Wedding guests were not allowed to bring cameras to the ceremony, but a handful of official photographs have now been released to the news media, including the one above. View a slide show of Chelsea Clinton’s wedding.
As the ceremony concluded and the guests began milling around before dinner, a brilliant magenta sun began dipping beyond the Hudson. The day had been one of sparkling clarity, without a cloud in the sky, bathed in sunshine.
It’s official: Former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the secretary of state released this statement at 7:23 p.m.:
“Today, we watched with great pride and overwhelming emotion as Chelsea and Marc wed in a beautiful ceremony at Astor Courts, surrounded by family and their close friends. We could not have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate the beginning of their life together, and we are so happy to welcome Marc into our family. On behalf of the newlyweds, we want to give special thanks to the people of Rhinebeck for welcoming us and to everyone for their well-wishes on this special day.”
The interfaith ceremony will be conducted by Rabbi James Ponet and Reverend William Shillady. Ms. Clinton is Methodist and the groom, Marc Mezvinsky, is Jewish.
The family said the ceremony would celebrate and honor elements of both traditions. It would include friends and family reading the Seven Blessings, which are typically recited at traditional Jewish weddings following the vows and exchange of rings.
A friend of the couple planned to read the poem, “The Life That I Have,” by Leo Marks.A report from a media pen on River Road (where 10 reporters are stationed near 15 brown milk cows who are chewing on their dinner and taking in the whole scene): The final nail-biting minutes before the wedding are here. A caravan of guests are starting to arrive at Astor Courts. Several minutes ago, nearly a dozen vans filled with gussied up guests waved at members of the press as they journeyed down River Road to the site of the ceremony.
The caravan also included three black cars and a van that one state trooper said held Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has in the past referred to herself as M.O.T.B., or Mother of the Bride. Just seconds ago, two Suburbans, a Range Rover and a black Town Car sped down the road as if they were in a rush to an important date. The ceremony is expected to begin within an hour.
A few guests have started to emerge from their hotels in their gowns and tuxedos to be photographed before the buses take them to the Astor Courts estate. The paparazzi, joined by dozens of local residents and tourists, are trying to get a peek at the guests. They are peering through the cracks of a wooden fence and sticking their cameras over the top. Others with cameras have swarmed to another viewing area for a look.
As celebrity guests tried to catch lunch Saturday before Chelsea Clinton’s nuptials, they quickly found themselves outnumbered by reporters and photographers swarming through the center of Rhinebeck.
When word spread that Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state, was having lunch with Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, at Gigi Trattoria, locals and photographers crowded onto the sidewalk around the restaurant. As Vera Wang tried to enter the same restaurant with her husband, she found herself so overwhelmed by photographers that she never made it through the restaurant entrance. A few minutes after Ms. Wang’s frustrated departure, Ms. Albright left the restaurant, smiled at the crowd as people called her name and then Ms. Albright quickly left.
Down the block, the former president’s close adviser Douglas Band dined with his wife, Lily, along with the movie producer Steve Bing, Representative Anthony Weiner and Justin Cooper, a Clinton employee, at Foster’s Coach House Tavern before they were noticed by crowds.
Marie Clinton Bruno is here. Her grandfather and Mr. Clinton’s stepfather were brothers.
As she strolled past shops and inns through downtown Rhinebeck with her husband Gio on her way to get dressed for the wedding, Ms. Clinton Bruno talked about how she still couldn’t believe that Chelsea was getting married. Chelsea was a bridesmaid in her wedding at the Governor’s Mansion in Arkansas on Sept. 30, 1990, when Chelsea was ten years old. On her wedding day, Chelsea, who wore a pale pink dress, made sure that her now-husband Gio had the wedding bands and tended to the artificial flowers in her bouquet.
“She was just a wonderful bridesmaid,” said Ms. Clinton Bruno. “She’s just as wonderful today as she was back then.”
As Ms. Clinton Bruno strolled through Rhinebeck, she said the town reminded her of home.
“She’s made a wonderful choice. It reminds me of the Ozarks in Arkansas, except more chic.”
Ms. Clinton Bruno approved of Chelsea’s choice in a groom.
She said she did not attend last night’s rehearsal dinner. But she attended the cocktail party at the Beekman Arms Inn.Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, the actors and long-time family friends of the Clintons, were strolling hand-in-hand through this moneyed town on Saturday when a media scrum swirled around them like a sudden tornado.
“I’ve known her since she was a baby, so this is a big moment,” Ms. Steenburgen said sweetly of the former first daughter.
We’re here in Rhinebeck (who isn’t?), where Chelsea Clinton’s wedding is to take place tonight.
Ms. Clinton, the center of all the commotion, has been completely invisible to the media and onlookers at the gawkfest in the village of 2,800. The crowd brimmed Friday night with anticipation that she might appear at a cocktail reception after her rehearsal dinner, but she did not — at least as far as anyone could tell.
No details of the wedding itself have leaked, yet, nor have we seen the bride. But we have seen the father of the bride, twice, and the mother of the bride once. They gave a two-second wave to the cameras last night as they alighted from their van for an after-dinner party at the stately Beekman Arms, where many of the wedding guests are staying.
Former President Clinton, wearing a suit jacket and gray pants, had definitely lost weight, per Chelsea’s instructions. By cutting out junk food and exercising more, we were told, he actually lost more than 20 pounds, going five pounds further than his daughter had ordered.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton wore a flowing, floor-length green print dress, her hair was brightly blond and she was grinning broadly.
Mr. Clinton made his first foray into town earlier Friday, having lunch at Gigi Trattoria, a local eatery, where he skipped dessert. Curiosity and celeb fever had built to such a fever pitch here, where hundreds of news media and pseudo-media have been encamped for a week, that Laura Pensiero, who owns Gigi’s said Mr. Clinton may have made the appearance simply “to let some steam out of the kettle.”
We don’t expect to see the Clintons today, but the crowd is already gathering at the main intersection here in this subdued, moneyed town along the Hudson about two hours north of New York City. Tonight, the sky is expected to be set aglow by fireworks after Chelsea and Marc Mezvinsky, who works for a hedge fund, say their “I dos.”
The prospect of seeing the Clintons and any other celebrities has gripped residents, who uniformly describe “Chelsea’s weekend” as a “royal” event. Up to 500 people are expected to attend, and many of them wandered out of the Beekman last night in their evening finery to get a drink at Gigi Trattoria.
“I’m star-struck!” said Melodie Molinare, 50, the postmaster of Rhinebeck, as she stood on the packed street corner, held back by wooden police barricades. “I want to see them. I don’t have to touch them. I want to see Chelsea in her dress.”
Among those spotted going into the Beekman Friday included Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state, with Vernon Jordan, the well-known Democratic power broker. (Mr. Jordan is not a well-recognized figure up here, and one man in the crowd across the street identified Mr. Jordan as Hamilton Jordan, the late top aide to Jimmy Carter. (He spoke with such authority that he used Hamilton Jordan’s unusual pronunciation of his last name as “JER-don.”) Another identified him as Warren Buffett.)
One man in the crowd confidently identified another guest as Steve Madden, the shoe designer, who quickly raced inside the inn from a van. We have not been able to confirm that. He also identified another guest as Kobe Bryant, but we were told Mr. Bryant is not attending.
The father of the bride was true to form at the post-rehearsal-dinner party at the Beekman Arms, excitedly sharing his encyclopedic knowledge of the area. A middle-aged wedding guest, who declined to be identified, emerged from the inn after Mr. and Mrs. Clinton had left to report this: “He spent 10 minutes explaining the Revolutionary War and this town’s significance to me.”The vast majority of guests looked to be in their late 20s or 30s, perhaps college and work friends of the bride and groom. Perhaps they will be celebrities some day, but for now they can rest comfortably in their anonymity. They seemed to be a mixture of Arkansas and the hedge-fund world. One blonde in a ballooning yellow dress walked across the street to the gawkfest and took pictures of the locals, then had her picture taken with them, then posed with a bemused and very patient state trooper.
“We don’t know who we’re looking at,” one bystander complained. “My God, they all look like they’re in their 20s. They’re kids! Seriously, I want to see Oprah.”
Onlookers clearly had varied definitions of celebrity. While one local was excited about spotting Terry McAuliffe, former Democratic National Committee chairman and first friend, the celebrity spotting was less exciting for Rachel Squillante who lives in Manhattan but returned home to Rhinebeck for the weekend to catch a glimpse of some stars. Ms. Squillante, 24, and a friend had heard that Jennifer Lopez was in town. But the only big name guest they saw was Ms. Albright whom Ms. Squillante’s friend didn’t know.
A lot of residents were hoping to see Oprah Winfrey, Barbra Streisand, John Major and Steven Spielberg. But we have learned that they are not invited. Still, several locals insisted that Ms. Winfrey had been spotted at the Holy Cow, a nearby ice cream shop, on Friday.
The anticipation in the crowd last night reached such a frenzy that when state troopers lined up between the gawkers and the guests, a woman from an Italian television station yelled to one of the troopers to move. “We can’t see!” she said. He smiled.
Arlene Newman drove with two friends from Castleton, a small town near Albany, to get a glimpse of the former president and the bride. After eating dinner, they waited more than two hours across from the Beekman Arms hoping to spot them.
“We heard Bill was here today,” Ms. Newman said. “We love him. My mom is in a nursing home. She loves him. We wish them well. It’s royalty. It’s our royalty.” She added that until now Ms. Clinton had succeeded in keeping her life private. “They left her alone,” she said. “They didn’t hound her like Princess Diana.”
As Ms. Newman’s friends chatted about how beautiful Chelsea Clinton had become since her youth and reminisced how she led her parents across the White House lawn following the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Ms. Newman agreed. “Aye, yi, yi. I hope she has lots of babies.”
Earlier in the evening, a handful of local business owners raised some sparkling wine at the Blue Cashew Kitchen supply to toast the vows of Marc and Chelsea. Ms. Pensiero said that at lunch yesterday, Mr. Clinton arrived at her restaurant with his half-brother, Roger, and a half-dozen guests whom she believed were friends and relatives. She said the former president greeted guests, shook hands with the kitchen’s workers and filled the restaurant with so much “electricity in the air” that “nobody had much of an appetite.” She said that she thanked Mr. Clinton for having lunch there and “he thanked me for putting up with the chaos.” Ms. Pensiero’s catering business had already been busy all week delivering roughly 200 meals a day to different businesses working on wedding preparations.
Other businesses already had benefited from the boost in business. Maureen Missner, whose shop Paper Trail is believed to be helping to prepare the gift bags, talked about how different the feel of this wedding was compared to last year when the actor Griffin Dunne held his wedding in the area and local residents spotted celebrities like Hugh Jackman.
She said that comparing it to Mr. Dunne’s wedding put these festivities into perspective. “This is not a star-studded wedding,” said Ms. Missner. “This is clearly about the bride and groom.”
