It's been a difficult week for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. First, he watched the West Side stadium go down to defeat. Then the City Council dealt his landmark waste management plan a body blow.
But today, the mayor will have something to celebrate. This afternoon, Mr. Bloomberg will attend the marriage of his older daughter, Emma Bloomberg, to her fiancé, Chris Frissora. He will also call on the powers invested in himself by the city of New York and perform the ceremony, too.
"She seems very happy," said the mayor, who said he feels "great" about his daughter's impending nuptials. "They're both great kids, and they've been very happy together for three years, and they're old enough to know what they're doing."
Ms. Bloomberg, 26, and Mr. Frissora, 25, are each earning joint degrees in public administration and business administration at Harvard University. They met while they were undergraduates at Princeton University.
The wedding is scheduled to be held at the mayor's 26-acre estate in Westchester County. Technically, however, the mayor can only perform marriages within the five boroughs. The solution? The couple will first legally tie the knot at Gracie Mansion with the families in attendance and the mayor presiding, then journey to Westchester for the full ceremony with 400 guests and catered food from the trendy Manhattan restaurant Nobu.
"It'll be a nice event, very casual," the mayor said. "No ties." That theme was echoed on the couple's wedding Web site, which features a note from the bride and groom asking guests to "please treat this as more of a casual summer garden party than a wedding. Men: definitely no black tie, jackets and ties optional; Women: remember you'll be walking on grass - wedges or flats will definitely be your best bet."
Today will be the second wedding conducted by Mayor Bloomberg. The first was former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's 2003 wedding to Judith Nathan.
"When I became mayor, I said I wouldn't do any weddings," the mayor said yesterday. "I then changed and said, well, I would do ex-mayors, and Rudy had asked me to his, so I did that." (Of former Mayors David N. Dinkins and Edward I. Koch, Mr. Bloomberg noted that the former was married and not in need of such services, but Mr. Koch, a bachelor, had written down his number "just in case.")
More recently, Mr. Bloomberg said: "I decided that I had defined it too narrowly, so I have just broadened it to include daughters. My daughters, not your daughters."