RHINEBECK, N.Y. — Bill Clinton made a long-anticipated appearance in the upstate New York village where his daughter is getting married, drawing crowds of onlookers Friday afternoon as preparations continued largely out of sight for the grand and secretive occasion.
The former president, looking fit and relaxed in bluejeans and a black knit shirt, walked with security a few blocks north from the picturesque village’s main intersection to the restaurant Gigi Trattoria.
To questions blurted from the crowd he attracted, Clinton rattled off easy answers.
How are you?
“We’re all fine.”
“We love it here,” he said. “Chelsea loves the area as well.”
How’s she doing?
“She’s doing well.”
Chelsea Clinton is expected to marry her longtime boyfriend, investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, at a ceremony this evening attended by 400 to 500 people at the grand Astor Courts, an estate on the scenic east bank of the Hudson River.
Rumors had abounded for weeks leading up to Friday, including one that Rhinebeck was a decoy planned by the media-shy Chelsea and that the wedding would be elsewhere.
Meanwhile, a longtime Clinton family friend adamantly denied that the cost of the wedding would be more than $1 million. The friend, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the cost of the wedding will not exceed six figures.
Wedding experts told The Associated Press the wedding could cost $2 million to $3 million.
