The Mad Hatters’ Tea Party at Preston Court.

Leo and Catherine were never going to settle for a standard celebration — the sort where people politely sip Prosecco in a beige marquee while wondering when the buffet opens. No, they wanted something with a bit of madness, a sense of occasion, and, above all, a story worth retelling.

They were marking not one, but two milestones — a joint 50th birthday and twenty years of marriage — the kind of symmetry that deserves its own Wonderland.

Living in Paris, with Catherine’s family up north, Preston Court was chosen not through logic but through what behavioural economists might call “the elegant midpoint bias” — a place perfectly in between, and yet utterly unlike anywhere else.

We adored hosting it. It’s not often you get to unleash full creative anarchy. Tiggi from Salty Carnival Kiss crafted enormous flowers and mushrooms so gloriously oversized they could have doubled as props in a particularly eccentric dream.

Drinks flowed on the lawn, speeches echoed across Juliana’s Island, and on that gloriously hot July afternoon, the guests arrived in outfits that made Ascot look restrained.

In short: it wasn’t just a party. It was an experiment in joyful irrationality — proof that when you lean into wonder, the ordinary becomes extraordinary.