Able Bess's Spectacular

THE WHITE HOUSE

Preparations for the first family wedding in the White House in 53 years engulfed the presidential menage. Pastry chefs put the finishing touches on a five-tiered, 5-ft.-tall pound cake topped by a spun-sugar basket. White House florists kept a close eye on the white roses that will fill the basket. Calligraphers, their labors done, studied their handiwork on 500 invitations and "carriage cards" (for parking assignments). While aides carefully clocked the whole ceremony in advance, Lynda Bird John son underwent final fittings of the white faille wedding gown created for her by Mod Couturier Geoffrey Beene.

In charge of the myriad details of this week's wedding is the First Family's social secretary, Elizabeth Clements Abell, 34. Working from a sheaf of check lists and a mammoth plastic-covered map of the White House on which the nuptial traffic flow is charted with a grease pencil, Bess Abell has organized the operation down to the last hairdresser's appointment and millimeter of guest space (2 sq. ft. per person). The last White House wedding of a President's offspring was in 1914, when Woodrow Wilson's daughter Eleanor married Treasury Secretary William McAdoo in a simple ceremony. Mrs. Abell's nuptial production will more closely resemble the 1906 spectacular in which "Princess Alice" Roosevelt, Republican Teddy's daughter, wed Ohio Congressman Nicholas Longworth.

No Regrets. The decor will be, in Mrs. Abell's word, "Christmasy." Holly and topiary trees flecked with "teeny white lights" will adorn the East Room. Seven attendants in gowns of Goya red will vie for the eye with the 32-member Marine Band's scarlet tunics. The groom, Marine Captain Charles Robb, 28, will wear his dress blues. He has had little say in the preparations. "Mostly, he's chief in charge of the honeymoon," Mrs. Abell explains.

Bess Abell is admirably qualified to organize White House social functions. The daughter of former Kentucky Governor (and later U.S. Senator) Earle Clements, she supervised 34 state luncheons and dinners this year alone, and prepared Luci Baines Nugent's wedding last year. "Luci's was a dress rehearsal for Lynda's wedding," she says. Formal weddings are a vicarious thrill for Mrs. Abell: she eloped with Attorney Tyler Abell, 35, a former Assistant Postmaster General. "Working on these two weddings," says Bess, "has given me no regrets."

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