Wedding bells for Bush's daughter Jenna draw near

By Jeremy Pelofsky Reuters - Thursday, May 8 06:04 am

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush has been trying to cajole North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and tamp down violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, but lately all that seems to be on his mind are wedding bells.

Bush has sprinkled references to his twin daughter Jenna's wedding in most public appearances for the last few months, even seeking advice from a recent groom.

"I had to face some very difficult spending decisions and I've had to conduct sensitive diplomacy," Bush told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in March. "That's called planning for a wedding."

Eschewing the glamour and media glare of a White House wedding, Jenna Bush will marry the son of a Virginia politician, Henry Hager, at a private ceremony with family and friends at the president's Texas ranch on Saturday evening.

"I've never really lived in the White House," the 26-year-old bride and school teacher said in an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live" last month. "And I've lived in Texas my whole life and so really what feels like home is Texas."

The last White House wedding was in 1971 when President Richard Nixon's daughter, Tricia, was married in the Rose Garden to Edward Cox.

Bush had an altar built of limestone at his 1,600 acre (647 hectares) ranch for the ceremony, which will be held just before sundown when the notorious Texas heat subsides.

The bride and her parents have repeatedly denied being nervous about the big day, instead expressing excitement. "Neither one of us are nervous," first lady Laura Bush told reporters this week.

The bride will wear an Oscar de la Renta gown with her twin Barbara as the sole bridesmaid, according to Vogue magazine.

The White House has tried to keep the media focus away from the twins, particularly after they developed a reputation as party girls during their college days when they were arrested for underage drinking.

Jenna has no great affinity for the press and was once captured in photo sticking her tongue out at reporters from a presidential limousine. Even so, she has given several recent interviews to promote a children's book about reading that she wrote with her mother Laura Bush.

Hager previously worked as a White House aide and on Bush's presidential campaign. He is the son of former Virginia Lieutenant Gov. John Hager who is now the chairman of the Virginia Republican Party.

The groom is expected to receive his masters degree in business from the University of Virginia next week, according to media reports.

The couple plans to live in Baltimore, Maryland where Jenna Bush will teach and her husband will work for Constellation Energy, the reports said.

The two were engaged last August during a hike in the mountains of Maine.

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, editing by Chris Wilson)

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