Chapter 2 - Queen Alice: Photo Ops & Props
Staging an area for photo opportunities was at the top of our to-do list. The Wonderland theme lends itself to a wide range of picture possibilities – we just needed to set the stage and provide the props.
Great for Mad Hatter Day too!
We began acquiring props early on during planning. Many of the props were actually seasonal items: a large green hat from St. Patrick’s Day, rabbit ears from Easter, cat ears and mustaches from Halloween. Very few needed any modification – a printed card and a few Glue Dots were all that were needed to change the St. Patrick’s Day hat into a Mad Hatter Hat.
Next was a photo booth. The photo booth was a large appliance box painted on the inside. We glued in a section of the checkered backdrop cut to fit the floor and ceiling of the box. This was patterned after the room in which Alice took the “Drink Me” potion. (Check out our 'Pin'-spiration Board) We used the box to give a similar giant-size effect. We prepared two bottles with ‘Drink Me’ tags – a smaller bottle for adults and a larger bottle for children to further emphasize the shrinking or growing effect.
Mad Hatter Day is October sixth, 10/6 every year
We also found several pieces of second-hand apparel including vests in various sizes and colors – perfect for the Mad Hatter and White Rabbit. We ordered a white ruffled apron for Alice and a crown and red cape completed the prop selections.
The photo ops were a fun ice-breaker activity. They had people talking and laughing as guests continued to arrive.
The background was made up of a green indoor/outdoor rug hung on one wall above a plastic, black and white checkered backdrop. We cut the checkered plastic to fit the photo area and taped it to the floor with black tape. To hang the rug we used the same tape on the back of the rug and cut small holes to fit Command Strips. We held the rug against the wall and marked the corners with painters tape so we knew where to position it.