President Joe Biden turns 80 this weekend, but the big bang at the White House will be for an entirely different and more youthful occasion. Naomi Biden, Biden’s oldest granddaughter, is set to marry Peter Neal on the South Lawn of the White House on Saturday.
A day after the wedding, Biden will mark his place in American history as the only octogenarian president, a numerical milestone that illuminates a primary issue that has plagued Biden and his rivals: his age. Despite a string of recent victories — better-than-expected midterm elections for Democrats, a relatively blunder-free trip to Egypt and Asia, and a lackluster presidential announcement from his old rival, Donald Trump — Biden can’t waver as the oldest commander-in-chief America has ever had.
But a glitzy twenty-something wedding, starting a new chapter of life with music, dancing and partying, could put a youthful spin on the 80th birthday weekend. Two people familiar with the wedding planning say it was no coincidence that Naomi Biden’s wedding weekend coincided with President’s Day — noting that the “age issue” is never something Biden likes to highlight.
“Marriage gives some cover,” says one of the people.
The wedding, which CNN is told includes the extended Biden clan on the guest list, as well as the couple’s friends and family, will also mark a start for tight-knit Bidens to begin heated discussions about whether Joe Biden should to be a candidate. for a second term.
Shortly after the wedding, Jill Biden and Joe Biden will travel to Nantucket, Massachusetts for the Thanksgiving holiday. Christmas is fast approaching as the clock ticks on Biden’s need to say whether he’ll be in or out for 2024. Both the president and first lady have said they will weigh the pros and cons of a second run, which the Biden has previously said he “intends” to take over.
The wedding itself will consist of three parts, a person familiar with the planning tells CNN. The ceremony will take place at 11 am. ET on the South Lawn – a location that in the history of White House weddings has never been used before. There will be no tent, the source confirms, which could make for a chilly outdoor morning. temperatures for Saturday are forecast to be in the mid-40s. After the vows are exchanged, a smaller family and wedding-only dinner will be held at the White House, and later in the evening, guests will return for an evening dessert reception and dance, which will also be held. indoors.
In a way, 28-year-old Naomi Biden is experiencing a White House marriage thanks in large part to her own sensibility. Biden, a partner at the Washington law firm Arnold & Porter, pushed her grandfather to run the first time.
Although the patriarch, Joe Biden has always included his extended family circle, including his five oldest grandchildren, when weighing life choices. His sensitivity to their feelings and the invasive nature of an ugly political battle weigh on his mind.
“I don’t think there’s been a decision, no matter how big or small, that we haven’t made as a family,” Naomi Biden said in a video interview played at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
Although usually called by senior members of the Biden family, it was Naomi Biden who convened the most crucial, in-person, all-out family meeting, the one that would have the biggest impact on Joe Biden’s future. Biden was worried – but he wasn’t.
“He thought we were calling a meeting to discuss whether we wanted him or not [run,] but they were really calling it to say, “Enter this fight! Quickly!” Naomi Biden said. In the years since, it has been Naomi who has been more public on her social media channels about democratic issues and has stood up for her grandfather. On November 12, he tweeted: “Democracy is winning in the Senate. Never think your vote doesn’t matter.”
Naomi is also the closest grandchild – literally – to her grandparents. She and Neal, 25, a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School who works at Georgetown University’s National Security Law Center, moved into the White House last August, a person familiar with the living arrangements tells CNN.
The close proximity to the couple’s wedding venue has increased their involvement in the planning. The wedding planner is Bryan Rafanelli, founder of Rafanelli Events, a source familiar with the details tells CNN. Rafanelli is no stranger to whipping up fantastic White House parties. he oversaw seven state dinners during Barack Obama’s presidency, including the government’s final one for Italy, which featured a glass-roofed stage on the South Lawn and a performance by Gwen Stefani.
He also designed and orchestrated Chelsea Clinton’s wedding in 2010.
A Rafanelli production wedding is not an inexpensive endeavor. The price for many of his events starts at around $300,000 and can reach into the millions of dollars. “Consistent with other private events hosted by the First Family and following the traditions of previous White House wedding celebrations under previous administrations, the Biden family will pay for wedding activities held at the White House,” said Jill Biden’s communications director. , Elizabeth Alexander. CNN.
Naomi’s father is Hunter Biden. Her mother is Kathleen Buhle. Her parents, who divorced in 2017, have each written memoirs about the struggles in their relationship, many of which related to Hunter Biden’s longtime struggle with addiction.
Neal’s family is from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the couple got engaged in September 2021. (The engagement ring features Neal’s grandmother’s engagement ring and was designed by a D.C. jeweler, a person with knowledge of its manufacture tells CNN .)
Naomi Biden’s wedding dress designer has yet to be revealed, although several fashion experts contacted by CNN speculated that the job went to Ralph Lauren, perhaps the most iconic American fashion designer alive today. Joe Biden is partial to Lauren suits, having worn one on Inauguration Day, and Jill Biden has also been photographed wearing the label. In March, Naomi and her sister Finnegan, 23, and Neal attended Ralph Lauren’s Fall 2022 fashion show in New York, sparking much chatter that she will wear the designer in at least one of her wedding appearances. The White House has not commented on speculation about the outfit.
Photos of the wedding are set to be released to the press Saturday afternoon, sometime between the morning ceremony and the evening reception, the person with knowledge of the planning says.
Without a doubt, the wedding will be the social event of the White House this year, perhaps of the entire Biden administration. It’s just the 19th wedding ever to take place at the White House, the last being for Obama’s chief photographer Pete Souza, who in 2013 tied the knot in the Rose Garden. The last presidential daughter to celebrate a White House wedding was Jenna Bush in June 2008. Bush held her wedding and reception months earlier at the Bush family ranch in Texas, but her father, George W. Bush, hosted about 600 guests at the White House for his daughter’s second reception.
But the scope and scale of the Biden wedding is more closely related to that of Lucy Johnson, who held her reception in the East Room after marrying Patrick Nugent, and Linda Johnson, who in 1967 married Charles Robb in the White House’s East Room House. Tricia Nixon in June 1971 married Edward Finch Cox under a flower-filled white gazebo set up in the Rose Garden. All of these weddings were a media hotbed, with newspapers printing the recipes for the 6-foot-tall wedding cakes.
Pieces of Johnson’s and Nixon’s daughters’ cakes were sent to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. (Nixon has hardened into a 2-inch by 2-inch piece that now looks like a dried sponge, according to the White House Historical Association.)
No word yet on what flavor Biden’s cake will taste like, or whether, like at the aforementioned White House weddings, guests will take home a slice to party at the end of the night.
