2023 Wedding of Princess Aurelia bint-Damir and Atif Qalb

On the 1st of October, 2023, **Princess Aurelia bint-Damir and Prince Atif ibn-Walid married**. The grand celebrations were held in Malakiard near Larsa.

As typical for transcultural Selkie-Kyrenaian Weddings, two religious ceremonies were held, one in the Sacred Grove of the Sand Wolf in Malakiard, officiated by Mona Beag of the Tribe of Louth, the Envoy of Lodan Lir, the other, major one, in the Grand Temple of Ischthar was officiated by Aurelia Maswuwl. The Reception afterwards was held in the Malakiard Convention Center.

The wedding received a lot of international attention, mainly due to the sheer amount of international guests, both friends of the bride and groom and diplomatic ones, as well as due to how massive the celebration was.

The RP, also known as *Tying knots and knotting bonds*, has its OOC here, the IC here.

## Preparations

### The Royal Tent City and the other three Tent Cities

For the celebrations, for tent cities were set up, one, the Royal Tent City, acting as the guest area for guests of state.

The Royal Tent City, an enclosed campus protected by Police Special Forces, is composed of a number of small prefabricated luxury apartments with cloth cover centered around a large square with a large fountain in the middle. Completely solar powered, with satelite uplinks in every tent, the installation is meant to stay as a novelty hotel for visitors to the area.

Meanwhile, the other three tent cities were far less luxurious and supposed to become youth hostels or cheap hotels afterwards, but generally being the same affair.

Investors for two of the four tent cities have already been found, both of them going to Qalb Hotels (no connection to the groom - seriously).

### Arrival of the Guests of State

While the majority of the flights were landed in Utica International, with the Flight Readiness then transporting the guests to Malakiard, Yachts were received in Motya, including their escorts. There, the crews were invited by the Sultana to spent the wedding day with a celebration of their own. Visiting vessels were invited to conduct open door days, a few of which took the offer.

The only major exception to that was *SDFS Rhiannon*, which escorted their charges, various yachts and cruise ships, the latter carrying the horsemen for the horsemen escort and their horses, to Avaris in the Ilkhanate of Megido.

### Broadcasts

KBC ran two broadcasts, one in Kyrenaian, one in English - the latter was designated for the TV-Stations, who wanted to broadcast, but who did not have the means to set up their own studio and teams, be it because of a lack of funds, experts or simply will. The English broadcast was also streamed for free.

### Arrangements for civilian guests

Due to days in Malakiard being still hot at the beginning of October, hydration was a major concern during the planning stages. To that end, the Fire Department of Malakiard mobilized several of their fire engines to drive along the parade route in regular intervals to spray onlookers with water. Members of the Horseman Team of the Belresunu Boys' High School of Malakiard also rode along the parade route and freely distributed water bottles.

As the street festivals began in the afternoons, the law about all opened restaurants having to hand out water to anyone asking for free was honoured.

The Rural Police of the Khanate of Khond set up several stations all over the city, where people feeling unwell could turn to for treatment. As these usually also included a helicopter landing spot, the transport of severe cases was also arranged. The Malakiard General Hospital was on standby and the Voluntary Fire Department bolstered numbers considerably, including with First Responders.

Several of the helicopters were flown by members of the Astarian Royalty, who had previously escorted their Emperor and Empress and other nobility. This had been arranged long before the event and the pilots were assigned a Kyrenaian co-pilot.

## Proceedings

### Dawn: The Selkie-Wedding

The Selkie-Wedding, officiated by Mona Beag of the Tribe of Louth, was held in a small, familiar circle, with Prince Damir ibn-Razia, Princess Yasmin bint-Atif, as well as the groom's parents and siblings in attendance. Only a few photographs, made by Prince Damir, exist.

### Morning: Parade

For the wedding, the guests needed to be transported the seven kilometers from the Royal Tent City to the Grand Temple. Instead of busses or similar arrangements, the transport was organized in true Selkie-Fashion, with the guests either riding their own horses (the Rural Police Department of Munjam, in the Khanate of Tanin, offered to lend horses to interested parties) or in a carriage. The Marcach-Guild of Redruth was approached to and did organize professional and not-so-professional Marcach as escorts, in full resplendent armour.

Close friends of the bride and groom were allowed to bring their own escorts, but they were all placed under the command of the 'leader' of the Marcach present, 'General' Crixus Oliunoir of the Tribe of Tralee. Most famously, that offer was taken up by the Emperor and Empress of the Empire of Astares Amauricanum, Emperor Adrean and Empress Anna being escorted by a number of their friends.

Several wedding guests, among them Razia-Sultana, were escorted by the Order of the Tabardariyya. Kyrenaian escorts in general played a decent part, including students of the Kassaia Girls' High School of Malakiard, the Haram Girls' Academy and the Tabar Boys' Academy.

In total, well over three thousand horses and a little bit less then three thousand horsemen, participated in the parade.

The guests were received at the Grand Temple by Prince Damir ibn-Razia, the Father of the Bride, and the Parents of the Groom. Princess Yasmin bint-Atif was notably absent on her own insistence - she was the *step*mother of the bride, who's actual mother, Marla Taistealaí of the Tribe of Louth, died in a riding accident many years ago. However, Prince Damir was accompanied by his sons, Prince Dschafar ibn-Damir and Adil Kayin. By the time the first carriage, carrying Donald Críonna of the Tribe of Louth, arrived, the minor guests, for example schoolmates of the bride and groom and minor Kyrenaian Nobility, which would not participate in the Reception, had long since arrived and been seated.

Upon entry, every foreign guest was provided with a in-ear monitor, which was connected to a Handmaiden, which would lead the foreigners through the ceremony, translate and explain. Veroniek vu Elsàss, Princess of Alzatia, was provided with a special connection in German, due to her lack of knowledge in English.

#### Guests of State and transport arrangements

*The list of player characters can be found here*

### Early Midday: The Kyrenaian Wedding

The Kyrenaian Wedding was held at the Grand Temple of Ischthar and was officiated by Aurelia Maswuwl.

### Afternoon: (State) Reception

Upon his own request, Mayor Damir Eumda, the mayor of Malakiard, stayed away from the celebrations.

#### Food

The Service Staff at the reception was led by the Head-Handmaiden of the Altinyarat-Palace, Lyra Tasarabat, supported by the head of the office staff of the Altinyarat-Palace, Siana Waraq. The local Handmaiden Corps, around a dozen Kyrenaian Handmaidens, were reinforced by Handmaidens of the Palace of the Azure Hall, the Palace of the Ruby Hall and the Muaqab Palace, plus various Personal Handmaidens of guests. Furthermore, a number of Selkie-Handmaidens and Teressian Hausmädchen (one of them being Leovigild Guude) were used to bolster the ranks. An offer by Princess Maja to detach a few Häschen of the Kuddelmuddel Club for the ocasion was declined gracefully, though a small group of Bunny Girls was still sent as moral support to Camp Liam.

In serving the food and drink, a bar team from the Darqaeidin-Palace was brought in.

Food for the reception was prepared by several dozen chefs in a dozen culinary traditions. From Kyrenaia, cooks of the Palace of the Azure Hall and the Qasrjabal were loaned to the Altinyarat-Palace.

The Cult of Lodan Lir allowed a group of cooks led by Alaina Uinér of the Tribe of Laois to cook for the wedding guests - while of the two dozen cooks the group brought along, 18 were detached to Camp Liam, the remaining half dozen did their work in the Convention Center.

Half a dozen cooks from Teressien and Auwalt each put their cuisines to the test. With special permission and additionally to her wedding gift, Ada von Wißenthen had a further pair of cooks from Schloss Reiherbucht sent to reinforce the group. The Teressian cooks were from Schloss Hochheyde, the wedding gift of Fürst Alrich III. and Enya Findehoof.

To general surprise, Isnardo Boscar also brought a culinary wedding gift, though not in the form of chefs, but in the form of wine - several caskets of wine from CCVF-Stocks were brought in.

Another arrangement was made by Mari Kairui, who brought in two ancient Okunarutsuran cooks.

A Jalidi cook prepared buffet dishes of his homeland.

As per tradition, the Handmaidens were released upon the leftovers once the reception had taken its course - both the leftovers from the buffet and of the bar.

#### Sandwich List

Sandwiches were served as part of the buffet - aside from the raw breadrolls and the Käsetopf, a good number of breadrolls were cut open and filled with various things. The Faicini, Selkie Honey Rolls, Spelt Breadrolls, Weizenzeilen, Fürstensemmeln, Olibani, Dunkelsemmeln and Potato Bread were used for various combinations.

Leovigild Guude attended that part of the buffet in case of questions regarding culinary concerns.