Author's Note:
Many thanks to fellow fanfic readers and writers for following and/or favoriting my story.
Sorry for the hiatus in posting the latest installment. My writing muses have directed my attention to my other fanfic story, Finding a Way to Vermont, as well as working on work-related project.
I'm taking artistic license with Blair House in terms of access, use and staffing. In real life, Blair House is overseen by the Department of State's Office of the Chief of Protocol. It is fully staffed (which includes a doorman) and the staff becomes live-in where there is a dignitary staying at Blair House. In other words, planning a secret presidential wedding in Blair House would be just be challenging.
After Abby gave her press briefing to the White House press corps, she went back to her office to wait for the OPA gladiators so all of them could head over to Blair House to set up the war room for Operation Wedding Bells. Since Cyrus knew she was helping to plan the wedding, he offered to take care of press and media concerns or issues that came up unless involved a press briefing, in that case, she would need to go back to work.
Since the gladiators would be spending a fair amount of time at the White House to plan the wedding, she arranged with Cyrus for the gladiators to a have standing visitor pass so they wouldn't need to clear through security each time they came to the White House. Once they officially started working at the White House, the gladiators would officially have staff IDs.
There was knock on Abby's door and when she told the person to come in, it was the gladiators.
"Hey, guys," she greeted them warmly. "We are going to head over to Blair House now," she said as she got up from her desk chair. She put her coat and grabbed her handbag. The four of them exited the White House and headed across the street where Blair House was. Since the wedding was top secret, the four of them just made small talk how they celebrated Christmas as they made their trip to Blair House so their conversation didn't draw any attention.
When they arrived at the front door entrance of Blair House, Abby pulled out an electronic swipe card from her handbag to swipe them into the building. Cyrus arranged with security for Abby to have electronic access to the building under the guise Abby was working on a special project for the President and needed a private secure location to work on it.
Once inside, Abby guided the gladiators to the Truman Study where they would be meeting to do their "gladiator wedding planning." The room was named after President Harry S. Truman who used the room as his temporary office when he lived in Blair House while the White House Residence went through the Truman Balcony construction. Although Blair House also had a large conference room in the space, Abby thought the space was too big for their small group. Also, they were planning a wedding, which was an intimate happy event, a smaller intimate space would be more conducive for them to work in.
Abby had already arranged for notepads, pens, writing board on a stand, and dry ease markers brought over from the White House to Blair House for their meeting.
Once everyone was settled in, Quinn asked "Isn't Liv joining us?"
"Liv told me to start the planning meeting without her. She and Fitz are waiting for Karen and Teddy to arrive at the Residence for their visit and they want to tell them about them the news they were getting married."
Huck then asked "Speaking of breaking the news of their wedding, when will they be telling Mellie?"
"Liv mentioned something about asking Mellie to meet her at OPA tomorrow but both them will be there to break the news to her. They didn't want to ask her to come to the White House to get the news because it might rub salt into wounds. They figured OPA would be neutral territory," replied Abby. "All right, let's get started. Liv and Fitz have decided to have a late afternoon-early evening wedding, which means we will need to do cocktail reception plus a dinner. The idea is that we'll do the cocktail reception before the wedding and dinner afterwards. Since this wedding is a secret, we can't ask the White House kitchen to prep it…"
"How about an outside caterer?" asked Marcus. "My cousin is a caterer. Since this is a secret wedding, the ideal situation is the fewest number of people outside the guest list to know. I can arrange for my cousin to prep the food and I can pick up the food and bring it to Blair House. I'll tell her that OPA has a client and one of things we are doing is putting together a "no-fuss" buffet dinner with a cocktail reception. I just need to tell her what Liv and Fitz want to serve."
"Aren't we going to need servers and bartenders for the cocktail reception and dinner?" asked Quinn.
"You only need servers if you are doing passed hors d'oeuvres and a sit-down dinner. If you have appetizers presented on platters, the guests can self-serve, and if a dinner is a buffet, it can also be self-serve. But, will Liv and Fitz be ok with the idea of self-service for their wedding reception? We are talking about the President of the United States and the new First Lady standing in line and serving themselves dinner."
Abby replied "I think Liv and Fitz can handle slumming for one night as America's First Couple. Liv and I did talk about the issue of servers and if we were to have them, they would need to sign non-disclosure agreements. But, Marcus, if there is an alternative to having servers, Liv might be open to it and we wouldn't have to deal with non-disclosure agreements. We can talk about the idea of self-service cocktail reception and dinner buffet some more when Liv gets here."
"Won't we still need a bartender for the cocktail reception?" asked Huck
"We might not need a bartender for the cocktail reception if we limit the drink menu to wine, champagne and soft drinks for the kids. I'm willing to pour. I'm presuming we are having soft drinks since Fitz's kids will be there."
"Yeah, as well as Susan's daughter and Cyrus's daughter. I think Liz North's daughter might be there, too."
"Liz North is also invited, too?" asked Huck. Huck didn't trust Liz North because of her involvement with Andrew Nichols who had been responsible for Olivia's kidnapping.
"She has to be invited because of her position as the Susan's Chief of Staff," answered Abby. Abby was already concerned about telling Liz about the wedding since she was the person who leaked the White House photos of Olivia and Fitz to Sally Langston. Abby was thinking they would actually have to use the cover story of Fitz having a New Year's Eve get together at Blair House to get her to attend, and the invitation included her daughter. Liz would attend the get together as professional courtesy.
Marcus then added "If we do go with the self-serve route for the dinner, then we would need to set up a bar in the dining area so the guests so refill their glasses."
"Ok," said Abby as she wrote down the word "servers" with a question mark next to it on the writing board. She also wrote "type of food" with a question mark next to it. "When Liv gets here we can also ask her what kind of food they want and if the idea of self-service is acceptable. In terms of where we are getting the food, we have the possibility of Marcus's cousin. For the drinks, we can go the wine store to get the wine and champagne, and the soft drinks from the supermarket," said Abby. On the writing board, Abby wrote down the words "food" with "Marcus's cousin" next to it, and "drink" with "champagne", "wine", and "soft drinks" next to it.
"We are still going need to linens, plates, glasses, and silverware," said Abby. "I'll find out if we can use Blair House's items"
"Won't we need to wash up afterwards to hide the fact we had a wedding here? We may not want to be doing dishes after partying," said Quinn.
"We can do party rental," responded Marcus. "To maintain discretion, I can have my cousin order the party rental and I can also pick it up from my cousin. The great thing with the party rental is that we don't have to the dishes. After we are done, we just pack everything up and return it back to the company. Have Liv and Fitz decided their color scheme? We need to know this for linen rental."
"How do you know so much, Marcus?" asked Quinn. She didn't think Marcus's previous life as a community organizer would have made him an expert party/event planner.
"I worked for my cousin's catering business when things were at a low point after Mayor Verrano scandal. I also picked up stuff when I was a community organizer/activist and worked on planning fundraising dinner events."
"We'll keep that as a secret when you officially start working at the White House or you might find yourself planning those tea parties and state dinners," said Quinn.
"We'll ask Liv about color scheme," replied Abby as wrote down "color scheme" with a question mark next to it. Abby then wrote "party rental" on the board with "Marcus's cousin" next to it. "Your cousin's catering business is going to be the flow through operation for this secret wedding. You know, once we issue the official announcement about Olivia and Fitz being married, the White House can give your cousin and her catering business a special recognition for their contribution to the wedding."
"I'm sure she'll appreciate it," said Marcus happily. A special recognition from the White House would no doubt promote business for Janel. "What about the cake and flowers? You can't have a wedding without a cake and flowers."
"The cakes are handled," replied Abby. She was keeping her wedding cake contribution for the reception as a secret from everyone. "For the flowers, Liv will need a bouquet and Fitz and Cyrus will need boutonnieres. We'll need a floral arrangement in the sitting room where we will have the cocktail reception and wedding, and also one for the dining room where we'll have dinner. I don't suppose your cousin works with a florist?"
"Well, actually, we have another cousin who is a florist and he is the go-to guy for Janel. I can talk to Kevin about the flowers."
"How are you going to explain the need for a bridal bouquet and boutonnieres without it arousing suspicion?" asked Huck.
"I could say the special client we are handling is planning a secret wedding. No one needs to who the client is," replied Marcus.
"That might work. Liv and I talked about how the wedding would be paid for and she decided it would go through an OPA expense account to give the impression that it is an OPA business activity. Obviously, Liv and Fitz are using their personal monies to pay for it but they are dumping the monies into an OPA expense account."
Quinn then asked "What about Olivia's dress? She can't go out shopping for a wedding gown."
"Originally, I was thinking you and I would need to go shopping for her but believe or not, Olivia found a dress on the internet she liked," replied Abby. "I did give her some advice about wedding gown sizing based on my past personal experience. For some strange reason, wedding gown sizes run two sizes smaller than what is on the label. She ordered her dress on the day before Christmas Eve and is having shipped overnight which means it should be arriving at OPA today or tomorrow. She used a fake name to order the dress and I let her use my credit card to pay for the dress so that people don't link the two together."
Quinn was scanning the writing board before she said "I think we are going to need to rent a van to transport stuff around, or or does your cousin have a van we could borrow, Marcus?"
"I think it would be better if we rented a van, Quinn," said Huck. "If we are pretending that we are planning a secret wedding for a special OPA client, we should give the impression that we are doing it which means making expenses for the wedding."
Quinn responded back "I think you're right. So, do you think we are going to pull off having a secret presidential wedding on New Year's Eve?"
"We are cause we're gladiators," said Huck unequivocally.