Washington toasts 50 Most Beautiful honorees

Lawmakers, staffers and media gathered Wednesday night to toast The Hill’s 50 Most Beautiful honorees with an upscale summer barbecue at the LongView Gallery.

Mingling beneath paper lanterns and sipping summer cocktails, attendees eyed the winners from across the room. Past honorees met this year’s new faces, and many winners introduced their guests as “number 51.”

Nearly 300 Washington notables filled the gallery’s rooms, one of which featured a giant number 50 cut-out adorned with all of the winners’ best photos.

{mosads}Many media celebs attended, including Fox News contributor Michelle Fields, CNN Digital’s Matt Dornic and U.S. News’s Nikki Schwab. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and Neil Grace, communications adviser for the Federal Communications Commission, were also spotted at the party.

Some of the Most Beautiful knew they had the award in the bag, while others were pleasantly surprised to see their faces splashed across their colleagues’ desks and computer screens this morning.

Marsha Brogdon told The Hill that she had been relatively unfamiliar with the list until her coworkers greeted her this morning with an “OMG! Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I didn’t expect it,” Brogdon shrugged bashfully. “I didn’t know I was on until this morning.”

Some winners shared their quirks, such as Christopher “Gindy” Gindlesberger, who never wears socks because they “have a foothold on the fashion industry.”

Attendees feasted on spicy pulled chicken sandwiches, smoked beef brisket, summer salads and beer — provided by the event’s founding sponsor, the National Beer Wholesalers Association. The Congressional Federal Credit Union was the supporting sponsor for the party.

Partygoers also took photographs of themselves and their friends in a life-size Instagram frame.

“All of the men here are beautiful,” laughed Carri Twigg, the White House’s labor liaison, when asked which of the honorees she’d most like to meet. “So one of the single ones!”

Carl Ray, makeup artist to first lady Michelle Obama, said he’d like to meet with “Michelle and Barack Obama.”

“And I’ve already met them both!” he added.

“[Michelle Obama is] everything you’d think she’d be, and more,” Ray exclaimed. “She’s been such a mentor to me.”