THE SOCIAL OBSERVER
Black Tie
INSIDE: Guest Fashion Editor: Veronica Pastore / PAGE 18
YourObserver.com
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2012
Deborah Blue and Margaret Wise
Steve and Buffy Smith, Britney Serbin and Matthew Scragg
Photos by Loren Mayo
French connection Left: George Adley and Tom Shuff
By Loren Mayo | Black Tie Editor
Jacqueline Morton
Before the clock could strike seven o’clock, the heavens opened and raindrops poured from the sky down onto Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. Several Marie Antoinettes and their Frenchmen, originally lounging and soaking up the evening by the banyan tree, made a run for cover and dried themselves off inside the white tent set up for the 31st annual Orchid Ball: “An Evening at Versailles.” But the rain didn’t prevent guests from dressing to the nines at the event, co-chaired by Kristiana Serbin and Sheryl Vieira. Standout period costumes were a-plenty, with guests fashioned in billowy, ankle-baring skirts and mountains of snowwhite hair. Baroque dancers Alyson Dolan, Angela Rauter and Caitlin McMullen fascinated guests as they performed enchanting dances, and Michael Klauber auctioned off items such as one orchid each month for one year; and admittance to the everpopular Michael’s On East dinner for 10, at the Christy Payne Mansion. Later, everyone boogied on the dance floor to the DeLeon Orchestra.
See more photos / page 10
Charlie and Laurey Stryker, Jean Weidner and Alfred Goldstein
Alyson Dolan, Angela Rauter and Caitlin McMullen
Co-Chairwomen Kristiana Serbin and Sheryl Vieira
Laura Hope