The White House has married again for the first time in years. Naomi Biden, President Joe Biden’s 26-year-old granddaughter, and Peter Neal exchanged vows on Saturday, according to media photos from the event.
The ceremony took place in bright sunshine and temperatures around five degrees on the south lawn of the White House – and thus in a way in front of the eyes of the public. However, the otherwise accessible park behind the US President’s official residence was closed, so that the spectators and photographers were several hundred meters away and it was difficult to see anything without binoculars or a telephoto lens. Media were not allowed at the wedding itself. According to the White House, the couple wanted to keep the ceremony private.
The South Entrance of the White House was decorated with a white and green floral arch and garlands on the railing. Naomi Biden wore a long-sleeved dress. The Washington Post wrote that the several hundred guests were advised to dress warmly. They shouldn’t have had smartphones with them at the ceremony either. Naomi Biden was led out the door of the White House for the wedding by her father, Hunter Biden, and her mother, Kathleen Buhle.
According to official records, it was only the 19th wedding in the White House – and the first on the open southern meadow, where the President’s “Marine One” helicopter usually lands. Most recently, in October 1993, the then official photographer of the White House, Pete Souza, married at the official residence. Like others before him, he chose the more sheltered rose garden.
Naomi Biden is the first granddaughter of a president to marry in the White House. Previously, it was mostly daughters – such as Tricia Nixon in 1971 – or other family members such as the brother of First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1994. Grover Cleveland’s 1886 wedding remains the only one of a president in the White House. A wedding reception is one of the private expenses that a president or his family must pay out of pocket.
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