America's Royal Wedding: (It's Chelsea Clinton's big day - just keep Dad away from the bridesmaids!)

By Kathryn Knight

Well-suited: Chelsea Clinton and her fiancé Marc Mezvinski met as schoolchildren but began dating five years ago


We all remember her as the curly-haired little girl who grew up in the White House.

But tomorrow a very glamorous Chelsea Clinton marries her long-term boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky in a no-expense-spared ceremony that has America gripped — and will set Daddy back a cool £3 million. Here is our guide to the big occasion.

THE HAPPY COUPLE

THE BRIDE: Named after the Joni Mitchell song Chelsea Morning, Chelsea has sought a life away from the spotlight. She lives quietly in a Manhattan apartment and is described as casual, modest and friendly (though they are not the first words that spring to mind with her nuptials).

She has blossomed from the gawky corkscrew-curled 12-year-old who entered the White House in 1992 into an assured young woman who has a strong relationship with both parents, even in the storm of her father’s adultery with Monica Lewinsky.

Ferociously bright, Chelsea studied history at the Ivy League Stanford University before taking a masters in International Relations at Oxford — where she reinvented herself with a sleek makeover, being named by Tatler as one of the world’s most eligible females.

In 2003 she returned to New York to work for management consultancy McKinsey & Company, and later a small hedge fund run by one of her father’s major supporters.

She’s now studying for a master’s degree in Public Health at New York’s Columbia University.

Despite hitting the campaign trail for her mother’s Presidential bid in 2008, Chelsea has made it clear she has no intention of following in her parents’ political footsteps.

THE GROOM: The couple have much in common. Not only is Marc Mezvinsky from a political family — they also come complete with their own scandal.

The son of former Iowa congressman Edward Mezvinsky and former NBC reporter and congresswoman Marjorie Margolies Mezvinsky, 32-year-old Marc was raised in Philadelphia with ten siblings.

Like Chelsea, he has also eschewed politics, although for less altruistic causes, swapping Capitol Hill for Wall Street, where he worked for investment bank Goldman Sachs, then a small hedge fund.

It appears to have brought great financial rewards. In February 2008 he bought a Fifth Avenue apartment for around $4million which he now shares with his fiance.

The couple first met as schoolchildren in Washington — Chelsea is said to have harboured a crush ever since — but although their paths crossed again at Stanford University, they began dating only around five years ago.


No expense spared: Chelsea's engagement ring is said to have cost $1million


The Clinton-Mezvinsky merger was announced — somewhat apologetically — shortly after Thanksgiving last year in an email to friends and family.

‘We’re sorry for the mass email,’ the joyous missive began, ‘but we wanted to wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving! We also wanted to share that we are engaged!

We didn’t get married this past summer despite the stories to the contrary, but we are looking toward next summer and hope you all will be there to celebrate with us. Happy Holidays! Chelsea & Marc.’

To celebrate, Marc paid for 70 family and friends to dine at Mari Vanna, an upscale Russian bistro near the couple’s New York apartment, where they enjoyed an elaborate spread of caviar, oysters and vodka.

THE RING: Chelsea’s emerald-cut diamond engagement ring is rumoured to have cost $1 million and was commissioned especially for her by her devoted fiance

THE VENUE
Chelsea and Marc certainly had no shortage of highly attractive offers when it came to choosing their venue.

President Obama offered the White House, while actor Ted Danson, a family friend, suggested his spectacular home and gardens on Martha’s Vineyard.

But the couple finally settled on Astor Courts, the 50-acre former estate of millionaire John Jacob Astor IV nestled on the Hudson river in Rhinebeck, about 90 miles north of New York City.

Around £400,000 has been spent on erecting the marquees, while a further £75,000 has been spent on the tables and crockery.


Luxury location: Final preparations are underway for Saturday's nuptials at Astor Courts in New Jersey


LET THEM EAT CAKE
Chelsea has ordered a £7,000, five-tier, gluten-free wedding cake.

Rumours abound, but flamboyant designer Ron Ben-Israel is hotly tipped to be the man tasked with the job.

He created the cake for the gay wedding in the film Sex And The City 2.

IF YOU THOUGHT BILL WAS BAD...The Clintons, of course, barely need an introduction. He was the super cool saxophone-playing President — and she came within a whisker of the Oval Office.

Together they’re the biggest power couple in the world. Rumours of their earnings have hit an eye-popping £70 million.

Hillary — or ‘MOTB (mother-of-the-bride) as she has taken to signing emails to friends — is said to have micro-managed every last detail of the nuptials, and Chelsea has instructed Bill to lose 15lb in order to look the part when he walks her up the aisle.

....MEET THE OUTLAW IN-LAWThe father of the groom is no stranger to to porky pies.

Ed Mezvinsky, now 77, was jailed in 2001 after pleading guilty to 31 counts of fraud, swindling friends and relatives out of millions in phony investments.

Prosecutors called him ‘a one-man crime wave’. After six years in prison, Ed was released in 2008 but remains on parole.


No strangers to controversy: Relations between Bill and Hillary Clinton and Edward Mezvinsky, who was jailed for fraud in 2001, are said to be cool


Divorced from Marc’s mother Marjorie, he is expected to attend the ceremony but not the reception.

Relations between the prospective in-laws are said to be ‘cool’.

BRIDE WARS
Local bride Emn Haddad-Friedman is also getting married this weekend at an historic house on the Hudson River and is furious that planned road closures and tightened security for Chelsea might ruin her own big day.


All grown up: Chelsea has come a long way from the curly-haired, awkward teenager who entered the White House with her family


BLOOMIN' LOVELY
THE bride’s bouquet is thought to be made up of cascading lillies and orchids and has been designed by celebrity florist Jeff Leatham. The theme will continue through to the reception —where, presumably, there will be rather a lot of them — as the bill is £320,000.

THE DRESS
Fashion pundits confidently predict the bride’s dress will be made either by Vera Wang or Oscar de la Renta and will be a simple, ivory design.
But simplicity doesn’t come cheap in the world of couture — her dress cost in the region of £20,000.

• Despite her father’s famous predilection for fast food, Chelsea has been a vegan for more than a decade and has instructed society caterer Olivier Cheng to provide vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free dishes for the wedding feast.

Happily for Bill, there will still be much to please those of a carnivorous bent, with grassfed, organic beef also on the menu. Wine is from the nearby and aptly named Clinton Corners, a vineyard just north of wedding venue Astor Courts. The catering is being done by three teams, at a rumoured cost of $1,500 (£1,000) a head.


Mother of the bride: Hillary Clinton, with an assistant carrying a large dress bag, carries out last minute preparations in Manhattan this week


• When your dad is the former President, arranging a flying ban over your wedding venue is no problem. Not only will the couple not be interrupted by the buzz of helicopter — but the paparazzi will won’t get a lucrative shot either. The rest of the security operation, which will include road blocks and sniffer dogs , will cost £160,000.

• Guests at America’s royal wedding aren’t going to visit any old loos now, are they? The bride has arranged for super de luxe portable loos to be shipped in especially, at a cost of £20,000. The air-conditioned cabins have heated seats, designer wallpaper and piped classical music.

• As Chelsea was raised a Methodist and her fiancé is Jewish, the couple are understood to be
having an ‘interfaith’ wedding, with both a minister and a rabbi presiding over the marriage
vows. U.S. chatterati are gripped by the question of whether Chelsea will convert to Judaism.


Flush with money: Portable toilets have been set up for the big day, at a cost of £20,000

• The pair have signed a detailed pre-nup — and in case Marc turns out to be like Bill, Chelsea is
said to have included a ‘cheat’s clause’ — which entitles her to £8 million if he is unfaithful.

WHERE'S MY INVITE?The American media is more interested in who has been snubbed than who is actually going.

President Obama has revealed that he wasn’t invited, as has former Vice President Al Gore.

Chelsea apparently insisted that she knew every single one of the guests personally which, with a 400-strong list, makes her a very sociable girl. Those who have been invited are likely to include: Oprah Winfrey, Barbra Streisand, Ted Turner, Steven Spielberg and our own John Major.

DON'T MENTION THAT CIGAR
ETIQUETTE TIPS FOR GUESTS:

DO SAY. ‘What a delightfully intimate family affair.’

DON’T SAY: ‘Anybody fancy a cigar?’

DO SAY: ‘Hillary, you are certain to be the first female President of the United States.’

DON’T SAY: ‘Got any interns working for you, Hillary?’

DO SAY: ‘Your children are a credit to you.’

DON’T SAY: ‘For God’s sake keep Bill away from the bridesmaids.’

source: dailymail