Did You Know...

**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers

The big day is approaching! Hillary’s imparting important marital wisdom to her daughter (“if he cheats and you’ll lose power by leaving, stay”) and Bill’s auditioning bridesmaids as we speak. But there’s one thing that not many people know — when or where the wedding will be:

The wedding of former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky is this summer’s ultimate status invitation. There will be only 400 names on the guest list, a good size for a wedding by ordinary standards, but barely big enough to accommodate the people who slept in the Lincoln Bedroom during Bill Clinton’s presidency [most of them didn't want to come all the way from China anyway - DP]. So planning it has been a diplomatic problem of the highest order. “Donors are expecting to be invited,” says a major Clinton fund-raiser. Then there are the campaign, State Department, and Clinton Foundation staff, plus foreign dignitaries and both Clinton and Obama White House officials. These complexities, say bride-side sources, are one reason why Chelsea has instituted a strict no-strangers policy: She must personally know every invitee. (Of course, it’s also a way of giving her parents an out for donors who don’t make the cut.)

The secrecy has seemed more reminiscent of a giant military operation than a wedding. Early speculation was that it would be held on Martha’s Vineyard, but more recently sources have confirmed that the nuptials will be held on July 31 in a still-secret location within a three-hour drive of New York City. “The wedding planner will contact each guest directly a week in advance and let them know where it is,” says the fund-raiser, who speculated that the Hamptons are out because the L.I.E. can be a very long road. The smart money, then, is somewhere upstate, possibly in Westchester or Dutchess County—most likely on property owned by a Clinton supporter. “You really see who their closest friends are in this list,” says an insider. “It’s not a celebrity-driven wedding.”

I certainly do hope Chelsea Clinton’s wedding ends up somewhere off the Long Island Expressway — there’s something that would be apropos about invites sent out by Bill and Hillary having “L.I.E.” printed right on them.

Hillary said she was more likely to give up the nuclear launch codes than the date and location of Chelsea’s wedding, but since Obama’s probably already done that, Hil will have to find a more effective comparison.

And naturally, if you’re at a Clinton gathering, you won’t be able to swing a dead cattle future without hitting a crook:

If Ed Mezvinsky, the disgraced father of Chelsea Clinton’s newly-announced fiancé Marc Mezvinsky, attends his own son’s wedding, he might want to consider ducking out before the reception. Mezvinsky was convicted in 2002 of bilking his associates, friends and family members — even his own late mother-in-law — out of millions of dollars. Despite being released in April 2008 after serving five years in prison, Mezvinsky remains on federal probation and still owes almost $9.4 million in restitution to his victims.

Duck out before the reception? And miss a huge networking opportunity like that? Unlikely. They might as well skip Mezvinsky though when they pass the “help retire Hillary’s campaign debt” collection plate just before cutting the cake.

Do you think they’ll ask Bill to donate the “something blue” for the wedding?

**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe