Chelsea Clinton to Marry Marc Mezvinsky Today -- At Last

It's ClintVinsky wedding day and counting.

After weeks of erroneous rumors, wild speculation and breathless media coverage, Chelsea Clinton, 30, is within hours of marrying longtime beau Marc Mezvinsky, 32, amid a very heavy veil of secrecy.

Congratulations!! Mazel Tov!! Hooray!!

Some 400 guests -- or is it 500? -- began arriving Friday in Rhinebeck and other nearby Hudson River Valley towns for what has been described as everything from the wedding of the millennium (puh-leeze) to the wedding of the year (much better).

The bride is the only child of former President Bill Clinton and current Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. She was seen as the vital link between her parents during the darkest hours of the Monica Lewinsky White House sex scandal, and as the awkward, frizzy-haired adolescent who blossomed into lovely, dignified adulthood.

The groom is one of 11 biological and adopted offspring of a pair of former Democratic House members: Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky of suburban Philadelphia, and her then-husband Edward Mezvinsky, originally from Iowa but now living in New York state after serving five years in federal prison for a $10 million fraud scheme.

The four parents were close friends during the 1990s (Margolies-Mezvinsky lost her seat after one term for supporting Clinton's 1994 budget). Their kids met in Hilton Head, S.C., during the annual policy/spirituality/wonkfest retreat known as Renaissance Weekend. They were devoted teen friends in Washington, and Marc, who now works for a Manhattan hedge fund, helped persuade Chelsea, who recently got her master's degree in public health at Columbia University, to attend Stanford University. He was a senior when she was a freshman. About five years ago, they began dating, and announced their engagement to friends during Thanksgiving, via e-mail.

On Friday afternoon, Bill Clinton, who seems never to have met a living, breathing human being whose hand he did not want to shake, glad-handed townsfolk and visiting gawkers after lunching with his half-brother Roger at a local Italian eatery. Casually dressed in jeans and a black polo shirt, he appeared to have lost most, if not all, the 15 pounds Chelsea asked him to shed before her Big Day.

The rehearsal dinner was held Friday night at a stone barn on the nearby Grasmere estate, followed by an after-party at the Revolutionary-era Beekman Arms and Delamater Inn, where some of the guests are staying. Among those spotted were former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Democratic powerbroker Vernon Jordan and his wife, Ann.

Not surprisingly, Rhinebeck, an affluent, once-quiet enclave of those with old and new money, has been overrun by tourists and media in recent days.

Today's ceremony will be held under an elaborate, windowed tent at Astor Courts, a 50-acre estate with a sprawling Versailles-inspired "sporting pavilion" completed in 1904 and meticulously transformed into an elegant residence three years ago. Originally commissioned by John Jacob Astor IV and designed by Gilded Age architect Stanford White, it sits on a bluff with magnificent views of the Hudson, a perfect backdrop for post-nuptial fireworks.

Better yet, it is sufficiently secluded at the end of a long, wooded drive to allow the Secret Service, local and state police to keep crashers at bay. The Federal Aviation Administration is temporarily closing off airspace to any craft flying below 2,000 feet in the area (take that, paparazzi). Several nearby roads will also be off limits to all but invited guests. Countless political heavyweights and big campaign donors were left off the list because Chelsea insisted only those people she and her beloved personally know be included.

The Clinton family is said to be staying at Astor Courts (note: guest bedrooms have much better river views than the master suite, which is just steps from the Mediterranean-styled indoor swimming pool). It's unclear whether anyone will take advantage of the indoor clay tennis court during the weekend.

Like everything else relating to this wedding -- cost estimates now range from the high six figures to somewhere near $3 million -- all statements about the event, including who is designing the gowns for Chelsea, Hillary and bridesmaids, should probably end with a question mark, not a period. (Where is Julian Assange and WikiLeaks when we really need them?)

In my long journalism career, I can't recall hearing as many reporters publicly uttering the phrase "we really don't know (fill in the blank)" before launching into speculative riffs about subjects as disparate as menus (we're told Chelsea is a vegetarian, or is it vegan? and suffers from gluten allergies); where the bridal couple is registered for gifts (they are said to be using aliases) and where the guests will answer nature's call (high-end bathroom trailers parked near the tent).

That no-news zone is fine by me because every bride deserves to call the shots at her wedding, and because Chelsea Clinton, strenuously aided by her very public parents, has spent much of her life ducking the press. Many guests -- who will gladly surrender all cameras, cell phones and other high-tech communication devices -- won't even acknowledge they've been invited for fear of letting something slip.

One insider exception is Ed Mezvinsky, father of the groom, who gave "Inside Edition" a few morsels. "We all hope that we can get through this without getting too teary-eyed," he offered after emerging from a haircut.

Paroled from prison in 2008 and living in Wellsville, New York, he still owes millions to those he bilked. "It was a terrible time, and I was punished for that and I respect that and I accept responsibility for what happened, and now I'm trying to move on," Mezvinsky said. He is now writing a book about the debacle. Why is this no surprise?

Marc and Chelsea, who first met in high school, have built a relationship based on such shared history as their Stanford education, stints on Wall Street and family scandals.

"It's great to see two people that really understand each other, that have a good feeling about each other," Ed Mezvinsky volunteered. "They are strong, wonderful, loving, caring, and sensitive human beings."

And soon, so very soon, they will be husband and wife. Of this I am certain, no?