WHO: Friends and Family of Lucy Lyon and Mikhail Nikolaev WHERE:National Museum of Women in the Arts WHEN: December 7 with the ceremony beginning at 3PM, dinner and reception to follow WHAT: Lucy and Mikhail are getting married! STATUS: IC/OOC
Taking place today at the National Museum of Women in the Arts is, of course, Mikhail and Lucy's wedding! The ceremony begins at 3PM and is taking place in the Great Hall and Mezzanine. It is darker, with lighting to allow people to find seats, but the aisle lit with candles and most of the lights focused up front to where the bride and groom will eventually be wed. The space is decorated primarily with shades of burgundy, with classy doses of gold hidden here and there. While waiting for the event to begin, a pianist played covers of popular music mixed with more traditional wedding songs (examples: 1, 2, 3, 4) before transitioning to just straight Canon in D when folks started down the aisle.
The ceremony will begin right on time, starting with the youngest of the Nikolaevs coming down the aisle. Though Alice was very serious about her role as flower girl, her younger sister and cousin weren't concentrating quite so hard; Yuri took off down the aisle at a run as soon as he saw his dad at the end of it, with Ava setting a meandering pace and mostly forgot to throw her petals before she noticed her mom and dad behind her, then backtracked to them. She did make it down the aisle eventually, on the hip of Alex, who was escorting Annie, the two of them as Best Man and Maid of Honor. It was all very cute, okay. The kids were eventually seated with their various grandparents and everything continued as expected, with Emilia and Jeb, then Zoya and Eli finishing off the procession of bridesmaids and groomsmen. Lucy was escorted after by her father, to give her away.
The ceremony was officiated by Jun! It wasn't a religious sort of event, so the ceremony itself didn't take very long all told, but did include written vows by the bride and groom. After all sorts of touching moments, they were pronounced husband and wife and you betcha Mikhail kissed his bride.
Following the ceremony was a cocktail hour, which took place on the Third Floor Gallery in the museum. The whole night has an open bar, with a pretty extensive array of liquor, as well as wine, champagne, and beer. There were also hors d'oeuvres available at this time, so there was plenty for people to nibble on while the Great Hall was rearranged and the wedding party and family took pictures. Because it's in the gallery, there's also art and the like to peruse -- plenty for folks to do while they're waiting.
Dinner took place in the Great Hall once more, which was rearranged with tables for seating. There was a seating chart, because everyone got to pick their meal ahead of time when they did their RSVP. There was a choice of steak, salmon, chicken, or pasta (as well as a vegan or gluten free option) and you can probably imagine that it was damn good, whatever you ended up picking. Expenses were not spared, especially when it came to food. 😉 During the dinner there were a few speeches, with immediate family and the wedding party passing around a microphone. Mostly, though, it was time for chatter, with the pianist playing quietly for background music once again.
After dinner, the layout of the Great Hall was swapped around a bit once more to make space for the reception and dancing. There were still tables for people to sit at, but the band set themselves up and soon enough it was time for the party portion of the evening. Hors d'oeuvres and desserts (cake was courtesy of For Goodness Bakes -- thanks, Calliope!) were still set up around the edges of the room, as well as the bar for drinks. People could socialize, dance, drink, eat -- whatever they wanted. The band was pretty good and did covers of a good mix of music, knowing when to do something upbeat so people could dance and slipping in plenty of slow dances in there, too.
As a note, this was not a small wedding by any stretch of the imagination. Lots of Lucy's relatives came across the pond to attend, as well as Mikhail's domestic relatives and their many colleagues and whatnot -- on top of the lovely people from Dunhaven that are invited, naturally, of which there are likely many. Among the non-Dunhaven sorts, Lucy's career brought in some government officials (primarily Dems) that some might have recognized, including Elizabeth Warren, because she worked for her for several years before joining Jun's team.
All that being said! Please feel free to comment below if your character came and plot as needed! They were pretty liberal with their invitations, so if your character knows Lucy or Mikhail or either of their families in any sort of way (dream connections included), feel free to assume that they were given an invite, even verbally. Also, they did reserve blocks of rooms at a couple of nicer hotels in DC for anyone that didn't want to drive back to Dunhaven; the rooms were heavily discounted, so people could potentially afford them despite being fancier places.
Lucia Lyon
Bride
Annie Nikolaev
Matron of Honor Friend of the Bride