RSVP / THE SOCIAL CITY : June Parties Herald Season for Weddings

Pale peonies and roses were massed into bouquets and topiaries by Jim Longest last weekend for the wedding of Kimberly Jane Popovich and Robert Tharp Shepherd in All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena.

Choirs and a brass quartet performed for 500 guests before the crowd moved to San Marino for a seated dinner of lamb chops followed by dancing and ebullient toasts delivered under a full-ish moon by Kimberly’s parents--Kristoffer and Jane--and many more.

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Bused-in Party: The season of weddings has brought unique prenuptial parties. Laney and Tom Techentin, Cynnie and Wayne Griffin, of Sun Valley, and Debby and Bill Richards hired a bus to deliver guests to the Techentins’ and Griffins’ family Rancho Corona del Valley near Tejon recently.

Honorees were Katie Henry, daughter of Warner and Carol Henry, and her fiance lawyer, Andrew Gray of Lake Charles, La. They wed July 8, also in All Saints.

A sunny day of croquet, singing (Tim Griffin on the guitar with his original lyrics) and Frisbee golf was upstaged when the young crowd piled hay in the pickup and careened to the murky pond where they dunked the good-natured, but unwilling, Byron Capps.

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Happy Fusion: So happy were they about the recent union of Jenny Jones and James MacKenzie that seven friends made a big fuss at Los Angeles Country Club, showering Jenny with Santa Fe-themed gifts (no, they’re not moving). Luncheon hostesses included Jane Gosden, who came from Greenwich, Conn., and Debbie Lanni, Joan Hotchkis, Nancy Vreeland, Arletta Tronstein, Bridget Martens and Lisa Bell.

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Fun 50th: Catherine (Tink) Cheney was effervescent for her 50th birthday recently at Twin Palms Restaurant in Pasadena. Son Rob and daughter Ann (who just finished another year at Trinity College) sent the invitations, ordered the flowers and orchestrated the toasts as good friends Joni and Dan Baker, Peggy and James Galbraith, Eileen and Bill Zimmerman, Maria and Sandy Mallace joined nearly 50 in celebration.

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Welcomes: Suzy and Don Crowell are moving into the San Marino home previously owned by Jean (Mrs. William French) Smith. That was enough for party-lovers Dee and John Maechling, and Connie and Dick Van Voorst, who live not far away, to host a neighborhood extravaganza for a frolicking crowd that wouldn’t go home.

Elsewhere on the Social Circuit:

* William Hanna and Joseph Barbera are unrivaled in the world of animation (“Tom & Jerry,” “Huckleberry Hound,” “The Flintstones,” “Yogi Bear” and more).

So it was not without levity that the Center Theatre Group Volunteers honored the esteemed character creators at their Angels Night at the Century Plaza.

Chairwoman Ava Fries got her husband, Chuck, to sing “Charlie, My Boy,” as well as conduct the auction. Rosemarie and Robert Stack, Martin Landau and Diane Ladd assisted. Volunteer Judy Beckmen, with 17 years of devotion to the group, was presented the Guardian Angel Award. The party grossed more than $600,000.

* Peggy Ducommun Ward flew to New York to host a dinner at Mortimer’s for her nephew, Robert Ducommun, son of the late prominent Charles and Palmer Ducommun of the historic Los Angeles metals family.

It was investor Robert’s first marriage--on his 44th birthday--at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, so, naturally, he had 22 groomsmen, said Peggy.

The bride is Lynn Laporte Andrews, a widow. The couple will live in San Francisco, not far from Ducommun’s alma mater, Stanford.

* Las Madrinas hosted tea this week at the home of Maribeth Borthwick and proudly introduced 41 debutantes to be presented in December at Las Madrinas Debutante Ball. A large group of debutantes makes it that much easier to raise the enormous sums the group sets its sights on for Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles.

* Cocktails in the rose garden and tripping the light fantastic under an almost-full moon could have assured a “Fe^te Galante” for the trustees, overseers and the Society of Fellows and Junior Fellows last weekend at the sixth annual Arabella Ball at the Huntington Library.

But chairs Jeanie Kemp and J.D. Hornberger added flair--love notes in the wire baskets of peonies and lilies by Tommy Farmer. Patina, for a first course, served a towering salad of eight colors on the South Terrace of the Art Gallery. Until midnight the Mumm champagne was uncorked with abandon.

Planning carefully: Heidrun Mumper-Drumm, Brad Mohr, Laurie and David Turner and Hugh Ralston. In the crowd of 400: Molly Munger and husband, Stephen English; Charlie and Nancy Munger (a trustee); Tracy Simmons; Ruth and Ed Shannon.

* The reason the Prince of Asturias (Prince Felipe de Borbon y Grecia, third child of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain and the heir to the throne) visited the Petersen Automotive Museum as a guest of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is that he is slightly passionate about motorcycles.

And that’s why museum director Dick Messer and Bruce Meyer, car collector, presented him with a black leather motorcycle jacket and a funky-looking helmet painted with L.A. scenes by artist Frank Romero. The prince adored them and told Meyer he’d have to hide them from his father, a motorcycle devotee, too.

* Mary Lou Loper’s column is published Sundays.