Saturday’s wedding of 26-year-old Jenna Bush, one of President and Laura Bush’s twin daughters, was not televised and wasn’t at the White House. Amid the lavenders, yellows and blues of spring wildflowers on the president’s 1,600-acre Prairie Chapel Ranch, it was a private affair. Extremely private.

High-tech fences, surveillance cameras and untold numbers of Secret Service agents kept the uninvited miles away.

Celebrity gawkers of the political variety might be disappointed. The editors at People magazine definitely are. But historians and political observers say the nation — at war in two far-off places, afflicted by economic malaise and ready to be done with this president — is in no mood to watch lavish nuptials unfold at the White House.

And that’s just fine with Jenna Bush. She is described as a private person: She stayed in Texas when her parents moved to the White House. She sought to stay out of the public eye, although she was only partly successful given her under-age drinking escapades. Only recently, promoting two books she has written, has she sought the spotlight.

Here’s what we know about the wedding : The bride was to wear what she called a “very structured” Oscar de la Renta organza gown; the single bridesmaid was her twin, Barbara Bush; the 14 members of what Texans call the “house party” were to wear short Lela Rose chiffon dresses. And the ceremony was to take place outdoors at 7:30 pm, to escape potentially stifling heat.

Bush has said she felt pressure to marry her fiance, Henry Hager, at the White House. “I went back and forth a lot,” she told Vogue. But, she added, “That’s not really my personality. There’s a glamour to it, I know, but Henry and I are far less glamorous than the White House.”

Besides, said an acquaintance who did not want to be identified speaking about family matters, Bush never felt that Washington, D.C., was her home.

There were to be be between 200 and 250 guests — mostly members of the extensive Bush clan and Hager’s family, friends of the bride and groom and longtime family friends. “It’s a small wedding for anyone whose dad happens to be president of the United States,” the acquaintance said.

From Jenna Bush’s accounts, it’s clear that Hager, the scion of a Virginia political family, is a traditionalist. He sought the president’s permission for the marriage and has insisted on not seeing the wedding dress beforehand. Hence, no pictures or sketches.

Carl Sferrazza Anthony, historian of the National First Ladies’ Library, said the president’s unpopularity, the nation’s focus on choosing his successor and, most important, the Iraq war have diminished interest in the wedding. “Everything else, whether touching, amusing or mildly controversial, is going to play second fiddle to that,” he said.