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.
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.
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)
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.
See People Magazine’s latest edition for the tattoo photos
When you hear that Nick and Mariah got each other’s names tattooed on their body as a symbol of their undying six weeks of love, you assume that they’re small to medium tattoos of the type that are regrettable but easily lasered off or covered over after an inevitable break up. Johnny Depp had his “Winona Forever shoulder tattoo altered to read “Wino Forever” and Angelina Jolie had her “Billy Bob” tattoo removed and replaced with the coordinates of her children’s birthplaces.
The disparity between Nick Cannon’s tattoo for Mariah Carey and Mariah’s “Mrs. Cannon” tattoo is huge, though. Hers is easily covered up and is hard to see. She has a small butterfly at the base of her spine with “Mrs. Cannon” in script as the center line of the butterfly. It’s nearly impossible to see and you can’t tell that the center of the butterfly is actual writing unless you’re right up close.
Nick Cannon has “Mariah” tattooed across his entire upper back in giant half-cursive writing with a mirror image of the tattoo beneath it like a reflection. That is going to be super painful to remove. What’s more is that these two got the tattoos right after they met each other, because Mariah told People it had been a “few weeks” since they had the tattoos done and they’ve only been together for six weeks. Scary Spice and Eddie Murphy also got tattoos for each other almost immediately, and look how that worked out for them:
On how they connected immediately while collaborating on “Bye Bye” video
Nick: From the first time we sat down to discuss the video… we connected. We had so much in common spiritually, and we laugh at the same things. I didn’t have to put on my Mac Daddy suave mode. I was able to be myself with her. We are both eternally 12 years old.
Mariah [laughing] We were having a [sic] such a good time on the shoot.
Nick: I brought her little pieces of candy. I’d write little third-grade notes instead of being over-the-top.
Mariah: He wrote a note, “Will you be my girlfriend?” with boxes for yes or no. In the video, we’re boyfriend and girlfriend. It seemed very natural.
[From People Magazine, print edition, May 19, 2008]
On if their friends were surprised by the marriage, and about their tattoos
Mariah: Some were, but some weren’t. One thing [few people] knew was we got tattoos a few weeks earlier. So anyone who saw my [Mrs. Cannon] tattoo wasn’t surprised.
Nick: To me rings are special and exciting, but tattoos mean more than anything. They’re forever and ever. They professed our love.
Mariah: And they hurt!
Nick: A lot.
[From People Magazine, print edition, May 19, 2008]
How Nick Proposed with a Ring Pop, filmed it, then did another take for the cameras
On April 25 Cannon took Carey to the roof of her NYC apartment to see the Empire State Building, lit pink and lavender to honor her album E=MC2. As he often did, he gave her a Ring Pop - candy shaped like a big jewel. But inside the wrapper was a 17-carat pink-diamond ring… Her reaction? “He had ribbons around it, so I said ‘I think mine’s broke,” says Care. When he drpoped to one knee, “she ran away and got all shy,” he says. Finally, she said yes - twice. Cannon, who filmed it all, proposed again to get a perfect take, this time on a helicopter. “That,” says Carey, “was beautiful.”
[From People Magazine, print edition, May 19, 2008]
So Nick says they both act 12, that he sent her candy with little notes on it, and that he even proposed with candy. And he taped the proposal twice so I assume it will be on television at some point after someone pays a hefty sum for it. They marked their names on each other like a junior high student writes on a notebook cover, and then topped it off by having an impulsive wedding. Mariah wasn’t stupid though and she seems to have hedged her bets. Reports say she did get a prenuptial agreement. Now that I know her tattoo for Nick is tiny and hard to decipher she seems to have thought this through much more than I previously gave her credit for.
Here’s a clip from Oprah with some of the photos that are now in People. It’s pretty funny.
Thanks to Huffington Post for the video. You can see more wedding photos in the latest edition of People Magazine.
Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey were predictably photographed outside the Waverly Inn in NY last night. The Waverly is the Ivy of the East Coast, and celebrities go there to get their picture taken and be noticed. The newlyweds showed off their matching over-the-top diamond studded wedding bands. Nick and Mariah were also dressed similarly, with Nick in a suit and Mariah wearing a matching button-front tailored dress with pockets. US Weekly notes that they were at the Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People event also that evening.
The National Enquirer has details of their wedding reception and ceremony, which included 40 guests Mariah flew down to the Bahamas, a cake she had made in NY which she personally brought with her, and white roses and pink bows decorating her Bahamian estate. A walkway was built down to the beach for the ceremony.
Before jetting off to the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas, where she owns a spectacular, $5-million, 3-acre compound called “Sea Lilly,” the singer bought five “itsy-bitsy bikinis” from Beach Bunny Swimwear that look like lingerie, an insider told the Enquirer.
The happy couple hired two Gulfstream private jets to fly 40 of their closest pals - including rapper Da Brat - down to the island the day before the ceremony.
“Mariah was in a really happy mood, and she and her guests were popping open bottles of Dom Perignon champagne on the runway as soon as they got off the airplane,” says an eyewitness…
Mariah had her cake made in New York and was so concerned about it arriving in one piece, insiders say she kept it in the seat next to her during the flight!
While guests were transported to local hotels… Mariah and Nick immediately set of to get a wedding license…
By the time they had arrived [at Mariah's estate] cars had been rented, dozens of brightly blooming tropical plants had been planted and a wooden walkway had been erected to the beach for the sunset ceremony.
“It was really beautiful - they had lined up the chairs upstairs so that guests could see down onto the beach, where the wedding would be held, and there were white roses and pink lace bows everywhere. The whole house looked like a wedding cake!” said another insider…
Later, guests dined on lobster flown in live in a tank of water on a commercial jet from Fort Lauderdale, FL, while dozens of white roses decorated the interior of her house.
[From The National Enquirer, print edition, May 19, 2008]
Best of luck to them, but if these two last longer than 9 months I will be surprised. You really need to know someone for more than a few weeks before you rush into marriage. You hear those stories about old married couples who met and married haven’t spent a day apart in 50 years but I think those are the very few exceptions. When two celebrities are involved the odds are definitely stacked against them.
Look at how Mariah is eating up the attention as usual while Nick looks kind of dazed and unsure. They’re not on the same page at all.
A still from Mariah’s “Bye Bye” video, which is below
I mentioned this briefly yesterday when People promised that their upcoming Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey wedding issue would have details of their “plans for kids.” That statement is kind of vague and I thought that maybe they weren’t planning on kids right away, since Mariah said around two weeks ago that “It’s hard to have kids in this world… I don’t think I could properly educate a child right now. Maybe in the future, but I actually haven’t thought about it.” It also sounded like she said having kids would make her feel violated, because she added “I never wanted to feel violated and I know that’s a kind of weird thing to say, but that’s how I am.” (Those quotes were printed in OK! Magazine and reported online around April 22, so maybe Mariah said that up to a month ago, but the quotes are not more than a month old.)
Now there are actual excerpts out from People’s interview with Mariah and Nick, and she did indeed say she wants kids, and she seems kind of resolved to it. Mariah also claims that their tattoos for each other are “forever and ever” and Nick says it was love at first site and they haven’t left each other’s company since they met:
Nick on their whirlwind affair: “It was a love-at-first-sight thing. Since we’ve been together, we’ve been inseparable.”
Mariah on how friends knew they were getting serious: “One thing (few people) knew was we got tattoos a few weeks earlier. So anyone who saw my (”Mrs. Cannon”) tattoo wasn’t surprised. To me rings are special and exciting, but tattoos mean more than anything. They’re forever and ever.”
Nick on their connection: “From the first time we sat down to discuss the video at the Beverly Hills Hotel, we connected. … I was able to be myself with her. We are both eternally 12 years old.”
Mariah on plans to have kids: “It’s part of the whole purpose of getting married. I’d just want our children to have the best childhood and upbringing they possibly could.”
[Quotes from People Magazine, print edition, May 17, 2008 thanks to Faded Youth]
The way Mariah phrases it, she makes it sound like it’s inevitable and that she just will make sure her children are well taken care of and that’s all she can do. It’s a complete turnaround from her statement just two weeks ago that she hadn’t even thought of it and seemed kind of daunted at the thought of children.
Mariah got married without much consideration, and is now the wife of a guy she started dating just six weeks ago who probably hasn’t even gotten on her nerves once yet. She seems to have changed her mind about children about as quickly as she decided to get married. These two are in for a surprise once they wake up from their endorphin haze and start having to assert their own opinions in the relationship. I have a feeling Mariah isn’t going to be having children anytime soon, and is just saying what she thinks her new husband wants to hear.
Here’s Mariah Carey’s Bye Bye video featuring Nick Cannon:
Hollyscoop has an exclusive that Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz have sent out invitations announcing their shotgun wedding this weekend at an undisclosed location an hour’s drive outside of LA:
A source close to the couple has told Hollyscoop exclusively, “The wedding invitations have been sent out, its taking place the weekend of May 16. The location will not be revealed until the day of the wedding but guests are told it will be an hour drive from Los Angeles.”
Our source also confirmed that Ashlee is 100% pregnant. Papa Joe is probably busy selling off the wedding info and pictures as we speak so expect to see it in the tabloids Memorial weekend.
Ashlee Simpson still does not look pregnant to me, but it’s possible. It’s also possible she’s keeping the rumors going in order to generate buzz for her new album, Bittersweet World. Ashlee’s third CD release debuted at number 4 on the U.S. Billboard 200, and sold 47,000 copies the first week it was out. Her last two albums, Autobiography and I Am Me sold 398,000 and 220,000 copies in the first week of their respective releases. [Details from Wikipedia]
It’s safe to say Ashlee’s popularity is waning since intro sales of her latest release are less than a quarter of the sales of her last album. If her dad is already brokering the photos for her wedding you can bet he’s banking on increased interest in her music. All this advance publicity didn’t help her, it’s not likely that a wedding will do much either.
Do you think People and/or OK! will eventually stop paying astronomical rates for celebrity wedding and baby photos after they realize they’re not big sellers and that the long term increase in circulation is not worth it? Ashlee has a potential gold mine on her hands with a wedding and a maybe-pregnancy, but you can’t help but think she’s going to milk it for all the publicity and the cash her grubby dad can get his mitts on.
Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson were photographed in Paris yesterday. Maybe they’re scouting for wedding stuff. Doesn’t Pete look special? Thanks to Splash for these photos.
See people.com for the cover image of the magazine
The upcoming issue of People Magazine has details of Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon’s “six-week romance and surprise wedding” with photos of their wedding and honeymoon including a shirtless Cannon cavorting on the beach with Mariah in a bikini. I wonder how much People paid for those exclusive rights, because it’s probably enough for my entire extended family to retire on.
People has some quotes from Mariah and Nick, and Mariah calls Nick her soulmate even though she’s had less than two months to make that decision. Nick’s statement that Mariah is beautiful inside and out sounds sweet and a lot more realistic than Mariah’s. He married her though, so it’s not like his judgment skills aren’t impaired too. Sex endorphins can be a powerful and stupefying force:
“We really do feel we are soulmates,” Carey tells PEOPLE, following their sunset ceremony at the pop star’s Bahamian estate. “I never felt a love like this was in the cards for me.”
Cannon adds: “She is beautiful on the outside and 10 times as beautiful on the inside.”
People also promises to have details and photos of “their new tattoos… Nick’s candy-themed proposal” and “their plans for kids” despite the fact that Mariah said about two weeks ago that having kids would make her feel violated. Maybe they plan to adopt and pass of their kids to other people to raise. That way Mariah can make sure that the level of pampering and attention she’s getting is maintained at pre-child levels.
Well the union between Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon appears to definitely be legit – the pair filed for a marriage license on the Caribbean island of Eleuthera, where Carey has a home, according to People magazine. It also appears that they wed at her estate on the exclusive island.
“Touch My Body” singer Mariah Carey, 38, got secretly hitched yesterday to her 27-year-old boyfriend after a one-month relationship, shocking the chart-topping songbird’s family and friends. Carey married TV actor Nick Cannon at the home she just bought in Eleuthera in the Bahamas, a source close to the singer said.
“They have been smitten with each other for days, weeks,” the friend said. “And she’s always had a crush on him.”
Carey and her boy toy had tongues wagging when she was seen sporting Cannon on her arm and a shiny ring on her finger at the Tribeca Film Festival. Asked what he loved about Carey, Cannon reportedly cooed “everything.”
“Everyone is happy to see her happy,” Carey’s friend told The Post. “And it could work out - some people know each other for five years and get divorced. Maybe this is true, instant love
Well who could stand that feeling of being smitten for WEEKS? I mean that is just an intolerable length of time. The Post also says that Carey isn’t as dumb as we feared – she did get a quickie pre-nup. I didn’t know that was possible, but good for her for being somewhat smart while being fairly stupid. Linda Cannon – who People says is a relative of Nick’s, but doesn’t elaborate – says that after they married, Nick “called and told us all about it.”
While there’s still no official announcement, it seems like the pair probably did wed. My only suspicion was that Mariah was perhaps following the Ashlee Simpson school of thought (NEVER a good idea, no matter what the thought) of getting a lot of free press around the time of your CD release by starting a bunch of rumors you refuse to address. While that’s probably not what happened, the possibility is still sticking in my head, and I can’t help but wonder why Mariah chose to get married so quickly, and why right now.
Photos of Mariah showing off her 17-carat ring at the premiere of Tennessee at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 26th. Images thanks to PR Photos.
American Pie star Jason Biggs eloped on April 23rd with his girlfriend Jenny Mollen. The two met while filming the movie My Best Friend’s Girl, and apparently fell madly in love pretty quickly. According to OK! Magazine, this past October Biggs, 29, said in an interview, “I am in love for the first time. I wanna put a baby in her belly.” That’s quite the statement to make, especially so publicly. So far, nothing’s been said indicating Biggs has already put a baby in Mollen’s belly – but I’m sure that, given his proclamation, rumors will start swirling pretty soon.
American Pie star Jason Biggs can now call Jenny Mollen his wife. A rep for the actor tells OK!, “The two eloped in a private, intimate ceremony on Wednesday, April 23, in Los Angeles.”
Though Jason and Jenny still plan on having a proper wedding ceremony with family and friends in July in Napa, Calif., the couple chose this path to keep the distractions out. “It is the real deal,” a friend of the newlyweds tells OK! “I have never known two people more in love.”
And right from the beginning of their relationship, Jason, 29, didn’t hesitate to let the world know his feelings about his sweetheart. In an Oct. 2007 interview, he announced, “I am in love for the first time. I wanna put a baby in her belly.”
The couple met on the set of their movie My Best Friend’s Girl and became engaged shortly after. For the sake of their marriage, let’s hope there was a wedding cake at the reception — and not an apple pie!
My Best Friend’s Girl is set to be released on September 20th. Given that, it doesn’t seem as though Biggs and Mollen have known each other all that long – but it’s certainly no Mariah Carey/Nick Cannon situation.
Whenever I imagine a couple eloping, I picture them jetting off to some exotic locale, or at least somewhere that involves taking a trip. Considering the couple lives in Los Angeles and got married there, it sounds less like an elopement and more like a quickie wedding. Either way, congratulations to the happy couple.
Here are Jenny Mollen and Jason Biggs at the “Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay” Los Angeles premiere on April 17th. Images thanks to PR Photos.
Who would have thought that two of the most unorthodox icons in avant garde music, longtime live-in couple Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, would ever get married? People reports that the unconventional pair have tied the knot after decades of living together in a private ceremony.
Legendary musician Lou Reed has gotten hitched.
The Velvet Underground singer-guitarist, 66, and his longtime love, performance artist Laurie Anderson, 60, wed in a “small, non-denominational ceremony in Boulder, Colorado, April 12,” his manager tells Usmagazine.com.
Only two friends served as witnesses, as it was a “private and intimate ceremony,” the manager says.
The New York Post reported that they celebrated recently in the Big Apple with The Diving Bell and Butterfly director Julian Schnabel and his wife, Olatz, limbo king Mike Quashie and Law & Order’s Richard Belzer.
Now, this is one celebrity wedding that I would have paid top dollar to see covered in the pages of OK! or People. I am fascinated by this couple and I have so many questions regarding this ceremony. What made them decide to do the deed after being together for so long? Were the guests treated to such wedding traditions as “The Chicken Dance?” Did the bride and groom have a cake fight? Who was the best man?
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