Jenna Bush married.
May 10, 2008, 9:03PM
Jenna Bush and Henry Hager tie the knot
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle and the Associated Press
Jenna Bush gets married
CRAWFORD — The president's daughter Jenna and Henry Hager said "I do" Saturday at President Bush's ranch.
The president and the bride picked You Are So Beautiful for their father-daughter dance, according to band leader Tyrone Smith, of Nashville, Tenn. Smith and his 10-piece party band, The Tyrone Smith Revue, was asked to do Lovin' in My Baby's Eyes by Taj Mahal for the newlyweds' first dance. Smith, who promised the couple a "get down'' party, talked to the Associated Press earlier in the week on condition that the information not be released before the wedding.
The ceremony began about a half-hour or so before sunset. The couple stood at a cross, made of beige Texas limestone, that was erected near the ranch's man-made lake. The cross and altar, made of the same stone used to construct the Bush's ranch house, will be a landmark at the ranch for years to come. The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell ,of Houston's Windsor Village United Methodist Church, officiated.
"He is a Bush family friend," said Sally McDonough, spokeswoman for first lady Laura Bush.
At least 200 people were expected at the wedding. The ranch was hit by a brief storm that packed winds up to 50 mph and dropped nickel-size hail on the area. The White House said the storm did not cause any damage at the ranch, where a tent has been erected for post-ceremony dinner and dancing.
Jenna Bush, 26, is the 22nd child of a president to get married while their father was in the Oval Office. Their ceremonies have ranged from Tricia Nixon's extravagant wedding broadcast live from the Rose Garden in 1971 to the 1992 Camp David wedding of Jenna's aunt, Dorothy Koch. That one was kept so secret that the press didn't find out about it until it was over.
The past couple of days have been busy ones for the wedding party. The two families last night celebrated with a rehearsal dinner hosted by Hager's family in Salado, more than an hour's drive from the presidential ranch.
The party was also a celebration of Hager's birthday — the groom turned 30 on Friday.
The first lady, Jenna and twin sister Barbara, along with female relatives and Jenna's 14 house party members, participated in a bride's lunch, also in Salado. The groom's family, prominent Virginia Republicans, hosted a barbecue for guests this afternoon catered by Eddie Dean of Dallas.
Attire for the ceremony tonight was dignified but not black tie. Henry Hager's best man was to be his brother Jack.
The first lady, as mother of the bride, was to wear an Oscar de la Renta dress in deep turquoise, a shade that matches the Texas wildflower palette for the occasion. The bride was also to wear an Oscar de la Renta.
Hager, a former White House staffer and the son of the Virginia Republican Party chairman, John H. Hager, will get his MBA from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business on May 18.
He met the president's daughter during her father's 2004 re-election campaign. Hager is expected to take a job at Maryland's Constellation Energy, the state's biggest power company, according to several sources. It's unclear what Jenna's plans are, and the White House isn't saying much.
After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in English, Jenna Bush taught at a charter school in Washington, D.C.
In 2006, she went to work as an unpaid intern for UNICEF in Panama. During her time in the region, she traveled around Argentina, Paraguay and Panama, creating photo diaries of the life stories of children and adolescents she met there. Her work sparked her book idea for Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope.
More recently, she collaborated with her mother on a children's book.
After the wedding, the couple is rumored to be honeymooning in Europe, although the White House would not comment. After that, they plan to live in a two-bedroom, two-bath townhouse on the south side of Baltimore.
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