LE JOUR - MAGNIFIQUE! More pictures to enjoy by photographer, Yvonne LeBrun, of Vignettes’ banner day when we hosted the lovely, kind-hearted & delightful – Miss Rachel Ashwell.
In addition, Grande Merci Beaucoups go out to the following dear souls, without whom the day could not have been as beautiful or so completely over the top:
Brian, Jim, Neoma & Roumayne for hand-wrapping each & every chocolate that turned out to be a major hit of the soiree! Who knew!? (And addressing invites too!)
Darlah of Le Muse for designing a stage for our guest superstar that was beyond anything we could have imagined. 10 feet long, hand-dyed, painter’s cloths creating a magical backdrop for prom dresses (Rachel’s favorite) with bird’s nests in their bodices, hung on custom-made, bird collage hangers; chandeliers with individually created, paper backed (bird theme, of course) crystals; vintage, ghosted mirrors: ballet-pink hydrangeas spilling out of European urns underneath a chippy, vintage arbor. It was a W O W to behold & perfectly suited the occasion.
Robin of Vintage Beach House for creating yet another, absolutely amazing header for our front doorway, that truly befitted our Queen & set the stage for what lie ahead. Yards & yards of fabrics, gauze & ribbons stamped with: “Keep Calm & Carry On” (Rachel’s favorite), flowing to the ground & tied back by bejeweled (is there any other kind?) starfish. Everyone who entered, looked up in amazement at this whimsical work of art.
My dear friend, Karen of Café Paperie for brilliantly creating paper masterpieces throughout the entire shop that are works of art, often taking hundreds of hours that no one can believe a person made by hand! The fabulously detailed “Shabby Chic Couture” sash she made to go across the Marie Antoinette theater prop & the piece de la resistance: the magnificent French prose she hand-lettered across each panel of a painted Victorian screen that was my front room showpiece. Truly Amazing.
Vivian of Azucar Patisseries for creating edible works of art, unlike any we had seen or tasted before. We thought the pastel chocolate crowns (Rachel’s logo) were fabulous & then we saw the individual “R” & “A” shortbread cookies stacked up & that’s when she entered with the crème de la crème presentation of off-white petit fours with Rachel’s monogram done in pink frosting! Well done Miss Vivian, Well done!
The beautiful & uber talented - Heather Bullard for driving all the way in from Riverside to attend this event, capturing perfect shots with that brilliant eye of hers, & then hosting a give-away on her blog with an autographed copy of Rachel’s latest book & a gift bag from Vignettes that generated hundreds & hundreds of entries & comments. That’s the definition of generous n e t w o r k i n g & she wrote the blog on it!
To my hard-working & unsung hero husband, John, who pulled thru for me BIG TIME on this project; night after night after night, when most would have dropped out, given up or just run away, he hung in there & even though, for the life of him, he can not understand why I often need an object moved "just 2 inches over to the right" to be perfect, he still (eventually) does it. And, he has to be the only person who, after talking at length with Rachel, would discover that she really likes Minnesota! (His home state) That, made his day!
And finally, to the true heroine of this story, the unstoppable & one-in-a million: Susan Darnell, who never gave up & made it her mission to promote Vignettes to Rachel at nearly every one of her book-signings on the West Coast (& sent her daughter to represent us at the one in New York!) with her ultimate dream goal/vision that some how, some way, Vignettes would host the soiree of all soirees with her mentor/idol Rachel Ashwell as the guest star.
She believed, She persisted, She prevailed & because of her,
Vignettes’ triumphed with a day for the history books,
& one we will never forget…
April 10th, 2010
Rachel was here.
