In Taylor Swift’s beach town, each clue is a wedding rumor

WESTERLY, Rhode Island — When a large tent appeared next door to Taylor Swift’s Watch Hill estate this week, it didn’t take long for speculation about the superstar’s impending nuptials to ripple through the affluent New England seaside village—and the internet.

Soon, fans were swapping theories online, photographers were staking out vantage points and residents found themselves fielding questions about a wedding that never was, or at least seems yet to happen.

READ: Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce to wed at New York’s Madison Square Garden — reports

The rumors, so far, have proved unfounded. But they offered a glimpse into life in Watch Hill, the Rhode Island beach community in the town of Westerly, close to the Connecticut border, where Swift has owned a home for more than a decade and where curiosity about the singer has become woven into everyday life.

From the nearby lighthouse, visitors craned for a better view of Swift’s mansion, a sprawling white home perched atop a rocky bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Security cameras dotted the property, and a guard called out to visitors who strayed too close.

Limited lodging

Wedding planner Nicole Simeral stood outside the small white chapel across from the massive yellow Ocean House hotel—Swift’s neighbor on the beach—waving along cars and buses that slowed and directing traffic to keep moving.

She watched visitors speculate about a wedding she said she knew wasn’t Swift’s. She’s working a different wedding every weekend in June in that spot. Still, had been “a lot of chitter chatter” as the questions kept coming.

“Is Taylor Swift getting married here? Many, many, many have asked,” Simeral said.

But she doubted Watch Hill would be practical for a wedding of that scale because of its limited luxury lodging.

The Watch Hill rumors also dovetailed with separate online speculation that Swift and her fiancé, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, were planning a celebration at Madison Square Garden.

Joking with fans

For two summers, Westerly Police Department community service officer Nick Quaratella has stood at the entrance to a public path leading to the beach beside Swift’s estate, answering questions from beachgoers and also keeping traffic moving.

He said he can’t help but joke around with some fans. “I’ll say, ‘Oh, did you hear that she moved?’ And they’ll say, ‘No.’ And I say, ‘Yeah, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson moved in.’ And they’ll go, ‘Oh, really?’ and then they’ll walk away.”

His coworker once spotted a fan on their knees, bowing toward the entrance gate near the property. Visitors have shouted “I love you, Taylor!” from the roadside. One woman convinced her granddaughter Quaratella was Swift’s security guard and posed for a photo with him.

Local businesses

“At this point, it’s part of my job,” he said. “It makes me smile. It makes me laugh. I have no problem with it. It makes the day go by.”

Lifelong resident Lauren Nigrelli said the frenzy surrounding the star has eased since Swift moved into the neighborhood in 2013.

Back then, Nigrelli recalled, fans would drive around in circles by her shop playing Swift’s songs. “Things have definitely calmed down since then,” she said.

Today, Swift’s presence remains a fixture among local businesses in what she described as a “quaint New England coastal community.”

Nigrelli, a realtor who owns the boutiques Tide and Tide Kids, said she began selling apparel emblazoned with “Holiday House,” the nickname associated with Swift’s mansion, after children began coming into the store asking for it.

On Saturday, she was also selling a Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding sticker book. “I think every shop has something related to her,” Nigrelli said.

Logistics

On the beach below the mansion, Audrey and John Curtis, a married couple from Connecticut who have been vacationing in Westerly for years, settled into beach chairs and debated the wedding rumors.

“We were just looking up at her house,” Audrey Curtis said, pointing toward the mansion. “She’s not getting married here now, though.”

Curtis said she had heard various theories, including speculation that a wedding might be held at Ocean House. But as she thought through the logistics, she became skeptical.

“Then I was thinking about, ‘How would everybody get here?’” she said. “In New York, you’ve got JFK, you’ve got LaGuardia, and she’s got two penthouses in New York that she combined, so I figured they could obviously have more people there.”

“They could lie and say it’s happening there, but it’s happening here,” John Curtis said. “When important people do things, they don’t want people to know.” — AP