It may not be easy to say ‘I do’ at the White House

Jenna Bush, the more rambunctious of President Bush’s 25-year-old twin daughters, got engaged last week. The family has been short on further details. But it stands to reason that the wedding could take place at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, where Jenna’s fiancé, Henry Hager, 29, once worked as an aide to Karl Rove, Bush’s soon-to-be-ex top political strategist. It would be the first White House wedding in 36 years, since Tricia Nixon tossed her bouquet from the grand staircase.

The country is at war, of course, and Bush’s popularity is low. So surely the White House itself is asking the logical question: How would a White House wedding go over?

Tricia Nixon and Luci Baines Johnson (who actually got married in a church but held her reception at the White House) were married during wartime, and were boons to their father’s political fortunes, at least temporarily. It always helps a President — especially beleaguered Presidents — to be seen as a family man, and few moments are as poignant as when a father is giving his daughter away.

Robert Dallek, the presidential historian, said he thought the country would be ambivalent. “There might be some sense of relief and celebration because of the pall that has settled over this society and is reflected in the fact that 70 per cent of the country thinks we’re on the wrong track,” he said. “But they have to be careful that there is not a huge amount of hoopla and excess and self-indulgence, because we are mired in a war.”

Tricia Nixon was married in June 1971, when the country was mired in a different war. Traditionally, White House brides have been married in the formal East Room, where state dinners are held. But she chose the more relaxed Rose Garden. Her ceremony was not lavish by the standards of the day, with the exception of her 355-pound wedding cake stretching more than sev en feet high and five feet across.

The guest list is another minefield. The East Room can seat about 400 people — not a small wedding, but also...