Sunlen Mari Miller, 32, and Alexis Leigh Serfaty, 33, are to be married this Saturday at the Rose Park in Georgetown, where the couple first met, followed by a ceremony at the historic Anderson House. The couple met in 2006 in a very DC manner: during a campaign event for the DC City Council in Rose Park. The groom was there to support his best friend, a candidate, and the bride was there with her best friend, a dedicated supporter. “Who is that tall, handsome man?” Sunlen recalls thinking about Alexis, who was just as struck by Sunlen and promptly asked her out.
While on their first date at Firefly restaurant in Dupont Circle, Sunlen was surprised by how easy it was to talk to Alexis. “It was a flirty, sarcastic banter that challenged me. The challenge was intriguing and drew me in,” she says. The groom was smitten by Sunlen’s “beautiful curly hair” and charming competitiveness. As fate would have it, soon afterward, Sunlen was assigned to cover then-Senator Obama’s presidential campaign, a position that would keep her on the road for two years. Despite losing touch, the couple never forgot about their initial date, and following the end of campaign in 2008, Sunlen e-mailed Alexis for a “second first-date drink” at the Tabard Inn. They have since been inseparable.
Sunlen is a national correspondent for CNN Newsource. She is a 2003 grad of George Washington University and the daughter of Denise Miller, a marketing communications manager, and William Miller, a commercial arbitrator and mediator. Alexis is a native Washingtonian and a policy adviser at the Office of the Secretary, US Department of Transportation. He is a graduate of College of William and Mary (’02) and Sciences Po Paris (’04), and the son of Gail Serfaty, the former director of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the US Department of State and curator at the Blair House, and Dr. Simon Serfaty, a professor and eminent scholar at Old Dominion University and the Zbigniew Brzezinski chair in global security and geopolitics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In lieu of hiring a full-time event coordinator for their nuptials, the couple decided to stay involved as much as possible.“Our favorite part has been having the chance to explore our creative side together and to design a wedding that is truly reflective of our love,” says Sunlen. When the couple aren’t planning for their wedding, they enjoy the athletic activities that DC has to offer, such as playing tennis at East Potomac Park and running on the Great Rock trails and at the National Zoo, as well as attending Nationals games.
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