Evening in the Park guests couldn't have asked for a lovelier night in Hermann Park

Mother Nature, who has been known to throw a few thunderstorms the way of the Hermann Park Conservancy, showed on Thursday night that she could be a true lady. The annual Evening in the Park benefit enjoyed splendid weather as a sellout crowd of more than 500 supporters gathered around the Jones Reflection Pool for the dreamy cocktail hour.

With the royal wedding in London taking place the following day, dinner chairs Isabel David and Judy Nyquist declared that the honorees, Jay Baker and Sanford Criner, would be anointed Princes of the Park and in that role they wore bejeweled crowns as glasses were raised to them in a lauding toast given by architectural historian Stephen Fox.

It was part of the relaxed fun that characterizes the al fresco evening. Guests arrived at one end of the reflection pool to make the stroll to Molly Ann Smith Plaza, some pausing to admire the model sailboats that glided across the shallow waters. 

Chef Robert Del Grande and former conservancy board chair Don Short chose this evening to officially introduce their ROXOR artisan gin. Guests lined up to sample the refreshing cocktail comprised of the new gin, tonic and soda with a slice of Texas grapefruit.

As dusk fell, guests moved into the party tent overlooking McGovern Lake, where the team from A Fare Extraordinaire served dinner fit for a king — or at least for the princes of the evening and the tony crowd.

Among those supping royally and then swaying to the tunes of the Texas swing sounds of the Quebe Sisters Band were Anne and John Clutterbuck, Susie Criner, Danny David, Sara Dodd Spickelmier and Keith Spickelmier, Jennifer and Lance Gilliam, conservancy board chair Ann Kennedy and Geoffrey Walker, Cabrina and Steven Owsley, conservancy executive director Doreen Stoller and Dan Piette, Phoebe Tudor, Sheridan and John Eddie Williams and Ann and Mathew Wolf.