Picture Post: Crawford, Texas - Jenna Bush’s Big Day

A US president's family weddings tend to be pompous affairs. Tricia Nixon appeared on the covers of Time and Life when she got hitched, while Luci Baines Johnson's nuptials were watched by 55 million people on television.

That ain't the Bush family way. Just 11 photos of the marriage of Jenna Bush and Henry Hager were released by the White House yesterday, after a simple – and secret – service at a hastily erected lakeside cross (tastefully carved in limestone for the big day) down on the Bush ranch at Crawford, Texas.

Guests numbered a modest 200, with not a single head of state in sight. The outdoor service (more Ramsay Street than Pennsylvania Avenue) was kept short, as dark-suited Bush seniors started to turn pink in the 92-degree heat.

Officiating was the Rev Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Houston minister whose endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama appears not to have concerned the father of the bride. The dress? A curve-skimming beaded organza gown with a short train by Oscar de la Renta.

Food miles were kept to a minimum at the marquee reception. Note the starters perched on gold-rimmed plates: they may resemble haute cuisine, but a closer look suggests some Tex-Mex terrine of salsa and guacamole. At least they stood proudly – the four-tiered cake (Luci Baines Johnson's boasted 13) looked positively limp as its wonky crown appeared to be slipping.

It looks like a dry old do, too. The polished wine and champagne glasses in officially released pictures seem to contain nothing more intoxicating than water. Jenna and her father have had fraught relationships with drink. Was the wedding booze-free? Or did the grog only flow once the cameraman had vanished?

One photo a rapacious US press was not treated to was that of the President on the dance floor. He joined his daughter for the first dance – Joe Cocker's hit "You Are So Beautiful", played by the Tyrone Smith Revue from Nashville. Hager, a former White House aide, was up next, taking his wife's hand for "Lovin' In My Baby's Eyes" by Taj Mahal.

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