"Chelsea's Silver Wedding Bells" by Mad Man | The Pilot: Southern Pines, NC

Chelsea's Silver Wedding Bells

Blog: Mad Man

July 30, 2010

Well, I guess I missed the real Chelsea Clinton. I think of has as a young girl growing up in the swirl of the Clinton years, and then again standing at her mom's side on the campaign trail, her father nowhere is sight. She was always kind of plain, and seemed to want to stay out of the public eye. I kind of admired her.

Chelsea must have been bitten by the Camelot bug recently, or by the political reality that she can't be married in anything less than the style of American royalty. An article in the news today stated that the estimated cost of the wedding will be $2-3 million, with a guess list of 400-500 people. By my math, that equates to $4,000-$6,000 per guest, quite a burn rate for most of us. The average American wedding these days costs $24,000, according to the article. Most wedding I attend have 100-125 guests.

If you're marrying a budding Wall Street investment banker, and you are the progeny of one of America's elite political families, you can't exactly have the event in a rented hotel ball room or something. Still, does it need to be 125 times more expensive than the average wedding to be good enough to send her off?

Maybe I shouldn't care about this. At almost every level it doesn't matter. But with an estimated $250,000 worth of flowers for the event, and tents on the ground costing $600,000, and portable toilets running $15,000-$20,000 more, along with catering and beverages at $800,000 ($1,600 a head), well, I just can't help but wonder if some of that excess couldn't have gone to a better cause. And I also can't help but wonder how a 'po boy from Arkansas worked into being able to throw that kind of money at a wedding. Being king must have been a good job, even though it doesn't pay but $200,000 a year.

But, Chelsea, the real question everyone wants to know is: Will Bill and Hill sit still together?

GoldenDreams 2 years, 9 months ago

Pat, here's the thing: you can't compare the wedding of a daughter of a US President with the "average American wedding," as you put it. It's like comparing apples to oranges. If you look back, just about every Presidential daughter had a beautiful, expensive wedding with the exeption of Amy Carter. Jenna Bush's wedding was fabulous at her parents' ranch in Texas. Tricia Nixon's wedding was actually televised...talk about no privacy! I could go on and on. The important thing is that if the Clintons wanted to give their only daughter a beautiful send-off, and they can obviously afford it, so be it. Chelsea is lovely, educated, and accomplished. Let's just say "Congratulations"! And I hope those Rhinebeck, New York vendors made out well in the process!

sgmartin 2 years, 9 months ago

Well I looked at this another way - seems to me that did a great job of stimulating the economy. People made money off of the extravagence and I doubt that anyone who benefitted financially from the weddiing has any compliants. Particularly given how "upscale" businesses are the ones that seem to be closing fastest in the current economy.

debsalomon 2 years, 9 months ago

I'm getting one disconnect here: the reason for not inviting (snubbing?) a host of dignitaries was "this is Chelsea's wedding...for her friends, not ours" Does it then follow that Chelsea also wanted the $3 million party? Doubtful. The groom wearing a tallis (prayer shawl) at a ceremony performed before sundown on Saturday, the Jewish sabbath, is also jarring, since weddings are not performed on the sabbath. But the couple will probably live happily ever after despite their parents. Just hope they don't need that $3 mil in the future. debster