Georgetown Celebrates the Royal Wedding and Supports Breast Cancer Organization

Washingtonians wore their finest hats and fascinators Thursday as they offered cheers to the Royal Wedding and raised funds for the Capital Breast Cancer Center (CBCC). All proceeds for the event at in Georgetown will benefit the CBCC, which offers breast cancer screening services to D.C. women, regardless of their ability to pay. The group is an initiative of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The event featured plenty of deep blue dresses a la Kate Middleton's engagement dress and hats galore. Guests, including Michelle Cross Fenty, enjoyed English food and could pose with cardboard cutouts of  Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Jennifer Harlow was a driving organizing force behind Thursday's event. As a member of the Young Professionals Advisory Council (YPAC) and a breast cancer survivor herself, Harlow said she came up with the fundraiser idea when discussing the royal wedding with a friend. She said she thought "how fantastic" it would be to get women together, dressed in their finest, wearing hats and supporting a women's cause.

The end goal, said Harlow is to raise "awareness of what they are doing for women in the area."

Claudia Gilmore was born in Georgetown University hospital and she had her mastectomy there years later at age 23. Gilmore is a breast cancer pre-vivor, meaning she decided to preemptively remove her breasts and go through reconstruction.

Gillmore had close to an 85 percent chance of developing breast cancer over the course of her life due to a dangerous mutation in her BRCA1 gene. She said she was "too young to die" and decided to undergo the procedure while she was younger. She has a blog and a team is producing a documentary about her experience.

Gilmore had great things to say about CBCC and said she "fell in love with the idea" of pairing the Royal Wedding with a fundraiser for the organization.