Mikele and Martin's Wedding

It's on a Sunday morning; the coming Monday is a holiday specially declared for the event. Concern, declared or silent, for the state of the king has injected a hint of a somber mood into what otherwise would most likely have been an enormous three-day party. Still, despite the serious undertones, there's a noticeable festive air to the city.

There are numerous churches, chapels and similar sites in the city of varying age and historical or religious significance, but there's really only one proper cathedral; a large, gorgeous structure of flying butresses, stained glass, and intricate (and peculiar) carvings.

Present (mostly seated up towards the front) were a great array of dignitaries, including:

Vialle, Queen of Amber
Princes Benedict, Julian, Gerard, and Caine of Amber
Queen Moire and crown Princess Mirelle of Rebma
Llewella, Princess of Amber and Rebma
Princesses Florimel and Fiona of Amber
Duchess Belissa Hendrake of Chaos

Eventually, everyone was seated. It's a fairly standard western sort of ceremony. It's unclear whether the Martin's outfit is modern, mideveal, or neither, but in either case it's an ivory or cream color, with a good deal of a purplish color and gold highlights. It looks fine at worst on it's own, and looks very good with the Mikele's wedding dress; it's a similar (identical?) ivory color with large amounts of gold and plum embrodery and is quite striking. She's also wearing a necklace and earrings (also purple/plum).

Benedict gives the bride away; they're led through standard vows ("...love, honor, and cherish..."; hm, Mikee probably ought to remember more of that but doesn't :), are pronounced man and wife, and kiss for perhaps a moment longer than is strictly necessary.

Afterwards, there are parties of one sort or another all over the city (officially kicked off by the ringing of church bells). The two most interesting of these are one thrown by Flora, nominally targeted towards people going to Merlin's reception after the Chaos wedding who need something to do in the meantime; and a rather hurried sort of lunch reception for those who have to rush off to chaos to get to the wedding there on time (Mikele and Martin, in particular, only had a few minutes leeway).

Within an hour or so after the Amber wedding, there's one in Chaos.

It's a somewhat smaller affair; most of the guests there are family of Mikele's (Hendrakes) with the occasional guest from Sawall and a few from other houses. The other exception, of course, is a handfull` of younger Amberites (none of the elders attend this ceremony) and a few people from shadow.

It has a somewhat different tone that the Amber ceremony; it's long and more than a little complicated. While it's serious, the guests seem more relaxed, and many of them aren't even trying to follow the whole thing in detail - a policy that becomes more understandable once things have gone on for an hour or so with no real signs of abating... it rather has the feel, at least to those not familiar with it, of several dozen different ceremonies that at some point in the distant past were merged together in an attempt to offend no-one, but which have since fused or tied together into an intricate and confusing knot... There's eating and drinking, vows, candles being lit and carried in or away, several costume changes... Mikele ends up in a dress that's a little less intricate than the heavily embroidered white dress from the Amber ceremony, mostly purple with the trimmings/underskirt in ivory and gold.

Eventually, though, by some vague internal logic of its own, the ceremony draws to a close and the marriage is pronounced. After a few minutes, a large trump? gate to the reception is provided by Merlin.

Dalamar does, in fact, show up at the weddings (with Felicia). He's wearing gray... at least, he was in Amber. Once you're to chaos, it seems as though the color of his clothing is changing every time you look away from it...

Shortly after the wedding in Chaos, there's a reception, on Earth, hosted by Merlin and attended by guests from both Amber and Chaos.

It's in a very large and elegant hall; there are tables of varying sizes laid out (from 8-person down to two-person tables) and a large dance floor. There's food carried about that's not quite a full dinner, and of course drinks. The band and servers appear to be locals, though they seem strangely (or just professionally) oblivious to any oddities of this particular gathering.

Most of the diginitaries from either wedding show up, at least briefly. In addition to them, a few other major figures of note show up:

A youngish (mid-twenties??) brunette said to be Flora's daughter Rachel.

Cannell Swayhill of Chaos is there as well, and appears to be socializing quite amicably, seemingly unconcerned; although he does end up with Flora, of all people, yelling at him (in French?) and then storming away after they talked for a few moments.

There's a lot of dancing. Mikele, in particular, in-between numerous dances with Martin, manages to dance with everyone from a young boy (8? 10? - he's not immediately recongnizable) to Benedict. Martin spends more time talking when he's not dancing with Mikele.

Of course, the real dramatic point in the dancing comes when Keverian calls for a tango and asks Dara to dance with him. A few moments later, Merlin and Rina join them on the dance floor... all four of them are very, very good, if perhaps showing off just a bit too hard...