Security surrounding Chelsea Clinton's wedding to Marc Mezvinsky was so tight that the good stuff is only now beginning to spill out, as guests loosen their collars. The Daily Beast rounds up the best-kept secrets from Saturday night's stellar affair.
Their Stay in New York A source revealed to The Daily Beast that the newlyweds spent the night at The Pierre hotel in New York City on Sunday night before departing for their honeymoon.
Madeleine Albright: Party Animal Madeleine Albright was reportedly the last to leave the dance floor. Guests partied till 3:30 a.m. and the former Secretary of State “didn’t stop.” As for the newlyweds, their first dance was “a very well-choreographed tango.”
Marc’s Toast to Chelsea One man has remained relatively quiet throughout this high-profile preparation, but Marc Mezvinsky was apparently saving it all for the wedding. “Marc gave an eloquent speech about his love for Chelsea," said one guest. “At the end of his speech, he ignored the rest of the room and looked very intense. He looked right into Chelsea's eyes… It was something. The whole room was quiet. You could feel the energy in the room. He impressed a lot of people.” Another guest told The Daily Beast that the groom gave a “long, beautiful toast about the relationship, and meeting her, and how wonderful and special she is, and how blessed he is."
What About That First Dance? Marc and Chelsea’s first dance as a married couple was “a very well-choreographed tango,” the New York Post reports. But The Washington Post reports it slightly differently: its Reliable Source reporters say Chelsea slipped into a slinkier dress and then she and Marc performed a “cutely choreographed dance” to the classic Etta James song “At Last.”
Bill Gets Choked Up Former President Bill Clinton was overwhelmed by emotion when he and Chelsea stepped onto the dance floor to the Frank Sinatra standard “The Way You Look Tonight.” "Bill's chin began quivering and he tried to fake a smile as a tear came down his cheek," a guest said. "He whispered something into Chelsea's ear, and she wiped the tear off his face. It was so touching. There wasn't a dry eye in the house." The former president’s toast was elegant, attendees said, and few guests had dry eyes.
Couple Goes Local Guests’ gift bags were woven totes containing items from the Rhinebeck area, including local wine, pretzels, and candies.
Wedding Planner Insisted on Secrecy The secrecy that swirled around the event was mandated not by the Clintons, but by high-end wedding planner Bryan Rafanelli. Rafanelli, who’s based in Boston and has organized some events for Hillary there, insists on confidentiality agreements from his vendors. But guests were under no such order; they merely understood that having loose lips would endanger their relationship with the former first family.
Chelsea and Marc’s Moving Poem Everything the Clintons touch seems to turn to gold—and even the poem recited at Chelsea’s wedding is no exception. Her wedding dress will give a boost to Vera Wang, and the vegan cake from La Tulipe will be a must at any health-conscious bride’s reception in the coming months. But it was their decision to include a decades-old poem during their nuptials that gave the high-powered couple’s wedding a simple touch of class.
The couple read aloud the poem called “The Life That I Have” by Leo Marks. Marks was a famed cryptologist in WWII and often wrote “code poems” to transmit messages. This poem, however, was written after his girlfriend Ruth died in a plane crash. "I transmitted," he writes in his memoir Between Silk and Cyanide, "a message to her which I'd failed to deliver when I'd had the chance." In a strange twist, he later gave the poem to Violette Szabo, an Allied secret agent during WWII who was later executed. Her life is documented in the film Carve Her Name with Pride.
It’s deceptively simple, yet its complicated history gives it depth:
The life that I have Is all that I have And the life that I have Is yours
The love that I have Of the life that I have Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have A rest I shall have Yet death will be but a pause For the peace of my years In the long green grass Will be yours and yours and yours.