A Look Back at 22 Glamorous White House Weddings

With the first White House wedding in nearly a decade happening this month—Naomi Biden, granddaughter of the President, is marrying Peter Neal on the South Lawn­—we take a look back at White House weddings of the past.

2000’s

Pete Souza and Patti Lease

October 19, 2013

The connection: Souza was the Obama administration’s official White House photographer.

The details: President Barack Obama hosted a wedding with about 35 guests for Pete and Patti in the Rose Garden.

Jenna Bush and Henry Hager

(Reception Only)

June 21, 2008

The connection: Jenna is one of President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush’s two daughters.

The details: The couple married on May 10, 2008, in Crawford, Texas, with 200 guests, then had a second reception the next month at the White House. According to People magazine, music for the 600-guest reception was performed by the United States Marine Band, and Henry’s parents hosted an after-­party at Old Ebbitt Grill.

1900’s

Tony Rodham and Nicole Boxer

May 28, 1994

The connection: Tony is one of former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s two brothers.

The details: The ceremony, which included both Methodist and Jewish elements and 250 guests, was held under a white canopy in the Rose Garden, which the Los Angeles Times reported was “brimming with pink and white geraniums.” Chelsea Clinton, in a teal dress, was one of four bridesmaids, and after the ceremony, guests moved through the First Lady’s Garden to dinner in the State Dining Room, followed by dancing.

Tricia Nixon and Edward F. Cox

June 12, 1971

The connection: Tricia was the elder daughter of President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon.

The details: This was the first wedding held in the Rose Garden, which had been overhauled during the Kennedy administration—and was a grand affair, with some 400 guests. The wedding ring, designed by Don Carnevale of Harry Winston, had 30 brilliant-cut diamonds and an inscription that read “Ed – Trish, June 12, 1971.” The cake, positioned in front of a mirror to serve as the focal point of the North Portico Hall, was nearly seven feet tall and five feet across at the bottom, with six tiers of lemon-­flavored pound cake. (The recipe was the First Lady’s.) Blown-sugar lovebirds and the initials P and E were featured on the bottom layer, and blown-sugar white roses and white cherry blossoms adorned the rest of the larger-than-life confection.

Lynda Bird Johnson and Charles Robb

December 9, 1967

The connection: Lynda was the elder daughter of LBJ and Lady Bird.

The drama: A Kansas City wedding planner says on his website that Priscilla Kidder herself told him this story: Lynda got into a tiff with celebrity dress designer Priscilla of Boston during her sister Luci’s wedding because Lynda thought that, as she was the bride’s sister, her dress should stand out from the other bridesmaids’ attire. Kidder, per this account, wasn’t having it and cut Lynda’s floor-length head-piece to the elbows, saying, “There! Now you stand out!” Lynda, unsurprisingly, chose a different designer for her big day.

The details: Unlike her sibling, Lynda opted to have the ceremony at the White House. According to the White House Historical Association, after the ceremony, the newlyweds and their 500 or so guests (including Alice Roosevelt Longworth) enjoyed Champagne, cake, and dancing in the East Room, which was decorated in string-lit topiaries and ribbon. The bride carried a small white bouquet and wore a mock-neck, long-sleeve princess-­line dress by Geoffrey Beene; the groom was in his Marine Corps uniform. Seven bridesmaids carried red bouquets, wore red floor-length velvet gowns, and sported half-up bouffant hairstyles with red bows.

Luci Johnson and Patrick Nugent

(Reception Only)

August 6, 1966

The connection: Luci was the younger daughter of President and First Lady Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson.

The details: The couple was married at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, followed by a reception at the White House. According to Time magazine, which called the wedding a “semimonarchical event,” Luci “opted automatically for pomp over privacy” by choosing to be the first couple to marry in the largest Roman Catholic Church in the US, with a “100-voice choir.” The bridesmaids wore bubblegum-pink gowns designed by Priscilla of Boston, who also designed the bride’s mock-neck, long-sleeve lace gown. The cake was a 300-pound, eight-foot-tall concoction.

Harry Hopkins and Louise Gill Macy

July 30, 1942

The connection: Harry was an aide to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The details: According to the New York Times, the pair married in front of a marble fireplace, decorated with white gladioluses and chrysanthemums, in Roosevelt’s Oval Study just after noon—likely the first wedding to take place in that room. The groom wore a blue suit; the bride wore a dark-blue, floor-length crepe dress and carried a bouquet of purple orchids and purple-blue delphiniums.

Alice Wilson and Reverend Isaac Stuart McElroy Jr.

August 7, 1918

The connection: Alice was the niece of President Wilson.

The details: According to a 1918 New York Times article, the intimate Blue Room wedding included just 16 guests, and arrangements were “simple . . . owing to the war.” In a room decorated in green and white, including white hydrangeas, Alice wore a short crepe dress. After the ceremony, the newlyweds and guests gathered for dinner in the State Dining Room and the bride cut a plain, modest-size cake.

Eleanor Wilson and William Gibbs McAdoo

May 7, 1914

The connection: Eleanor was the youngest daughter of President Woodrow Wilson and First Lady Ellen Wilson.

The details: According to the New York Times, Eleanor and William married with fewer than 100 guests at a “quiet ceremony” in the Blue Room, with her two sisters, in coordinating pink and blue dresses, as her bridesmaids. This, the wedding of the second Wilson daughter to marry in the White House, may have been kept small because of the poor health of the First Lady, who died three months later.

Jessie Woodrow Wilson and Francis Bowes Sayre

November 25, 1913

The connection: Jessie was the middle daughter of President Woodrow Wilson and First Lady Ellen Wilson.

The details: Some 500 guests, according to the New York Times, witnessed a ceremony in the flower-bedecked East Room, then were treated to refreshments in the State Dining Room, an “old-fashioned Southern supper” in a breakfast room draped in pink roses, and impromptu dancing back in the East Room. A month before the wedding, the Times reported that the President had barred extravagant gifts and requested that presents come only from friends of the couple—a move said to be in response to reports that when Alice Roosevelt married, the gifts “were of such value and number that detectives were employed to guard them for weeks before the wedding day.”

Alice Lee Roosevelt and Nicholas Longworth

February 17, 1906

The connection: Alice was the elder daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt.

The details: Teddy Roosevelt was a popular President, and Alice was a famous, spunky First Daughter. The wedding was the largest ever held at the White House, with—depending on the source—more than 1,000 guests. Primed for the spotlight, Alice chose no bridesmaids, though there were nearly a dozen ushers (and her sister, Ethel, may have played a small ceremonial part). The wedding was the first at the White House to take place on a Saturday, and it turned into a very big party—the next day, the New York Times declared: “Romp follows ceremony.” At the end of the evening, the couple climbed out of a window to a getaway car as guests and onlookers were distracted. Sixty years later, Alice told the New York Times: “It was a good party, a very good party.” Asked whether she’d have preferred a smaller affair, she said: “A cozy wedding is a rather horrifying idea.”

1800’s

President Grover Cleveland and Frances Folsom

June 2, 1886

The drama: The bride, 21, was the daughter of the 49-year-old President’s late business partner. Perhaps not eager to be judged, Cleveland kept the wedding small and, according to the Shapell Manuscript Foundation, waited until the last minute to send the handwritten invitations. But Frankie, as she was called, became an immediate sensation, reportedly fielding more fan letters and press than any First Lady before her.

The details: He was the first and only President to be married inside the White House. There were perhaps 50 guests, and although the New York Times called it a “simple ceremony,” the floral arrangements were reportedly over the top—rooms were decked in palms, garlands of roses, and other arrangements, and a ship made of blooms graced a table in the State Dining Room. Church bells rang throughout the city, and a “salute of cannon announced the union.”

Emily Platt and Russell Hastings

June 19, 1878

The connection: Emily was the niece of President Rutherford B. Hayes.

The details: Emily, 28, married 42-year-old Russell underneath a floral bell made of 15,000 rosebuds, according to the White House Historical Association.

Nellie Grant and Algernon Sartoris

May 21, 1874

The connection: Nellie was the daughter of President Ulysses S. Grant and First Lady Julia Grant.

The drama: According to the White House Historical Association, the President and First Lady were anxious about the wedding because Nellie, 19, would be moving to England with Algernon. (Also, they weren’t especially fond of him.)

The details: Dubbed the first “really grand” wedding at the White House, the celebration had some 250 guests, depending on the source. According to the WHHA, the East Room was completely redecorated in white with gold leaf, and the chandeliers were replaced with more elaborate versions. After a seated breakfast in the State Dining Room, there was the ceremony in the East Room, adorned with roses, greenery, and a bell made of pink roses. The bride and her eight bridesmaids—all in white—descended a grand staircase and proceeded through Cross Hall, lined on either side with military officers standing at attention.

President John Tyler and First Lady Julia Gardiner Tyler

(Reception Only)

June 29, 1844

The drama: Months after Tyler’s first wife died, he met New York socialite Julia Gardiner. She was 30 years younger, but according to History.com, they hit it off. He proposed twice, but she wasn’t quite sure. Then, at some point, he invited her and her family to a party aboard a US Navy ship, and on the Potomac River cruise, six people—including Julia’s father—were killed in an accident involving a cannon demonstration. The tragedy reportedly brought them closer, and four months later they married.

The details: The wedding took place in New York, but they celebrated with a small reception at the White House.

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Tyler and William Waller

January 31, 1842

The connection: Elizabeth was a daughter of President John Tyler and First Lady Letitia Tyler.

The drama: An unpopular President, Tyler used invitations to his daughter’s wedding as a “show of friendship,” according to Heroes, Heroines & History, and invited a slew of political guests.

The details: It was likely the first wedding held in the East Room; until then, most had been in the Blue Room. The First Lady was reportedly very ill at the time—her attendance was her only public appearance—and she died later that year.

Mary Anne Lewis and Alphonse Joseph Yves Pageot

November 29, 1832

The connection: The bride was the daughter of a close friend of President Jackson’s.

The details: This was the only Roman Catholic wedding ever held at the White House; the ceremony took place in the Blue Room. Jackson reportedly adored Mary Anne, who had lived with him in the White House as one of his many legal wards, and he had tried to set her up with his son Andrew Jr. The President gave Mary Anne away at the ceremony.

Mary Ann Eastin and Lucius J. Polk

April 10, 1832

The connection: Mary Ann was the grandniece of Rachel Donelson Jackson, the wife of Andrew Jackson who died before he took office.

The details: Not much is known, but it was the second of three weddings or receptions at the White House during Jackson’s term.

Andrew Jackson Jr. and Sarah Yorke

(Reception Only) 

December 1, 1831

The connection: Andrew was the son of President Andrew Jackson.

The details: Andrew and Sarah were married in Philadelphia a week prior, and though President Jackson did not attend the ceremony, according to the National First Ladies’ Library, he “greeted [Sarah] with literally open arms on the North Portico of the White House, commencing a series of dinners and receptions,” to which she wore her wedding gown—a lace-and-silk boat-neck design with a basque waist.

John Adams II and Mary Catherine Hellen

February 25, 1828

The connection: John was a son of President John Quincy Adams and First Lady Louisa Catherine Adams; Mary Catherine was Louisa’s niece. (Again, first cousins.)

The drama: Having come to live with the Adamses after her parents died, Mary became romantically involved with each of the three brothers, ultimately breaking off an engagement to George for a tryst with John. Worried about the extramarital sex, Louisa insisted they wed; John’s two brothers refused to attend. According to Heroes, Heroines & History, the whole thing worried the First Lady sick and the brothers never got over it. (Louisa, for the record, may not have been wrong in her suspicions—the newlyweds’ first child was born exactly nine months later.)

The details: Mary, 22, had attended the previous White House wedding of Maria and Samuel, and hers was reportedly similar—though Mary, who had lamented the insufficient cake, made sure to have plenty at her wedding.

Maria Hester Monroe and Samuel L. Gouverneur

March 9, 1820

The connection: Maria, 17, was a daughter of President James Monroe and First Lady Elizabeth Monroe; Samuel was private secretary to the President as well as Elizabeth’s nephew. The couple were first cousins.

The drama: Maria’s elder sister, Eliza, who assumed the duties of First Lady because of their mother’s poor health, decided the wed­ding would be small and private, in effect snubbing a lot of people and stirring up a lot of resentment.

The details: Forty-two guests attended a ceremony in the Blue Room, followed by dinner in the State Dining Room. Ten days later, Commodore Stephen Decatur hosted a larger reception for the newlyweds. (Three days after that, Decatur was killed in a duel.)

Lucy Payne Washington and Thomas Todd

March 29, 1812

White House connection: Lucy was a sister of First Lady Dolley Madison.

The details: A small indoor wedding. (The Rose Garden didn’t yet exist, and Rose Garden weddings wouldn’t become a thing for another 150 years.) According to the website Heroes, Heroines & History, Dolley was both the hostess and a bridesmaid.

This article appears in the November 2022 issue of Washingtonian.