February is a holiday trifecta: Valentine’s Day, President’s Day and Mardi Gras! But before looking forward to reinstating New Year’s resolutions as Lenten practices, let’s talk about the joys and excesses of Christmas and New Year’s past.
Love’s magic spell is everywhere: Christmas Day, former Newman Greenie star Avery Moseley dropped to one knee and proposed to girlfriend Brittney Adams who’s working on her doctorate and teaching at UCLA. No plans yet but mother, Ginja Moseley, an event planner of note, has ideas.
The date is set and bride-to-be Claire Johnson, Maryjo and Dr. Calvin’s daughter, and fiancé Jeremy Weill, Martha and Walter’s son, are being fêted by folks like Louellen and Darryl Berger, who managed to cheer during the Saints’ playoff and get home into time to hose off and don cocktail attire.
The deal is done for the Paul Hogans. They tied the knot in a small, sweet and simple ceremony at the Audubon Tea Room. The bride, the former Louise F. Andry Walshe, looked radiant.
So did realtor Barbara Hallenbeck, who married Dr. Ahmet Bedestani, a Senior Fellow at LSU Health Services Center, at Trinity church and celebrated with dear friends later at the Omni Royal Orleans. The couple met at the Delachaise near Touro in 2007 – the rest is history.
Seeing out the old year in style were the likes of everyone’s friend, Pat Friend. Perfectly coiffed and bejeweled, she turned up at a number of black-tie events. Ditto Claudia Kelleher who manages to look as elegant at the end of an evening as at the beginning; no mean feat considering she plans some of the most prestigious debutante parties and weddings in the city. Billy and CC Langenstein are an unruffled pair; they slide seamlessly from suits to black and then white tie with seemingly no effort as they did at this season’s deb teas, such as Helen Waller’s, at the Orleans Club.
Lord Poseidon celebrated the renaming of Andrew Whitley’s sailboat at Southern Yacht Club where Lucie and Andrew’s joie de vivre and the music of Acoustic Swiftness banished any blues caused by driving rain … if a lot of water had any effect on this group they wouldn’t own a serious racing machine.
Seeing the New Year in with traditional libations, cabbage, black eyed peas and more included: Charles and Cammie Mayer, Bruce Wallis and Virginia Miller, Ellis and Tatine Frater, Ashton and Suzanne Phelps, Webb Offutt and Missy LaCour, and Anne and Edmund Redd.
Twelfth Night is the official start of the Carnival season. Swells went to the ball. Others paraded in the streets. Charles and Jill Abbyad, of Arnaud’s note, threw open their doors for their “Chimes Guest House,” and laid out a spread of glorious Middle Eastern food for people like Archie Casbarian Jr. and mom Jane, and Uptown neighbors.
It was very clever of Joanne and John Curren to host a group exhibition at the Garden District Gallery, featuring artists who executed Rex Proclamations. Patti Adams, Mignon Faget, Tony Green, Grace Newburger, Auseklis Ozols, Jean Seidenberg, George Schmidt, Tim Trapolin and others put up their work just in time for Rex to roll, which he will February 16.
Happy Valentine’s Day and a merry Mardi Gras!
Correction: In January, a caption under James Farwell and Gay LeBreton’s photograph read “Bunkie and Sharon Healy.”
(I do keep getting e-mails from all pretending to be the other, proving they all have a sense of humor). Apologies.
