And yet, whether it’s the president himself getting married (as Grover Cleveland did in 1886) or a distant relative or valued employee, White House weddings are newsworthy, if only because they happen so infrequently.
Naomi Biden was the first grandchild of a sitting president to wed at the White House. There was no real precedent for how much privacy she could expect on her wedding day. Some reporters complained when they didn’t receive an invitation, and cried foul when it was later revealed that Vogue had scored an exclusive pre-ceremony interview and photo shoot. (The Washington Post covered the wedding from the outside, by talking to attendees, scouring social media — and using binoculars.)
While press access to White House weddings has varied over time and differed depending on who is getting married and the happy couple’s proximity to the executive office, the media had expectations for access to Biden’s wedding that simply weren’t rooted in historical precedent.
When it comes to the White House weddings, the border between public and private has never been satisfactorily mapped. When first daughter Alice Roosevelt married Rep. Nicholas Longworth in 1906, her father, Theodore, angered the press by refusing to release any details of her “trousseau” — the wardrobe traditionally assembled by a new bride, including but hardly limited to her wedding gown. The New York Times pouted: “These precautions are puzzling, because in the only cases that can be used as parallels — the weddings of feminine members of the families of the heads of other nations, whether these be royal or those of citizen Presidents — public interest is regarded not only as a matter of course, but as entirely legitimate.”
It was especially confounding given that “Princess Alice,” as she was known, was a celebrity in her own right. But the president’s reticence may have said more about his ego than his relationship with the press. It was Alice who coined the phrase “the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral” to describe her attention-seeking father. And the Times published a long description of her trousseau anyway, based on interviews with in-the-know friends and family members.
The Roosevelts’ uncharacteristic press shyness didn’t stop Princess Alice’s quasi-royal wedding from dominating the headlines. The Washington Post devoted the entire front page to the affair, with the gifts, guest list and the couple’s clothes described in lavish detail. The New York Times took a different angle. The headline blared: “NO ORIENTAL GOODS USED.” The administration was in the midst of a trade war with China, a major exporter of textiles, and what the bride and groom didn’t wear was as newsworthy as what they did wear.
Under intense pressure to throw the press a bone, the White House revealed that the couple would honeymoon at Friendship, the John R. McLean estate (now McLean Gardens). This belated attempt at transparency backfired miserably. As the New-York Tribune reported, the announcement sated the press’s demands for details. But it also enabled some of Longworth’s friends to play a prank. They “obtained the services of a section of the Marine Band” to serenade the newlyweds for “the greater part of the night.”
In contrast to…
Read More: The dust-up about Biden’s White House wedding misunderstood the history
