This past Thursday, I had the privilege of attending a Royal Par-Tea, a fashion show and fundraiser for the Ottawa Cancer Society at the Museum of Nature. Organized by the St. Laurent Center, the Royal Partea featured special guest Jeanne Beker, who is undeniably Canadian Fashion Royalty herself! Jeanne, who is now in London preparing to cover the Royal Wedding for CTV news (what an amazing opportunity that is!), was on site to promote her new book, Finding Myself in Fashion and dazzled the guests with her chic style, outgoing personality and passion for all things fashion!
This event, which also featured a royal inspired fashion show, raised more than $20,000 for the Cancer Society! It’s not too late to make a donation! Click here if you’d like to donate to this very worthwhile cause! I was able to get some great shots of Jeanne and here is just one of them (more later on in the post!)
So how did I score a ticket (tickets were $250 by the way and only 125 were available!) to the #Partea!? Well as it turns out, Twitter is not such a time waster after all! In fact, in addition to the social networking phenomenon, it is a fabulous way to market yourself, meet other bloggers, small businness owners, photographers and people interested in many of the same things as you. I had been following Marilou of Twenty York Street and had seen that she had tweeted out a request for a photographer who might be interested in covering the event. I had expressed some interest but really didn’t think much of it until Ashelle contacted me saying that she was interested in having me go along with her. Marilou was away on holidays but enjoyed the event via live twitter feeds and photos! Needless to say, I was thrilled to be invited and am so glad that I was able to go (thank you to wonderful in-laws who babysat without hesitation!!!) I really enjoyed myself and managed to get some great shots! So without further adieu…
Dazzling and Darling!
The organizing committee at the St. Laurent Center did a wonderful job with the decor! There were two main rooms-the foyer so to speak, where guests mingled beforehand and were treated to champagne and live music and the reception area. Here, guests were seated at numbered tables and were served tea in darling vintage teacups and enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and delectable desserts!
The first thing that caught my eye was one of the shimmering chandeliers–who doesn’t love a little sparkle after all!?
The colour palette was striking an bold with black and white damask and a splash of fuchsia! Très chic indeed!
This area was also used to interview Jeanne
Jeanne even let me photograph her with her new book in between chat sessions!
Guests socialized and sipped on champagne before heading into the reception area
The lady on the right is Carol Anne Meehan, Ottawa’s 6 o’clock news anchor on CTV news! My apologies to the other lady, I don’t know who you are but will gladly update this info if you let me know!
Fashionistas
Ashelle, my date to the partea and Love K
Soon after socializing, Jeanne was invited to pose with the General Governor’s foot guards.
Jeanne with organizers from the St. Laurent Center
Having a little fun with Twitter!
Now onto the reception area to be seated and enjoy the walk about fashion show! Upon entering this salon, one couldn’t help but feel as though we were in the presence of Royals as we were greeted by the smiling portraits of Prince William and soon to be Princess Kate, as well as a few other familiar faces!
The reception area looked positively fabulous! A space was created in the middle of the room for the special guests, organizers and speakers
and the tables were beautifully adorned with pretty teacups and treats!
Amuse-bouche!
And while guests enjoyed the goodies, they were also treated to a walkabout Fashion Show, featuring hot new looks found at the St. Laurent Center! The concept behind the show: feature royal inspired fashion, especially the hat!
You know, I have a similar blouse from Tristan that I bought last Spring! I was even considering wearing it to the event, but ended up choosing a black and white dress from White House Black Market that I recently purchased. It was similar in style to this dress! Black pencil skirt on the bottom and white with black markings on the top! I guess I should have been in the fashion show too! 
Love the pop of turquoise!
It’s all about the HAT!
As you may have already noticed, the hat or fascinator made more than one appearance a the Royal Partea! Kate Middleton has been snapped wearing a number of chic hats. so it is only fitting (pun intended!) that people showed up wearing them! I myself cannot pull off a hat, but don’t they just look awesome when they do work!? From Jeanne’s fun and funky swirls to the tiniest feather attachment, here are just a few more fascinating headshots that caught my attention! They really do make for great conversation pieces!
Having some more twitter fun–because who can resist a live tweet!? #aslightobsession #addictedtotwitter
and of course, nothing beats good old fashion pen and paper!
Linda Eagen, CEO and President of the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation
When asked to raise your hand if you knew someone affected by cancer–almost every hand up, sadly.
Jeanne Beker entertaining the guests and answering questions from the floor and via Twitter
Of course Jeanne also signed copies of her new book for her fashionable followers!
The Swag Bag which contained items from Dior, Smashbox, Lush and Petits Fours to name a few!
Well as you can see, I took a lot of photos! I hope you enjoyed this post and hopefully the photos gave you a glimpse of the partea! I had a fabulous time and want to thank Twenty York Street (Marilous) and Ashelle once more and a huge hats off to the talented and creative organizers at the St. Laurent Center responsible for the planning and organization of what was a fun, fashionable and very worthwhile event!
by Amy Symes
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