Tea Roses and Tea Lights: Inside The New York Botanical Garden’s Conservatory Ball

It wouldn’t be the NYBG’s Conservatory Ball if the forecast were clear. In recent memory, there has always been a rainstorm occurring on the night of the glitzy event, which takes place beneath a luxurious tent nearby the NYBG’s Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Luckily, this year’s rain shower halted just in time—the trains of gowns may have gotten a little damp, but at least the air was mist-free.

Hosted with the support of De Beers Jewellers, Hearst, and Bartlett Tree Experts, the night celebrated the garden’s spring exhibition, “Around the Table: Stories of the Foods We Love.” Spread across the expansive garden, the show, according to its press release, “explores the cultural, horticultural, environmental, and historical significance of what we eat, examines the art and science of foodways and food traditions–many dating back thousands of years–and celebrates plants as foundational to all culinary customs.” In delightful homage to the exhibition, the tables were dressed with baby trees—the branches hung with lanterns containing tea lights—and sprinkled with citrus fruits, grapes, and more produce. The entire scene looked straight out of a Tim Walker photograph.

After a cocktail hour, where most guests glittered in borrowed De Beers diamonds, guests took their seats. Honorary Chairs of the night included Maureen K. and Richard L. Chilton Jr., Ball Chairs, Georgina Bloomberg, Lili Buffett, Rebecca Hessel Cohen, Ravenel Curry and Jane Moss, Gillian Hearst, Sharon Jacob, Holly Lowen, Olivia Palermo and Johannes Huebl, Ariana Rockefeller and Deborah Goodrich Royce. And most everyone wore gowns with as much romance as the setting.

Rockefeller wore a Tudor-esque gown white gown embellished with 3-D floral appliques and subtly puffed sleeves especially made for the occasion by C​christy Rilling Atelier. Hessel Cohen LoveShackFancy-fied many of the girls—Buffett wore a dreamy gossamer gown of green and white. An expecting Nicky Hilton Rothschild wore a darling Markarian dress, and Palermo opted for Giambattista Valli. Also in attendance were Ivy Getty, Sigourney Weaver, Elsa Majimbo, and Paul Arnhold.

Midway through the dinner, J. Barclay Collins II, Chairman of the Board of The New York Botanical Garden, addressed the photogenic guests. “Tonight we celebrate our exhibition, which is called ‘Around the Table: Stories of the Foods We Love’ and it is, in fact, a celebration, as you might suspect, of the food and the essential role that it plays in our lives,” he said. “We're also celebrating the special thing, a magic thing that happens when we all gather together around a table with friends, share food, share conversation and share our ideas.”

It was the perfect note on which to tuck into the gala dinner and then afterward, relocate to the dance floor, where DJ Kiss kept things going past midnight—on a school night no less.