ScheduleSchedule

Cocktail HourCocktail Hour

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Black Tie

ReceptionReception

7:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Black Tie

Kindly select one entrée for dinner.

Historic Happenings at the WillardHistoric Happenings at the Willard

11:30 pm

~not an actual event~

- In 1830, Kentucky Statesman Henry Clay introduced the Mint Julep for the first time outside of Kentucky at the Round Robin Bar. It’s now the hotel’s signature drink! - On February 23, 1861, amid several assassination threats, detective Allan Pinkerton smuggled Abraham Lincoln into the Willard; there Lincoln lived until his inauguration on March 4. - In 1869, Ulysses S. Grant popularized the term “lobbyist.” Often bothered by self-promoters as he sat in the lobby and enjoyed his cigar and brandy, he referred to them as “lobbyists.” - In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. sat in the hotel lobby with his closest advisors to make final edits to his famous “I Have a Dream” speech just hours before delivering it on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. - Many United States presidents have frequented the Willard, and every president since Franklin Pierce has either slept in or attended an event at the hotel at least once; the hotel hence is also known as “the residence of presidents.”