White House weddings through the years - in pictures

Joe and Jill Biden with their granddaughter Naomi Biden and her husband Peter Neal

(Image credit: Adam Schultz/The White House via Getty Images)

published 24 November 2022

President Joe Biden’s eldest granddaughter Naomi Biden married her partner Peter Neal last Saturday at the White House, the first wedding to take place at the Washington landmark since 2013.

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The Biden marriage is not the first wedding to take place at the White House, and is in fact the 19th ceremony on the grounds. The last was in 2013 when President Barack Obama hosted a wedding for his photographer, Pete Souza. The last presidential family wedding to take place at the White House was back in the Clinton era, when Hillary Clinton’s youngest brother Anthony Rodham was married in the Rose Garden in 1994. President George W. Bush’s daughter Jenna Bush did hold her reception at the White House, but the wedding was held at the family’s ranch in Texas.

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Naomi Biden (November 2022)

President Joe Biden’s granddaughter Naomi Biden married her fiancé Peter Neal on the South Lawn. It was the first presidential family wedding ceremony to be held at the White House since 1994.

Tricia Nixon (June 1971)

President Richard Nixon’s daughter Tricia Nixon married corporate lawyer Edward F. Cox in June 1971 in the Rose Garden. According to Town and Country “four hundred guests attended”, including Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter Alice, now 87, who had been married there in 1906.

Lynda Bird Johnson (December 1967)

Lynda Bird Johnson, daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson, married the then former Marine and White House social aide Charles Robb in a ceremony in the East Room in December 1967. Robb later became a senator for Virginia between 1989 and 2001.

Eleanor Wilson (May 1914)

The youngest daughter of Woodrow Wilson was married in the Blue Room in 1914 to the then secretary of the treasury, William McAdoo. It was the second of three Wilson weddings at the White House, taking place four years before the president’s niece Alice Wilson was married in the same room.

Jessie Wilson (November 1913)

Married in the Blue Room just six months before her sister, Jessie Wilson wed lawyer Francis B. Sayre in November 1913.

Alice Roosevelt (February 1906)

Theodore Roosevelt’s only daughter was married in the East Room to Republican congressman for Ohio, Nicholas Longworth. According to Town and Country, more than 1,000 people attended.

Grover Cleveland (June 1886)

As well as being the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms, Grover Cleveland is the only one to have married while in office, and at the White House. The then 49-year-old married Frances Folsom, 21, in the Blue Room in 1886.

Richard Windsor is a freelance writer for The Week Digital. He began his journalism career writing about politics and sport while studying at the University of Southampton. He then worked across various football publications before specialising in cycling for almost nine years, covering major races including the Tour de France and interviewing some of the sport’s top riders. He led Cycling Weekly’s digital platforms as editor for seven of those years, helping to transform the publication into the UK’s largest cycling website. He now works as a freelance writer, editor and consultant.