The gilded age

The A-list crowd who attended the 2007 Holiday in Dixie Cotillion King Mike Adams Announcement Party at the home of Cotillion Club prez Bill Broyles and wife Nancy Broyles got a hint of what the decorations will be for the April 20 event.

Theme is "A Royal Newport Cotillion in America’s Gilded Age."

A moss-bedecked shore bird centered an urn planted with an assortment of colorful flowers and spiked with pussy willow branches flowers. It was center stage on a table between the entry to the Broyles’ Spring Lake home and the refreshment table.

The arrangement — and Cotillion decorations — was inspired by homes in Newport where people living in mansions grew living topiaries, said Cotillion chief Debbie Hall. "They called them ‘green animals.’ There are swans, peacocks, a teddy bear," said Hall.