RHINEBECK, New York, July 31 (AFP) - After an intensely secretive build-up Chelsea Clinton and her hedge fund manager beau were to marry today at a star-studded wedding outside New York.
Former Democratic president Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were to attend their daughter's big day in Rhinebeck, a quaint rural retreat for New York's elite.
Other details were kept secret right to the eve of the nuptials in an extraordinary effort to ensure privacy for Chelsea, 30, and husband-to-be Marc Mezvinsky, 32.
 |
| Chelsea and and husband-to-be Marc Mezvinsky. Below: The Clintons arriving in Rhinebeck for the wedding |
 |
The news blackout has fed a media frenzy, with news teams flooding tiny Rhinebeck to cover what's variously been dubbed the wedding of the decade, century, millennium, or just plain royal.
Ceremonies were set to take place at the grandiose Astor Courts house in a wooded area near Rhinebeck. Paparazzi sneaked pictures over the last few days of tents being erected on the grounds next to the elegant white building.
Astor Courts, a Beaux Arts pavilion that sits on 50 acres (20 hectares) of land. It was commissioned more than 100 years ago by John Jacob Astor IV, who died on the Titanic, and was designed by Stanford White, architect to the 19th-century robber barons.Security tightened rapidly as the wedding day approached and the airspace over Astor Courts was declared a no-fly zone. Local road access was also due to be restricted.
Locals were on the lookout for celebrities among the expected 400 to 500 guests at the wedding.
Bill Clinton, looking trim after having been instructed by his daughter to lose weight, arrived in Rhinebeck and briefly met crowds Friday, offering warm words for his future son-in-law. “I admire him. Hillary feels the same way,” he said.
Guests were given strict instructions not to disclose their invitations and were only told in the final run-up where to go.
President Barack Obama won't be there -- he says he wasn't actually invited and that in any case two presidents would be one too many at a wedding.
Estimates by wedding planners have put the likely cost of the bash at anything between three and five million dollars.
NBC television reported that just the air-conditioned tents will cost 600,000 dollars and the flowers -- arranged by florist-to-the-stars Jeff Leatham -- half a million.
The sumptuous and exclusive occasion has raised eyebrows in some quarters at a time when Obama and the Democrats are under populist attack ahead of Congressional midterm elections and the economy continues to struggle.
Chelsea met her future husband when she was a teenager attending a retreat for Democrats. |
E-mail
