ATTENTION TO details large and small – from a total shutdown of local airspace to a ban on guests bringing their own cameras – enabled Chelsea Clinton to enjoy some semblance of a private wedding near a small town in upstate New York on Saturday.
On a glorious summer day, Ms Clinton (30) married investment banker Marc Mezvinsky (32), at the sumptuous 50-acre Astor Courts estate about 100 miles north of New York City.
Shortly after the ceremony, a statement from the bride’s parents and some official photos were released to the media.
The statement declared Bill and Hillary Clinton’s “great pride and overwhelming emotion” at the day’s events. The pictures revealed that the bride had worn a Vera Wang-designed dress; that her mother had opted for an Oscar de la Renta gown; and that Bill Clinton had met and surpassed his daughter’s request that he shed 15 pounds in preparation for the big day. Mr Clinton, aides told the US media, had lost more than 20 pounds through more exercise and reduced consumption of junk food.
The bride and groom met in their youth in Washington DC, where both of Mr Mezvinsky’s parents at one time served as members of Congress. His father, Ed Mezvinsky, was later convicted on fraud charges and served seven years in prison. The Mezvinskys are now divorced.
Much media hype had preceded the wedding, with a great deal of breathless reporting on possible celebrity attendees. In the end few A-listers showed up, with the guest list of around 500 people comprising instead largely personal friends of the young couple.
Hollywood husband and wife Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, longtime supporters of the Clintons, added some stardust to the occasion – though Danson drily apologised to the surrounding scrum of media that they seemed to be “the only celebrities in town”.
Persistent but erroneous rumours that Oprah Winfrey would attend had been seized upon with particular zeal by locals. A sign in the window of a beauty shop beseeched Winfrey to include the store’s soap among the “favourite things” that the chat show host selects once a year on her TV show.
With the exception of former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, the public figures who were invited were little known beyond the political cognoscenti. Among them were Terry McAuliffe, a veteran Clinton fundraiser and confidante, and congressman Anthony Weiner, who married Huma Abedin, a close aide to Hillary Clinton, earlier this summer.
Security was comparatively low-key around Rhinebeck. Passersby could wander into the Beekman Arms Inn where many guests were staying, and the main concern of one police officer seemed to be the failure of pedestrians to obey traffic signals. “I don’t want to have to write this many jaywalking tickets,” he lamented to a colleague.
Several members of one extended family were taking in the scene on the road leading up to the estate’s entrance. Norman Gastman (69), Harleigh Gastman (30) and Rachael Scorca (26) held up celebratory signs while seated at the bottom of Mr Gastman’s lawn. “It’s going to bring so much attention to the town,” Ms Gastman said. The message was enthusiastically endorsed by Nancy Amy, the executive director of the Rhinebeck Area Chamber of Commerce. Watching proceedings from her street-side office, she declared there to be a “huge upside” economically for the town – even as she parried a question as to whether she was a fan of the Clintons, politically-speaking. “We are huge fans of having this wedding here,” she said.
Mostly, the atmosphere was one of apparently sincere well-wishing. Evie Lyle, who grew up in the county, declared herself an admirer of Hillary Clinton “especially for showing what women can do” and added that Chelsea Clinton seemed “a brilliant young woman”. Dick Hermans, the owner of a local bookshop, Oblong Books, noted that he had not yet seen any great surge in business from the wedding, but still effusively praised the new bride.
“She’s shopped in town a couple of times without fanfare. She has had to come through a lot, not having the most normal childhood, and she still seems a very nice, down-to-earth person.”