The White House has released official photos of Jenna Bush’s wedding ceremony and reception. She looks beautiful and her special day seems like a perfect mix of elegant touches with a down home celebration. Jenna, 26, and her new husband, Henry Hager, 30, are thought to be heading off to a European honeymoon. The new couple will return home to a two bedroom townhouse in Baltimore, Maryland. Jenna has a job as a schoolteacher in Washington, DC, and Henry will work for an energy company in Maryland. Best wishes to the new couple.

We posted full details of their wedding ceremony and reception earlier today.

All photos thanks to WhiteHouse.gov. Jenna and Henry are shown with their parents including Mr. and Mrs. John Hager, and with the reverend who officiated their ceremony, Kirbyjon Caldwell of Houston’s Windsor Village United Methodist Church.

Update: The photos have been released of Jenna’s special day and it looks incredible.

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Jenna Bush, 26, married her boyfriend of nearly four years, former White House aid and MBA graduate student Henry Hager, 30, on Saturday. The event was held at Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, and was attended by around 200 guests. Jenna certainly could have chosen to have an elegant affair at the White House, but that’s not her style and she didn’t want to draw too much attention to herself.

There was a very good editorial by Diane Roberts on NPR today about how Jenna missed a chance at a wedding that would have been as close to a royal occasion as is possible in America. Roberts cited some Presidents’ daughters who chose to have White House weddings that were attended by the press and followed closely by millions of Americans. If Jenna would have had that type of wedding it might have provided her lame duck President father a brief blip in his terrible ratings, but it also would have made her a target.

As it is, we only have one old pre-released photo of Henry and Jenna and the details about their wedding. They chose to go the Beyoncé and Jay-Z route and haven’t even released a wedding portrait yet. (Update: Here’s a link to the photos of Jenna’s wedding)

Here are some details from People and an NPR story.

• A rehearsal dinner was hosted by Hager’s parents for around 100 people in Salado, Texas on Friday, and all the wedding guests were invited.
  

• The wedding and reception were outdoors.
  

• Jenna wore “an embroidered organza Oscar de la Renta gown” that’s described as simple and elegant. She did not wear a veil.
  

• Her twin sister Barbara was the maid of honor and wore a de la Renta dress that was cut low in the back and was “moonstone blue shimmer with a silver sash.”
  

• There were 14 other attendants in her “house” party, which sounds less formal than a standard wedding party.
  

• The men wore suits, not tuxes, with Henry in a dark blue suit and powder blue tie. His brother was his best man.
  

• He had 14 ushers in his party also. They are said to have walked the women to their seats but not to have been involved in the ceremony.
  

• The bride and groom stood at a special beige limestone cross made for them of the same stone used on the ranch home on the estate.
  

• The wedding was officiated by Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston.
  

• Wedding singer Tyrone Smith or “Super T” and his 10-piece band provided the music for the reception. He is described by People as “a favorite at Southern frat parties.”
  

• The first dance was “Lovin’ in My Baby’s Eyes” by Taj Mahal, and the father-daughter dance was “You Are So Beautiful.”
  

• Jenna and Henry are thought to be honeymooning in Europe. They will live in a two bedroom, two bath house on Baltimore’s south side. Jenna will return to her job teaching at a public school in Washington, DC and Henry has a position with energy company Constellation Energy. He will graduate with his MBA from the University of Virginia next month.

[Many bulleted details nearly word for word from NPR report.]

Other weddings of sitting presidents’ daughters
NPR reminds us that the most extravagant White House wedding in recent history was President Nixon’s daughter Tricia’s live wedding broadcast from the Rose Garden. Tricia Nixon married liberal Harvard law student Edward Finch Cox on June 12, 1971, when the Vietnam War was still in full force. Cox was featured on the cover of Life Magazine twice after her wedding, which Life called “akin to American royalty.”

In contrast, Dorothy Bush, Jenna’s aunt, got married in a super secret ceremony in 1992 at Camp David when Jenna’s grandfather was President.

An aid to President HW Bush explains in part why Jenna chose a more low-key event: “If they’d have gone on TV, the wedding would have been shown all over the world and Jenna Bush would have been an international celebrity — and she would have been a target. They’re preparing the transition to private life and they’re not particularly interested in seeing Jenna Bush become a huge celebrity.”

You understand why they didn’t have a wedding at the White House and it seems like a wise decision for them. The whole world would have made fun of Jenna instead of her dad for once.

Best wishes to Jenna and Henry for a normal family life. They’re a very cute couple and they seem to be off to a good start, all things considered.

Here’s Tricia Nixon and President Nixon at her 1971 wedding in the Rose Garden, the only wedding held there in history.

Recently engaged author and first daughter Jenna Bush is getting some flak from the Writer’s Guild for crossing picket lines to film a promotional appearance with Ellen DeGeneres. Bush Junior junior is still plugging her book “Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope” about a young woman she met in Latin America who was born with HIV and got pregnant. Touching premise. **Cough cough ghostwriter cough cough** [JayBird looks around nervously]. Remember Jenna is the less-intelligent/harder-partying twin who couldn’t get into Yale even though her dad-the-current-president and her grandfather-the-former-president and twin sister all attended. I know Yale requires the absolute best of the best, but how bad must your grades be if they have to say, “I’m sorry Mr. President, we can only take one twin.” Alright I’m done with the Bush bashing. Jenna’s being called a scab for crossing the picket lines and going on “Ellen” yesterday (airing today). It was ironically pointed out that it’s the President’s job to prevent labor strife. Whoops.

Jenna actually filmed a pretty cute sounding interview. We, the naïve and trusting viewers, are meant to believe that Ellen talks Jenna into an unplanned phone call to her parents, live on the air. It comes off pretty well, which means there’s no way in hell W was surprised. That man can barely string three rudimentary words together with a Speak & Spell; there’s no way he could sound like a semi-normal human being when he’s “surprised” by his daughter calling from a TV show. But let’s play dumb and pretend to think it’s adorable.

Pleasantly prodding the First Daughter during a taping of her show… DeGeneres inquired if Bush could get her high-powered papa on the phone any time she wants. “I usually call him in the evening or in the morning, when I know they’ll both be at home,” said the 26-year-old. “Could you just pick up the phone like right now and call him?” wondered a wide-eyed Ellen. “Sure,” replies Bush. “He’s going to kill me, though.

DeGeneres, meanwhile, says that if Jenna’s parents don’t answer, she’ll get Jenna’s grandfather, former President George Herbert Walker Bush, on the phone, and observes: “We’re not barging in while they’re in their pajamas or something.” Once Bush gets through to First Lady Laura Bush, she says, “Hi, Mom.” Asking how the show is going, Mom says, “I’m not watching you because you’re taping right now.” She also tells her daughter, “I’m just sitting here with Daddy.”

Pipes up Ellen: “I wanted to say hi to Daddy.” And so, the President of the United States comes to the phone, and is told by his offspring, “This is the Ellen DeGeneres Show. Are You Mad?’

“Well, that’s great!” says the surprised Chief Executive, who asks DeGeneres, “How’s my little girl doing?” “Oh, she’s great,” answers the host. “She’s scared she’s going to get in trouble [and] not going to get any Christmas presents.” Pause. “Dad?” asks Jenna. “Yes, baby,” he replies. “Are you mad?” she inquires. “No, not at all,” says President Bush. “I’m excited to talk to you. I’m glad to talk to Ellen.”

[From People]

Yeah it made me feel annoyingly warm and fuzzy too. I’m hoping once it actually airs I’ll find that it’s trite, hackneyed, and cold. Or other negative adjectives. I feel like I’ve been duped, as to read it, it came off as mildly adorable. Now I feel cheap and used. Ahh, now that’s the feeling I’m used to from the Bushes.

When asked in a Time magazine interview Thursday why she was not serving in Iraq, first daughter Jenna Bush was quoted as saying “there are many ways to serve our country, and I think my skills are better suited for teaching and representing the U.S. in Latin America.”

If these older photos of Jenna flashing on the beach (Update: This is not Jenna, it’s a lookalike) are any indication of Jenna’s “representing”, she certainly is doing her patriotic duty, along with Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, in providing those GIs in Iraq with inspiration of what they are fighting for.

In another curious comment, when asked about her wild past she said, “It’s been seven years, and I’ve changed and I’ve grown. I’ve learned a lot.” Maybe not so much, Jenna. Apparently she forgot just last year, when she and her sister were kicked out of Argentina after a drunken incident. That same trip she hooked up with an out-of-work Argentinean named Ramiro González Palazzo, who seemed impressed enough to find a woman with a valid credit card, let alone the president’s daughter.

When asked in the Time article about using condoms to prevent HIV, Jenna did show more sense than her abstinence–only dad, remarking that kids “need to use condoms to keep themselves safe and to stop the spread of HIV. It’s a personal choice, and the most important thing is that kids become aware of their choices and make the proper decisions.” For the sake of Jenna’s new fiancé, lets hope she followed her own advice.

All Jenna quotes from Time.com.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Jenna Bush is shown reading a passage from her new book, Ana’s Story, at Borders Book Store in Annapolis, Maryland on 10/1/07. Ana’s Story is about a young woman living with HIV in Latin America that Jenna supposedly met on her travels.

Update by Celebitchy: Commentors are saying that it’s not Jenna in those nude beach photos (link NSFW!) and is instead a lookalike. They are labeled as Jenna and the woman bears a strong resemblance to her. Both the post author Mike and I genuinely believed it was her and it was not until you guys pointed it out to me that I realized that it wasn’t.

One of President Bush’s twin daughters, Jenna, 24, got engaged on Wednesday. Her boyfriend of nearly two years, Henry Hager, 28, popped the question. Hager is a former White House aide and worked for Bush’s re-election campaign under Karl Rove. Good to see they’re keeping the conservatism in the family. Jenna is the less pretty/more drinking/less intelligent/ of Bush’s twins. She is said to take after her father.

“Jenna Bush, one of President Bush’s twin daughters, is engaged to be married to her long-time boyfriend, Henry Hager, the White House announced Thursday.

“No wedding date has been set for Jenna’s wedding to Hager, said Sally McDonough, press secretary for first lady Laura Bush. The two were engaged on Wednesday.

“Hager, who is attending the University of Virginia School of Business, has been a White House aide and worked on Bush’s re-election campaign. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Hager of Richmond, Va. The groom-to-be’s father is a former lieutenant governor in Virginia and former director of Virginia’s Office of Commonwealth Preparedness.

“The younger Hager has been dating Jenna, 25, for several years, and is often seen with her at family Bush functions and formal events, such as a White House dinner in November 2005 in honor of Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.”

[From the Associated Press]

Shunning the family’s long preference for Ivy League schools, Jenna attended the University of Texas at Austin – supposedly because, even as a president’s daughter, she couldn’t get in to his alma matter. Jenna also takes after her father, having two arrests related to underage drinking in April 2001 and trying to use a fake ID to buy alcohol in May of 2001. She pleaded no contest to both. Jenna has reformed a bit since graduating from college. She’s worked in the Washington DC public school system, written a book (I would assume it’s ghostwritten, but who knows) and worked for UNICEF. According to Wikipedia “She is currently teaching at a shelter several days a week as part of an internship for UNICEF’s Educational Policy Department in Latin America, specifically in Panama.”

Jenna came in at a respectable 17th in FHM’s “Most eligible Bachelorette” competition. The criteria included wealth and looks. I would have found this all a lot more interesting if she was marrying someone with a little more kick to him than Karl Rove’s former employee. I know the Bush twins have rebelled a bit in their own way, but wouldn’t that have been a lot better?

Picture note by JayBird: Header image is Jenna Bush at Book Expo 2007 in February. Image thanks to WENN.