55

Silver mini top hat made from sinamay, adorned with stripped hackle feathers and netting veil on a hair comb.




Alice is usually seen in a basic black leather Maryjane flat. Here's a peak at a fun twist on the classic style.

Frenchies $38.99

Black d'orsay sandals with a Velcro ankle cuff, pleated white trim and spat-inspired button details.

Penthouse Shoes by Ellie #PH455-Molly $44.96

Black Patent Maryjanes with 4" heel and sweet twist knot details.




For the reception, I'm seeing white tablecloths and mismatched vintage china. A tea party, with an assortment of flavored teas, would be most fitting for this elegant Alice affair. Playing cards for the place card holders, "eat me" and "take one" iced cookies on tiered cake stands, and butterfly-shaped tea sandwiches all fit into the Wonderland theme. But when it comes to dessert an ordinary white wedding cake just won't do. Whether you decide on a lop-sided Mad Hatteresque tiered wedding cake, cupcakes or petit fours, this is your opportunity to really be 'perculiar' - and even provide a party favour for your guests.

Lop-sided tiered cake from Food Networks "Ace of Cakes"

Top Hat Cupcake Tower


Tea Cup Petit Fours

The ideas I've mentioned definitely make a nod to the Alice in Wonderland story, they are still classy enough to not become dated or be too over the top wacky. In the end, as long as your groom-to-be shows up in a waistcoat, trousers and a top hat...you will forever be his Queen of Hearts.

XOXO

Through the Looking Glass

Adaptations of the Popular Children's Story





The original classic was written in 1862, by Charles Dodgson. While attending Christ Church College in Oxford, he would take the dean's daughter, Alice Liddell, out on canoe trips along the Thames. He’d manufacture fictional stories for entertainment - one being a about a young girl exploring a strange, unknown world. Because she fell in love with the story, he decided to write it in a book, but under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll and called it "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland." Throughout the years, the classic has been interpreted and reinterpreted in numerous ways, most recently Tim Burton's version which opened in theaters on March 5.





Let's peer through the looking glass at some of the most peculiar versions of the beloved tale...



Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951)
In my opinion, Disney has been the best at making Lewis Carroll’s story come alive. In this animated tale, Alice's powerful imagination stumbles upon a hookah-smoking caterpillar, mushrooms that change her perception of the world, a psychotic Queen of Hearts and beautifully trippy colors.





Miyuki-chan in Wonderland (1995)
I'm not into Japanese anime. I happen to think it can get pretty weird, and this film is definitely no exception. It's about a teenage schoolgirl, Alice, who dreams she's falling through a mirror and ends up in a land full of sultry females — from the dominatrix Queen of Hearts to the sexy Cheshire Cat. See, I told you it was weird!






Alice (1988)
Jan Svankmajer, a Czech film director, created a surrealist Alice using unusal camera angles and crude characters, to give this already strange tale an very eerie feel. What began with a stuffed rabbit coming to life, ended with Alice waking up and decapitating it's head. Not so much the same story we all grew to love as children, huh?






American McGee’s Alice (2000)
Video game developer American McGee tweaked the Alice tale and made it more, how do you say?...sinister. In this game, Alice is an orphan...and in a mental hospital. Through her dreams and with the help of a certain Cheshire Cat (who is tattoed-up), she explored a dangerous and much darker Wonderland. Toss in a couple TweedleDee n' Dum zombies, a Mad Hatter in a straightjacket, and all the other psychotic characters (whose goal is to murder Alice) and you’ve got a very twisted story and an entertaining video game.





The Matrix (1999)

It wasn't until my husband showed me the similarities that I realized The Matrix was, in fact, a contemporary story of Alice in Wonderland. Think about the choice Neo makes to follow the white rabbit...or Morpheus’s line, “You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes," or Neo’s continued questioning of reality and his identity. Although this was a major box-office hit that led to a monster trilogy, I still prefer a less sci-fi version myself.





Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy (1976)
This "adult" Alice adaptation (that is rumored to have been Andy Warhol’s favorite film), stars Playboy’s cover model Kristine deBell as Alice. Although there is not a lot of X-rated action (until the end), it does showcase a perverse White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter as a flasher, and other sleazy characters. To top things off...it’s also a musical. Pretty. Odd.





Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
This Guillermo del Toro film isn't exactly like the classic story, you can't help but think it was the sole inspiration. It's focus is of a young girl who has experienced the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. She's forced to live in a world where fascism is a powerful force, however, she is able to leave this dismal reality. She escapes alone into this fantasy world where she meets a crew of weird, often nightmarish characters who help her understand life (one being a demented white rabbit, who is beyound scary).






The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (2009)

This Terry Gilliam film has slight components of the Alice story woven into it, and was Heath Ledger’s last gig. It's based around a traveling show in which audience members have a chance to step through a magic mirror and see a world in which they always dreamt. Ultimately they have to choose between temptation and virtue. But the images they see are straight from Lewis Carroll’s colorful visions.





Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll (2010 maybe?)
I can't dig up much information about this underground horror film featuring Marilyn Manson. Evidentally he plays a version of Lewis Carroll who is trapped in a castle and suffering from horrific nightmares of Alice. It's supposed to be based on "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland," and not the classic "Phantasmagoria" poem, although it stars Lily Cole as Alice (who also plays the lead in "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus"). Should this movie ever get released, I'm certain the creepy images alone will be enough to chill you to the core.






Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2009)
By far my favorite to date, Tim Burton's version gets extra kudos for taking this seemingly innocuous story and adding his delightfully creepy touch to it. I liked how it was not a remake, but more of a continuation, as Alice made her return to Wonderland. And he based part of his story around Lewis Carroll's dark "Jabberwocky" poem. By using the technique of CGI to and enhancing the images into Disney Digital 3-D, it made this movie a truly trippy and psychedellic experience. And throwing the equally talented and gorgeous, Johnny Depp, in the plot, made it that much more brilliant. Oh, and I do have to mention the fabulous twist on Alice's traditional blue dress and apron - the costume designer definitely hit the mark in this cool update!






This is a fun Mad Hatter-inspired makeup look that I did on myself.


I hope you can see the amazing creativity behind this beloved tale that has inspired so many to try and replicate is brilliance. I certainly enjoyed going mad...as a hatter.



XOXO