The daughter of former president Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton never ran for president herself, but her wedding has become the latest subject of media frenzy anyway, from the event's big price tag (estimated at $3 million to $5 million) to the designer dress Chelsea may wear (Is it Vera Wang?). This week, the gossip site TMZ even reported that the event would include $15,000 porta-potties.
But family and friends of the Clintons have been tight-lipped about Saturday's wedding. Not even President Barack Obama has access to the event.
"I was not invited" to the wedding, Obama declared on ABC's "The View."
The president added that it was probably better that the focus be kept on the daughter of the former president. "Hillary and Bill, properly, want to keep this as a thing for Chelsea and her soon-to-be husband," he said.
That lack of access doesn't seem to bother residents of Rhinebeck, the small town in upstate New York where the nuptials between Clinton, 30, and banker Marc Mezvinsky, 32, are scheduled to take place. The town is buzzing with excitement as guests pour in and is reportedly draped with signs congratulating the couple.
"People will say, 'Oh, let's go to Rhinebeck, Chelsea Clinton got married there,'" local coffee shop owner Ira Gutner told The Associated Press. "We'll forever be known for this."
"It's very exciting," Jinnel Rittel, owner of a local boutique, told CBS. "These are big people!"
Reporters, too, have Chelsea Clinton wedding fever and have flooded into Rhinebeck -- but they are finding it difficult to get anyone invited to, or even involved in, the wedding to speak to them.
Chelsea Clintons Wedding
Former President Bill Clinton walks his daughter down the aisle at her wedding ceremony on Saturday in Rhinebeck, N.Y. Chelsea Clinton married longtime beau Marc Mezvinsky in an interfaith ceremony at an exclusive estate on the Hudson River.
The bride wore an ivory colored strapless Vera Wang dress with a bejeweled waistband. The pair read aloud a brief love poem, "The Life That I Have," by Leo Marks, the late British codebreaker, according to The Associated Press.
The couple met as teenagers in Washington in 1996, and later attended Stanford together. They now live in New York, where Mezvinsky works at G3 Capital, a Manhattan hedge fund. Clinton recently received a master's degree, her second, in public health at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
The couple chose to wed at Astor Courts, an opulent private Beaux-Arts mansion on 50 wooded acres just outside the village of Rhinebeck.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton pose with the couple. "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," Bill and Hillary Clinton said in a statement. Click for more photos from the wedding weekend.
That's not to say they haven't tried. Last week, two Norwegian journalists were arrested for trespassing on the grounds of the Astor Courts estate outside Rhinebeck, the former mansion of Jacob Astor where the reception is to be held Saturday.
But the Clintons seem to have succeeded in keeping the event a private affair. Even the airspace above the wedding is off-limits, for example. The Federal Aviation Authority announced today that it has temporarily closed the airspace around Astor Courts, according to Agence France-Press.
For weeks, details of the wedding have been so closely guarded that some in Rhinebeck began to wonder whether the wedding was really taking place in the town at all.
Others say the media frenzy is a bit unfair for a couple who aren't themselves public figures.
"So what if the former president's daughter, a decade after leaving the White House, wants her privacy?" Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz wrote today, in a satire of reporters' overzealousness. "Tough luck, sweetie. You're getting hitched, and the public has a right to know. Besides, we've got newspapers to sell and TV programs to promote."
Chelsea Clinton Through the Years
Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton is set to marry longtime beau Marc Mezvinsky Saturday in what's been dubbed the "wedding of the decade." Here, the couple attend the 5th Annual Clinton Global Initiative in New York in September. Click for a look at Chelsea Clinton through the years.
Chelsea Clinton Through the Years
Press-shy Chelsea Clinton stepped into the spotlight to campaign for her mother during Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential bid. Here, she appears with then-Sen. Clinton during the Democratic National Convention in August 2008, after Barack Obama had clinched the nomination.
Chelsea Clinton Through the Years
Clinton recently received a master's degree, her second, in public health at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. She has worked at a consulting firm and a hedge fund in New York and serves on the board of the School of American Ballet. Here, she attends a School of American Ballet event in March 2007.
Chelsea Clinton Through the Years
Clinton graduated with honors from Stanford University in 2001 with a degree in history. She then moved to England and earned a master's degree in international relations from Oxford. Above, she poses for a photo at Oxford in October 2001.
Chelsea Clinton Through the Years
Clinton has remained a devoted daughter through her parents' political and personal highs and lows. Here, the college freshman holds her parents' hands as the family leaves for vacation in August 1998 during the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.
Chelsea Clinton Through the Years
Clinton sits with Mezvinsky in Hilton Head Island, S.C., in December 1996. Mezvinsky is son of former U.S. Reps. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky of Pennsylvania and Ed Mezvinsky of Iowa. The young couple met as teenagers in Washington in 1996, and later attended Stanford together. They now live in New York, where Mezvinsky works at G3 Capital, a Manhattan hedge fund.
Chelsea Clinton Through the Years
Then presidential candidate Bill Clinton talks with 12-year-old Chelsea before a rally in Hot Springs, Ark., in 1992.
Chelsea Clinton Through the Years
Chelsea shares a private moment with President Clinton at the White House in 1993. Chelsea's entire teenage years were spent in the White House.
Chelsea Clinton Through the Years
As a youngster, Chelsea excelled in school and took an interest in drama and ballet. Here, then Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and 6-year-old Chelsea leave the voting booth after the governor cast his vote during the Democratic primary in Little Rock, Ark., on May 27, 1986.
Chelsea Clinton Through the Years
Chelsea Victoria Clinton was born on Feb. 27, 1980, in Little Rock, during her father's first term as governor. She was named for one of her parents' favorite songs, Jon Mitchell's "Chelsea Morning." Here, the Clintons admire week-old baby daughter Chelsea on March 5, 1980. (Sources: AP, CBS News)
