Posted on 05/06/2008 12:26:52 PM PDT by Abathar
WASHINGTON -- Talk about hush-hush wedding planning. First daughter Jenna Bush was the last in the family to know she was getting married.
Months ago, her fiancé, Henry Hager, told Jenna's twin sister that he wanted to propose.
Then, at the Camp David presidential retreat, Hager asked President Bush and first lady Laura Bush for their daughter's hand in marriage. Click here to find out more!
For weeks, the president and Mrs. Bush kept their lips zipped.
Then on Aug. 15, 2007, Hager rousted Jenna at 4 a.m. to go hiking on Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park in Maine.
"It was freezing," Jenna recalled. "But we got up, and we hiked in the dark for an hour and a half, and then when we got towards the top -- with the sunrise -- he asked me."
Officially, the wedding is a private, family affair. The White House has issued no press releases, but the president and first lady have gradually dribbled out details about the nuptials Saturday at their 1,600-acre ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Here's the lowdown: Jenna, 26, will wear an Oscar de la Renta gown with a small train. More than 200 friends and relatives will attend the outdoor ceremony with dinner and dancing. A tent is being erected at the Western White House. The bride has 14 attendants, who are known not as bridesmaids, but members of the "house party." Barbara Bush, Jenna's twin, is the maid of honor. She helped Hager make decisions about the ring. The diamond, a Hager family heirloom, was reset in a ring that also features sapphires.
On Monday, the president disclosed that Jenna will say "I do" near a lake at the ranch -- in front of a giant cross made of Texas limestone that will serve as an altar. The cross will be a landmark at the ranch for years to come. The president said that was his contribution to the wedding that the Bushes are trying to keep a low-key affair.
Doug Wead, a former aide to President George H.W. Bush and author of a book on presidents' kin, called Jenna's ceremony "the anti-Alice Roosevelt wedding." Former President Theodore Roosevelt's daughter was married in 1906.
"That wedding took place during a time of prosperity and peace; this one at a time of economic struggle and war," Wead said. "The Roosevelt family was outgoing, flamboyant; this is a private family. That was one of the most popular presidencies in American history. Even John Adams didn't go on Mount Rushmore, but Teddy Roosevelt went on Mount Rushmore. This is an unpopular presidency. Alice had no bridesmaids. Jenna has 14."
Jenna, the 22nd child of a president to marry while their fathers were in office, has come a ways from her dad's first year in office when she had a run-in with the Texas law for underage drinking. It was her second offense. Then, during her father's re-election campaign in 2004, she was photographed sticking her tongue out at the media at a campaign stop in Missouri. The widely circulated photo reinforced the playful side of her personality.
In 2004, she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English. She taught third grade at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School in Washington, D.C.
These days, Jenna has been doing book tours. After a UNICEF internship in Latin America, she wrote "Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope," about a single mother with AIDS. In recent weeks, she's been traveling the country with the first lady promoting their book "Read All About It!" a story about a boy who discovers the joys of reading.
The groom, son of the head of the Republican Party in Virginia, met Jenna during her father's 2004 re-election campaign. Hager, who graduated from Wake Forest University, worked as an aide to Bush's former top political adviser Karl Rove and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.
Hager, who will turn 30 the day before the wedding, is set to receive a master's degree in business administration later this month from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business.
After the wedding, the couple plans to live in a two-bedroom, two-bath town house on the south side of Baltimore where she plans to return to teaching and he will work for Constellation Energy, a power supplier based in Maryland.
Jenna's mother said Monday that she's not nervous -- and the president isn't, either.
"I'm very, very excited," the first lady told reporters. "It's a very interesting passage of life when you get to that time in your life when your child -- first child is getting married. And we're getting, for us, our first son."
Laura Bush admits that she half hoped Jenna and Hager, whom she calls "soul mates," would get married at the White House. But Jenna said she was raised in Texas and having a White House wedding just wasn't her style.
"It means a lot to Henry and me to be outdoors," Jenna said in an interview with Vogue magazine. "We wanted something organic and low-key.
"There's a glamour to it, I know," she said of White House ceremonies. "But Henry and I are far less glamorous than the White House."
Her wedding gown, however, was the creation of Oscar de la Renta, a top New York designer and favorite of the first lady's. It's made of organza, a sheer fabric, with embroidery and matte beading. Jenna has described the dress as "simple and elegant."
For the bridesmaids, New York designer Lela Rose, a native of Dallas, has made silk crinkle chiffon, cocktail-length dresses all adorned with handmade chiffon flowers. There are seven different styles of dresses in seven different colors that match the palate of Texas wildflowers -- blues, greens, lavenders and pinky reds -- that currently are in bloom.
"No two girls will be in the same dress," said Rose, whose father and Bush were general managing partners of the Texas Rangers.
The maid of honor will wear a long, shimmering, moonstone blue silk gown with a fluttered open back. "It's very soft blue," Rose said. "It really matches Barbara's eyes." The dress is accented with a silver sash to complement those used for the bridesmaids' dresses.
Bush may be commander in chief, but outnumbered by three women -- his wife and twin daughters -- he hasn't gotten to weigh in much on the wedding planning.
"They're letting me spend money," Bush joked in February.
Bush played the role of broke father of the bride again in March, joking: "I had to face some very difficult spending decisions, and I've had to conduct sensitive diplomacy. That's called planning for a wedding."
When he first talked about it, the president didn't seem all that nostalgic about seeing one of his daughters marry. When Hager said "I want to marry your daughter,' Bush said he replied, "Done deal."
Today, Bush is a bit more wistful. With just nine months left in office and his popularity sliding, Bush jokes that GOP presidential candidate John McCain isn't the only one who wants to distance himself from him.
"Jenna is moving out, too," Bush says.
I think a private wedding at the family home is most appropriate considering our nation is at war.
The Bushes have always displayed character and class.
I don’t think the men or women at war have a problem with the life going on at home that they are defending, going on at home while they are defending it.
There’s character and there’s misguided overkill.
I’m not even sure that is why Jena picked the farm. She may just prefer that atmosphere. If so, that’s fine by me. She certainly shouldn’t be obligated to use the White House.
I read somewhere that Jenna said that she and Henry wanted it in a place where they could return & relive memories of their special day.
It’s obviously easier to do that at the ranch than the White House.
Henry seems like a romantic guy.....giving her the ring at the top of Cadillac Mountain where there is a stunning view of the ocean.
Thank Julie. That sounds nice.
Secret tape recording of George W. Bush
In February 2005, after an article in the New York Times, Mr. Wead acknowledged that he had secretly tape recorded conversations with President George W. Bush. Wead contended that he began tape recording these conversations in 1998, in order to create a record of Bush, then Governor of Texas, as a historical figure and that it was his intention that they never see the light of day. Only a few minutes of the nine hours of conversations were made public, in them Bush is heard discussing potential 2000 presidential foes such as John McCain and Steve Forbes, and hints that he had smoked marijuana, but would not admit to it for fear of becoming a bad role model for children.
******
Doug Wead — a former aide to President Bush’s father, George H.W. Bush — recorded about nine hours of conversations with the Texas governor while he was considering his run for the White House.
On the tapes, the president appears to admit to past drug use and says he won’t join some conservative Christians he sees as “kicking gays.”
I would not marry a man who did not have the respect to ask my Father for my hand in marriage. It is polite and nice and shows the true character of a gentleman. I even know young men who ask if they can date my sisters daughter. Nice.
Does this mean you rent them, not buy 'em? That's a great ideerr-why buy a dress for one day's use, huh?!
I really like the Bush family and I’m looking forward to the pictures.
Ugly dresses, and the Bush Girls are so beautiful, it’s a shame.
Best of luck to the happy couple, they deserve it and getting married at the ranch will have special meaning to them in the years to come.
t.
Got to love GW’s sense of humor, God bless the man.
I laughed at his response - sounded like he was selling a horse!
When Hager said "I want to marry your daughter,' Bush said he replied, "Done deal."
Those are as close to "off the rack" examples of De La Renta styles as you are going to find. There is no doubt in my mind that Jenna's dress will not be found on a runway model.
1. This one's not bad for the girly-girl. Elegant shape, not too frou-frou.
2. The poor girl looks like she fell into a vat of feathers.
3. Tube tops belong on the beach. Maybe. And instead of feathers, it looks more like an attack of paper stickers.
4. Uhhh, beading placement is everything. And the ethereal haze of the skirt just draws the eye up, magnifying the problem.
5. Great, another hazy, shapeless skirt. This one is attached to a generic fitted strapless bodice. About a zero or below on the personality scale.
6. With the use of fabric softener, this one will easily transition to a nightgown.
7. This one could have used a hint of coordinating embellishment on the bodice (maybe there is some at the neckline but I just can't tell). Otherwise this one is very nice. A clever mix of hard and soft lines, but the bodice really would look better with a narrow skirt. Oh well. It's classic with nothing weird, but it's not for the girly-girl.
#4 with the silver accents would be a tasteful prom dress :-).
I’ve told my daughter she can get married in her uniform, if she wants to, or in her cowboy outfit, just as long as it’s in a church!
The dresses are not something I would choose—but worse than the dresses are the sourpuss models. Good grief!
They look like they’re marrying Democrats.
For some reason, I don't think that will be a problem this saturday! I think they know who he is... and where he live!
Please add an appropriate S.
You’re just looking for a fight, aren’t you?
Please reread carefully and consider the context in which my comments were made. I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.
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