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Shirlene and Bob Elkins' Gulf-front Bay Colony home was transformed into a midsummer night's dream Friday evening, Spanish moss hanging from a tent filled with trees and lush bushes just feet away from waves pounding on the beach.

It's cocktail hour at the couple's Mediterranean-style, four-story mansion at Bay Colony in Pelican Bay and in just minutes, the dinner will begin. Elkins, chairman and chief executive of Monarch Venture Group, and his wife are co-hosting the party — part of the Naples Winter Wine Festival — with Robert A. Crown, founder and former CEO of Crown Castle International, and his wife Barbara.

In the living room, Nia, an orchid, stands atop a black and gold table in the living room, her arms moving in undulating waves as guests mill about, the sounds of a piano, muted trumpet and flute blending with conversation.

"I love the orchid," says Marsha Cole of Naples. "Whoever's inside that costume must be loving it, has to be loving it, to be doing that."

Waitstaff mingle, passing out champagne and hors d'oeuvres of potato au gratin with capers and cilantro.

Amid the loud hum of the exhaust over the stove in the kitchen downstairs chef Cindy Wolf readies the four-course dinner, in addition to appetizers and dessert with her husband and business partner Tony Foreman and their staff. Wolf and Foreman are partners in Charleston restaurant in Baltimore. Staff from the Ritz-Carlton and Epicurean Catering make sure everything is in order.

The most expensive item? Black truffles, at $800 per pound.

The festival's theme is nature's transformation and on Thursday afternoon, design staff from Garden District and Brinkman Goings Decorative Arts transformed the area under the 40-foot clear tent into a lush Florida rainforest.

Plants, grasses, large leaves and orchids surround a pond in the center of a table set for 35. Brown satin covers the table, which features mosaic plates with napkin holders sporting peacocks, owls, sparrows and other birds. Green and brown frogs grace the table and delicate silver frogs with crowns hold name cards.

Spanish moss hangs above, delicately lit by small white lights. Leaves are projected onto the tent's ceiling from a projector below, and amber lights shining up from eight potted live oaks make small dragonflies glisten.

It's time to head to dinner and the women are given a small drawstring bag for their shoes. Shirlene Elkins ushers them downstairs.

"So are you having fun yet?" she asks, as she urges guests to follow her out the front door and along a path lit with colored lanterns.

As they follow, something rustles alongside the home, where tall, leafy vines begin to move. Carolann Byron and Danielle Renfrow, who are on stilts and covered in leaves and grapes, burst into motion, their faces camouflaged with green and gold makeup. They're Divines and like Nia, a model, they work for Second Nature in Orlando.

The guests laugh, enjoying the scene. Some step back, startled. "Are you ticklish?" a woman asks, reaching out to touch one of the Divines.

As the guests walk into the garden, toward the fence, a keyboard player with John Bauer Band of Miami begins playing. Byron and Renfrow follow, blending in the potted plants at the tent's entryway, coyly peeking through.

The waitstaff line up the trays of appetizers, a vegan version for Barbara Crown, who shuns meat, dairy and fish. One-by-one, they carry out the trays. Shirlene Elkins taps one of the eight wine glasses at her place setting, getting everyone's attention. And the dinner begins.