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George Lucas-Mellody Hobson Wedding Party Prep Awes Hyde Parkers

By Sam Cholke | June 27, 2013 7:37pm
 A massive stage and tent are being erected at Promontory Point for a party celebrating the wedding of filmmaker George Lucas and Chicago's Mellody Hobson.
Promontory Point Mystery Event
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HYDE PARK — The Millennium Falcon has not arrived at Promontory Point yet, but dozens of bouquets of purple hyacinths and calla lilies arrived Thursday for George Lucas and Mellody Hobson.

A steady stream of Hyde Parkers visited the lakeshore park off 55th Street Thursday to watch a crew of more than 100 workers prepare for the Saturday wedding reception.

Lucas, the director of “Star Wars” and other films, and Hobson, president of Chicago-based Ariel Investments, were married last weekend in California and are planning a massive reception in Chicago at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Construction started late Sunday and by Thursday a $100,000 tent the size of a football field was complete and workers were busy building four 30-foot walls covered in boxwood branches that may be part of the main entrance to the event.

Crews were finishing the final connections for a $60,000 light display and florists from Los Angeles, Nashville and Chicago were arranging hundreds of purple hyacinths, freesia, calla lilies and other flowers for displays as five-gallon buckets of red roses waited to be prepped.

Many working on the flowers and other preparations had no idea who the event was for and those from Los Angeles said such parties are extremely common in California and rarely the source of gossip.

The party at the Point charged the rumor mills in Hyde Park as speculation grew heated about who was hosting the event prior to an unnamed source who was invited revealed Lucas and Hobson Wednesday.

The Chicago Park District has repeatedly declined to respond to questions about the event.

A second smaller tent went up Thursday and crews continued to make preparations in the late afternoon, many grumbling that it would all have to be torn down before the Fourth of July.

The details of the festivities remain a popular topic at the shops and bars in Hyde Park, where the presiding rumor is that a private fireworks display will be lit off over the lake sometime Saturday night.