Land of Oz

For Friday night's Lincoln Park Zoo Ball, event co-chairs Susan F. Erler and Karen V. Peterson—both members of the zoo's women's board—spent more than a year working with manager of donor events Erin Dahl to create an evening that brought the fund-raiser's "An Evening in the Emerald City" theme to vivid life. As more than 1,000 guests arrived at the ball, Glinda the good witch and a stilt-walker dressed in green stood inside the gates of the Lincoln Park Zoo, shouting "welcome to the Emerald City!" by way of greeting. ("Yeah, and I'm the munchkin," joked one in-the-spirit party-goer whose female companion was significantly taller than him.)

Behind the the straight-from-Oz greeters at the main gates, a cocktail reception held outside the lion house carried on the evening's theme with cocktails like the "If I Only Had a Brain" martini—made with Grey Goose vodka, Chambord, and fresh raspberries—and the mint-cucumber "Wicked West" martini. Limelight catering's passed hors d'oeuvres nodded to Toto with sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese on bone-shaped toast crisps; one serving tray featured hors d'oeuvres set atop a mini Emerald City. Ruby slippers decorated the silent auction table that spanned the cocktail tent, and prizes were divided into sections labeled with thematic phrases like "I'll Get You, My Pretty" and "Munchkin Land."

 

Inside the main tent, where dinner and dancing took place, tablescapes created by Heffernan Morgan were green in both the literal and figurative senses—green orchids studded the floral arrangements, which were made with recyclable plants. Other green touches included the programs that sat on each chair, which were made with environmentally friendly paper and printed with soy-based ink. The inside of the program featured literature on the zoo's greening efforts, which include newly installed solar panels above the main barn and a water filtration system that allows the zoo to reuse water for pools in the penguin house.

The dinner menu paid homage to The Wizard of Oz with everything from a first-course trio of "Tin Man's Open Faced Canape," "Scarecrow's Summer Chilled Pea Soup," and a "Cowardly Lion's Golden Beet Salad" to a dessert of summer berry and lemonade cake parfait crowned with a mini ruby slipper-shaped cookie.

Though the Ken Arlen Orchestra did slip a snippet of "Defying Gravity" (a song from the Oz-based musical Wicked) into its set for the evening, it stopped short of reenacting the Wizard of Oz soundtrack for after-dinner dancing. Instead, the band performed classic party tunes like "Sweet Caroline" and "Build Me Up, Buttercup" as guests hit the dance floor, which carried out the evening's theme in itself: Yellow brick-road patterned lights snaked across the floor, and an Emerald-City shaped chandelier dangled overhead.