Emn Haddad-Friedman and Alex Bero are getting married on July 31, near the reported wedding site of Chelsea Clinton …
The wedding date was booked two years in advance, the dress purchased, the expenses covered. Nothing was going to rain on Emn Haddad-Friedman's wedding day. Except Chelsea Clinton.
The other bride getting married on July 31st in the Rhinebeck area has a message for the former first daughter: It's her day too. But to Rhinebeck and the rest of the world, it's not. "I know she's not doing it on purpose," says the Brooklyn-based school teacher. "But Chelsea Clinton has taken what was supposed to be a special day for me turned it into hell."
Chelsea Clinton and boyfriend, Marc Mezvinsky, an investment banker, got engaged in 2009 and speculation about their wedding details have been escalating exponentially ever since. In April, the close-knit upstate town, made the short-list for the affair. This past week, when the 50-acre estate, Astor Court, was named as the likely site, and a rumored guest list of prime ministers and superstars was leaked, Emn saw her wedding virtually disappear.
[Read about: Chelsea Clinton's secret wedding plans]
"We never considered changing the date because all our deposits were in," says Emn, who first learned about the Clinton fiasco July 3rd. "All our invitations were sent and many of our vendors were booked on the other dates. Now I'm freaking out, and my mom is going nuts."
She's not being a Bridezilla. Her concern isn't about lack of attention, it's about getting herself and her guests to the event so there can be a wedding at all.
Here's the dilemma: Emn, and her college sweetheart, Alex Bero, are holding their ceremony at the Clermont Historic Site-- an 18th century landmark in Germantown, about 5 minutes from Rhinebeck. Then the guests will head south, about 20 minutes, to the reception hall at the Dinsmore in Staatsburg. The hitch is that Astor Court is smack dab in between the two locations. The Belvedere Mansion, another scouted estate where several high-profile guests are said to be staying, is in the same town as the Dinsmore. "If Chelsea's wedding does happen, they'll probably close all the roads and my guests will have to drive for an hour and a half to get from my ceremony to the reception, if they get there at all."
Every day this week, Emn has called the local police to get confirmation about the Clinton wedding, or at least some possible exemption from road closures. But nobody can give her a definite answer. "Even if they know the wedding details, they can't reveal it to me." Meanwhile, new rumors emerge-- like the one about Obama coming. "That would be the worst case scenario, because everything would just shut down," she says.
The rumor she's hoping is true is that the whole Rhinebeck arrangement is a smokescreen, and Chelsea and Marc are really getting hitched in Martha's Vineyard.
For Clinton, Rhinebeck was likely one of several locations considered for the event. Duchess County and the Hamptons were buzzed about. There was Northern California where the couple both attended Stanford, Washington D.C. and New York City for obvious reasons or the Vineyard, where the Clintons are known to summer.
But for Emn and Alex, both 28, it was always the Hudson Valley. The pair met 10 years ago as undergraduates at Bard college, only a few miles from Chelsea's reception area.
"When Alex proposed, two years ago, I was back getting my Masters back at Bard, which is minutes from Rhinebeck. He asked me to marry him on the steps of the college chapel," says Emn. Their favorite restaurant throughout their courtship was Terrapin, the famous local culinary outpost. So they booked the reception hall at Dinsmore, the site of the restaurant's catering arm, two years ago.
Guess who else is rumored to have booked Terrapin? "I heard she's having her rehearsal dinner at the restaurant," says Em. "At least mine is being handled by Terrapin's catering service which is a slightly different operation. They've been really great and understanding. They're being really flexible with start time for the reception, considering the possible delays." Meanwhile, the couple were this close to booking their wedding one week later but they wanted to avoid the crowds of early incoming freshman from Bard. If only that were still the problem.
To be clear, Emn hadn't reached out to press. Only Rhinebeck locals, who tipped us off, knew about "the other wedding" when we got a hold of her through the Clermont, where she booked her ceremony.
Taking this all in stride is Emn's mother, Orly, who is serving as both benefactor and event planner. "She's paying for the whole thing. She's a single mom who has worked the last two years tirelessly as a construction and estate manager to pay for it." Emn and Orly picked out the dress, hand addressed the invitations, mail-merged the place-cards. So at this point, the thought of Chelsea with her 400 guests and coterie of wedding planners sets off the other bride-to-be. "We're in a recession, we don't have the highest paying jobs (her fiancé is a book-conservationist). I'm happy for Chelsea but she's got planners and I've got my mom."
At least Emn and Orly have taken some precautions. "We blocked hotel rooms for guests just before the Clinton wedding was announced so our guests are set with places to stay." Based on the grand estates becoming available for the weekend (advertised on Craigslist for up to $10 grand), Chelsea's guests shouldn't have a problem.
And her cupcake wedding cake isn't likely to overlap with Chelsea's: "It's from our friend's New York bakery One Girl Cookies." Neither is her obscure first dance song- "Dancing Lessons" by Sinead O'Connor.
While she's trying not to think of the worst case scenario, there's less than two weeks till one hundred of her closest friends and family converge amid a mosh-pit of Paparazzi and secret service. "If none of the guests can get to the wedding, we're still getting married. The officiant is only 10 minutes away. As long as we're there, a witness and some one who can marry us, we're doing it." And if one of those four people can't make it? "I'm prepared to call the police and beg."
Of course, it couldn't hurt to have a Clinton on your side in times like this. After all, Orly, mother of the bride, has been on their side in the past. "My mother is a huge Clinton supporter. She loves Hillary and was heartbroken when she lost the primaries to the point where she switched parties." At press time, the Clinton parents-of-the-bride had no comment about the "other" wedding.
[Photos: From toddler to teen: Chelsea Clinton through the years]
Emn joked in this interview about inviting Chelsea, but when asked if she'd like to make that a formal invitation, she had to ask her mom. Minutes later, Orly sent this message which-though not engraved -- will hopefully reach the Clintons: "As mother of the bride, I'd be honored to formally invite Bill, Hillary, Chelsea, and her new husband, Marc, to our wedding."
They're already going to be in the area.
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