Chelsea Clinton Wedding Cost Estimates Out of Control

By Jo Piazza Posted Jul 30th 2010 04:30PM

Everyone loves to speculate on the costs of celebrity weddings. And in the case of Chelsea Clinton, a girl America has watched grow up and blossom into a beautiful young woman (those 'SNL' skits be damned), her upcoming wedding is the closest thing we get to a royal wedding of sorts.

So, of course, everyone is trying to price out her upstate New York nuptials to fiance Marc Mezvinsky going down this weekend. The New York Daily News, has the wedding costing between $3 and $5 million. ABC pegs the price at $2 million.

Say what? Political insiders and folks who know Chelsea and her parents call the extravagant cost estimates entirely absurd. Chelsea, for one, has never been a big spender, nor does she enjoy flaunting her parent's celebrity status. So, the hand-painted aisle that the News intimated she will walk down on her big day, probably not happening.

Putting it in perspective, the estimated price tag on then-presidential daughter Jenna Bush when she married at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch was only around $100,000.

Of course, Jenna got that venue for free. ABC is pegging the venue cost alone for Chelsea's wedding as high as $200,000 for Astor Courts, a mansion designed for John Jacob Astor IV in 1902. The house is on the market for $12 million. It also happens to be owned by Clinton donors Kathleen Hammer and Arthur Seelbinder, who were unlikely to rake their good friends over the coals. Plus, all the publicity from this high profile wedding will probably just drive up the sale price. Everybody wins.

Yes, the guest list for this weekend is big. It will probably shake down to around 400 of the Clintons' friends, family members as well as select celebrities and business associates of mom and dad, a list that includes various heads of state and titans of industry.

Because there are so many high-profile guests, the Clintons will certainly need to throw a tasteful affair, but they don't have to go over the top. With a budget of just under $1 million, the Clintons can spend $2,500 per guest. That gives them plenty of cash to play with for what is already being billed as the Wedding of the Century.

Chelsea's preferences aside, the entire Clinton clan is nothing if not media-savvy. Dad is the head of one of the largest charitable organizations on the planet, The Clinton Global Initiative, and mom is Barack Obama's ambassador to the world.

"How would it look if Hillary Clinton were showing up in Pakistan to speak to women who earn less than a dollar a day, or if Bill went to his donors to ask for money to build wells in Africa after they just spent Liza Minelli-style money on their daughter's
wedding. These guys are way too smart for that," one political consultant, who has worked with the Clintons, told us.

The guessing game will finally come to an end in about 48 hours, when select wedding details will be released to the press, and when they are, we will see a picture of a tasteful and beautiful affair that still cost less than Tom and Katie's nups. Mark our words.

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Tags: Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Hillary Clinton, marc jacobs

Comments

(48)

Friday 30 July

By drmikemaine

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WHO CARES?! about this wedding.... Chelsea is just another proven liar ("duicking sniper fire" as her loveless mother and roving father.

"Beautiful Young Woman"? Bark Bark...

Please ignore these political games, move back to Arkansa and shut-up!

By elizabeth

Highest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

JEALOUS????

By pitts57

I don't see why the media is so worry about the cost of Chel's wedding!!!!!I don't think the Clintons asked any of us for any funds!!!!!!!Let it go!!!!!Find a new story!!!!!!!

By premenos

And you should go back under the rock you climbed out from under.

By skip

Low Ranked Vote down Vote up Report this

Pretty Not even close you look at her and almost wonder if she was adopted... Besides the Divorce will cost more than the wedding ever will.
But the truth be known we all can't be one of the so called beautiful People.
I have dated Models, an NFL cheer leader, a Budwise model and while they were hot looking, inside they were ugly as hell and all messed up. So looks arn't every thing they are cracked up to be.

By P. MacKay

I'm going to throw up if anyone says the Clinton are "american royalty"! icccck...and I think they should be ashamed to be spending money like that when there are so many people in the gulf having such a hard time making ends meet! And guess what...we poor taxpaying smucks are going to end up paying for half of it, if not more!

By bagplaza53

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ted... Besides the Divorce will cost more than the wedding ever will.
But the truth be known we all can't be one of the so called beautiful People.
I have dated Models, a

Saturday 31 July

By Bryant

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AMEN AMEN

Monday 02 August

By WTF

I agree with Pitts57. Why is everybody so worried about what the wedding cost? If the Clintons have the money and want to spend it that is their business. Everyone else should mind their own business and quit making a story out of something that is not new worthy.

By lefty

i think she need to pit a bag over her face what a horse face

And you need to go back to school and learn how to speak and spell.

By bsti

Definitely a two bagger - One for her and one for him in case hers falls off!

By dawn

Before you start telling people how ugly she is, try looking in a mirror and learn how to spell.

By Courtney

Chelsea is far from the first Celeb/Political child to have an expensive wedding Patti Davis's 1984 wedding cost 2 1/2 million dollars granted it was at the Beverly Hills Hotel so it was going to be expensive. but that ended in divorce 7 years later in 1991. and I think Nell Newman's 2005 wedding cost about 4 1/2 million granted it was also in Scotland so it was going to be more expensive than Patti's and about the same as Chelsea's weddings always get alot of scruitany paid to them unless the star or star family involved can keep in under the radar

By Garl

While I am not fond of people bashing the looks of this or any other woman, you do Ms. Clinton a disservice, and make her a target of derision, when you call her
beautiful, which she clearly is not. She is very average, which is very fine. No more, no less.

By Janie

What a waste of money. It's just excessive while the world is struggling. She should have held it on the gulf and had her guests clean the beaches. That would have been news worth looking at.

By Anne

I believe Chelsea has had a chin implant and possibly a bit of a nose job. Her chin is more aligned with her jaw than it was in photographs of her as a teenager and in her early twenties. And the nose is less bulbous on the end. Nothing wrong with this, especially if you are a gazillionaire as are her parents. Just notice.

I agree with the previous posters....she is anything but beautiful. Not even pretty. I do, though wish her all the best. Life is difficult, marriage, more so.

By marylamb62

I am not sure why everyone is being so judgmental. I bet she would be the first to say she is not a beautiful woman. And I doubt that is her goal in life. She is smart, savvy and level headed. Who cares if she isn't beautiful? Whether you like the politics of the Clinton's or not, when Bill and Hillary are your parents, you likely aspire to do great things not look great.

I wish her well and hope people will let them live their lives in peace.

By N2

LIKE THE CLINTONS OR NOT THEY ARE AMERICAN ROYALTY. CAN YOU JUST IMAGINE THE GUESTS THEY HAVE TO INVITE NOT TO OFFEND PEOPLE. IF THEY ARENT GOING TO GO PRIVATE THEN THEY NEED TO GO BIG, AND THEY CAN AFFORD IT.
IT WILL BE INTERESTING TO WATCH AND LISTEN TO ALL THE NEWS HYPE SURROUNDING THE EVENT. MY GUESS IS HILLARY AND CHELSEA WANT IT PRIVATE, BILL LOVES A PARTY. SO GO BIG AND HAVE A BLAST.

By bill bledsoe

millions of kids starve to death every day on this planet,and these clowns piss money away,this just shows what a hideous pair of parents...at the rate the democrats are destroying this country they may live to wish they had a little of that money back...I wish the kids long and happy life,despite their trashy parents.

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