February 11, 2009 2:59 PM
- Text
The Making Of A First Family Wedding
(CBS)
There's a reason the president is practicing his father-of-the-bride walk today. After months of preparation, it's time for the real thing, CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports.
"Three a.m. this morning the red phone rang," President Bush said. "It was the damn wedding planner!"
Bush daughter Jenna will exchange vows with Henry Hager at the family ranch in Crawford, Texas, Saturday. Reporters have tried to charm their way in with congratulations.
"Thank you very much," First Lady Laura Bush said. "Thank you."
"Any chance you'll let us cover it?" one reporter asked.
That would be a big "no." As in no cameras, no reporters, no one but 200 close family and friends allowed past the Secret Service checkpoint.
It's been 37 years since America was invited to a presidential wedding. Tricia Nixon married Edward Cox in the Rose Garden in 1971 while the nation watched.
Before her there was Lynda Bird Johnson and her sister Luci Baines, who learned the hard way even the date matters.
"I hadn't appreciated that Aug. 6 was the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima," Luci Baines said. "So when I arrived at the church there were pickets. Had I not been a White House bride, there probably would have not been any conversation. But because I was, there was."
Jenna Bush told Vogue magazine she did feel some pressure to "give the nation a full-blown White House wedding."
She also said, on Larry King: "But I wanted to have something more private and something that fit my personality a little bit more."
That means a Texas country wedding. A 7:30 evening ceremony followed by dinner and dancing. Jenna will wear Oscar de la Renta: simple and elegant with a small train.
Her twin Barbara is the maid of honor in floor-length midnight blue. And the fourteen bridesmaids will be dressed in the colors of Texas wildflowers.
But don't count on seeing much of those dresses - or the wedding. The White House plans to release one or two pictures on Sunday.
Aside from that, the rest of us will have to settle for coffee with the bride and groom.
"Three a.m. this morning the red phone rang," President Bush said. "It was the damn wedding planner!"
Bush daughter Jenna will exchange vows with Henry Hager at the family ranch in Crawford, Texas, Saturday. Reporters have tried to charm their way in with congratulations.
"Thank you very much," First Lady Laura Bush said. "Thank you."
"Any chance you'll let us cover it?" one reporter asked.
That would be a big "no." As in no cameras, no reporters, no one but 200 close family and friends allowed past the Secret Service checkpoint.
It's been 37 years since America was invited to a presidential wedding. Tricia Nixon married Edward Cox in the Rose Garden in 1971 while the nation watched.
Before her there was Lynda Bird Johnson and her sister Luci Baines, who learned the hard way even the date matters.
"I hadn't appreciated that Aug. 6 was the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima," Luci Baines said. "So when I arrived at the church there were pickets. Had I not been a White House bride, there probably would have not been any conversation. But because I was, there was."
Jenna Bush told Vogue magazine she did feel some pressure to "give the nation a full-blown White House wedding."
She also said, on Larry King: "But I wanted to have something more private and something that fit my personality a little bit more."
That means a Texas country wedding. A 7:30 evening ceremony followed by dinner and dancing. Jenna will wear Oscar de la Renta: simple and elegant with a small train.
Her twin Barbara is the maid of honor in floor-length midnight blue. And the fourteen bridesmaids will be dressed in the colors of Texas wildflowers.
But don't count on seeing much of those dresses - or the wedding. The White House plans to release one or two pictures on Sunday.
Aside from that, the rest of us will have to settle for coffee with the bride and groom.
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