Tag:tea party

mad hatter tea party

Alice and a Mad Hatters Tea Party

Alice in Wonderland is a much loved and immensely popular fairy tale by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll, and published in 1865. While Dodgson (1832-1898) was an English logician, mathematician, photographer, and novelist, his novels, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass, are most remembered for.

lewis carroll
Lewis Carroll
The Story

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland tell the story of a young girl who falls asleep in a meadow and dreams she saw and followed a white rabbit down a rabbit hole. During her time in wonderland, she has amazing and bizarre adventures, meeting many strange characters such as the Cheshire cat, blue caterpillar, the knave of hearts, Red Queen, White Queen, and of course, the tea party with the Mad Hatter.

drink me - alice in wonderland

The books have inspired countless films, performances, and ballets over the years and remain popular to this day.

Our concept shoot

We gathered our cast together for our concept shoot of a mad hatters tea party. Alice, plus the Red and White Queens, Mad Hatter, and White Rabbit, all participated. We took a little from the original story, melded it with Tim Burton’s version from the Disney film, and centred it around the tea party. I sourced the backdrops and costumes for our cast, and members contributed props and chairs to complete our scenes.

mad hatter tea party
Alice
amelia as alice
Amelia as Alice

“I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it.”

~Alice

Alice, a fictional character living in Victorian England, gives her age as seven and a half in the sequel, Through The Looking Glass. She is believed to be based on Alice Liddell, the daughter of the author’s friends.

Alice is a young girl with shoulder-length blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes and wears a blue Victorian dress. Alice can memorise things quickly and recites poems and rhymes with ease.

The Mad Hatter
anjel as mad hatter
Anjel as the mad hatter

“I am under no obligation to make sense to you.”

~The Mad Hatter

While the books never referred to the Hatter as the ‘mad hatter’ because he was portrayed as ‘mad’, the title stuck. The mad hatter is stuck in a never-ending tea party as he angered the red queen and was sentenced to death for ‘murdering time’. While he escaped that fate, he is forever halted at 6.00 pm forever.

The White Rabbit
mark as white rabbit
Mark as the White Rabbit

“Oh, my fur and whiskers! I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!”

The White Rabbit

Famous for his quote, “I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date!” the white rabbit is the first character Alice encounters in Wonderland.

The Red Queen
emily as red queen
Emily as the Red Queen

“I dont know what your mean by your way, all the ways about here belong to me..”

~The Red Queen

Our Red Queen is closer to Tim Burton’s version, where she is a combination of the Red Queen and Queen of Hearts. She is arrogant, bad-tempered, demanding, and fond of calling for people’s heads to be cut off when they displease her.

The White Queen
jess as white queen
Jess as the White Queen

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

~The White Queen

Like the Red Queen, the White Queen is based upon a chess piece. The White Queen is the rightful ruler but has been usurped by her sister, the Red Queen, who has claimed the throne as her own.

Around 20 members of the Victorian Photographers Collective attended our shoot – plus helpers and cast throughout the day. Everyone had a fabulous time and their photographs coming out of the shoot looked great.

Our Cast
our mad hatter cast
  • Amelia – Alice
  • Anjel Taylor – Mad Hatter
  • Emily Reinhard – Red Queen
  • Jess Garrett – White Queen
  • Mark Busuttil – White Rabbit
Props
  • Backdrops – Bevlea Ross
  • Cakes – Carole Perry
  • Chairs – Therese Kidd and Mark Busuttil
  • China – Bevlea Ross, Kellye Wilson, Susan Martin, Glenda Laing

The Mad Hatter Tea Party

The Mad Hatter Tea Party

On a regular basis our VPC Photography group holds concept shoots in a studio setting. Following on from the Mermaids shoot in January, our newest shoot was to be The Mad Hatter Tea Party with a cast of five.

The Mad Hatter
The Mad Hatter
Planning…….

Planning had been in full swing for months. We were ordering backdrops, sourcing costumes, members were raiding their homes for props, and in recent days, they were baking cakes. All of which made our ‘mad hatter tea party’ table look awesome.

Setup started at 9am with the arrival of our crew armed with props and costumes. The Red and White Queens arrived and went to makeup with Jess Garrett. Mad Hatter was in makeup with Cassie Wright Kirk.

With our white rabbit in a latex mask, no makeup was needed for him. Our Queens and Mad Hatter also had wigs to wear – so no time was lost doing hair. While our models were in makeup, we got to work setting up our sets and backdrops.

Our plan was to have a green screen plus three printed backdrops in use throughout the day. The new backdrops had arrived and they were much better quality than what we used previously, plus they were a huge 3000 x 3600.

The ‘Shoot’
the mad hatter tea party
The Mad Hatter Tea Party
the red and white queens
Fueding Queens

Off with their heads!

Alice in Wonderland
the white rabbit
The White Rabbit

“Oh, my fur and whiskers! I’m late, I’m late, I’m late! Oh, dear, oh dear, oh dear! I’m here, I should be there.

Alice in Wonderland
Alice at the mad hatter tea party
Alice

“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”

Alice in Wonderland
the mad hatter tea party
The Mad Hatter

“Everyone wants some magical solution for their problem and everyone refuses to believe in magic.”

Alice in Wonderland

The hard work all came together on the day and everyone had a fabulous shoot. Next month we do it all again for Take 2!

the mad hatter tea party
Tea Party Mayhem
Our Cast:

Mad Hatter: Jess Carolyn

Red Queen: Emily Reinhard

White Queen: Lisa Willmore

White Rabbit: Heath Garrett

Alice: Amelia Waddell

Behind The Scenes

Makeup by Cassie Wright Kirk and Jess Garrett

Cakes by Carole Perry and Deb Hamilton

Concept & Styling by Bevlea Ross

© Bevlea Ross