Jenna Bush Hager Remembers How She "Wept" with Her Dad on Her Wedding Day in 2008
The former president said the "wedding was spectacular" and his daughter "married a really good guy."
Though they met through politics and dated in the nation's capital, Jenna Bush Hager and her husband Henry decided to have a family-centric wedding far from the Oval Office. Now long-settled on the East Coast with three children, the family's story began with a gorgeous wedding in the TODAY anchor's beloved home of Texas.
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Jenna Bush Hager proposed to Henry first before they officially got engaged
The pair first met in 2004 while Henry Hager was working for former President George W. Bush on his reelection campaign. And while the relationship wasn't a secret, dating the First Daughter did present some complications. As Jenna later spilled to her former co-host Hoda Kotb, "My parents were traveling and I was staying [at the White House]. We’d gone out to the bars and, like all relationships do, it reached a certain level. Henry said he woke up [the next morning] and he looked around and he was, like, ‘Aaaaaaaah’ because he worked for my dad."
The pair became engaged during a summer trip to Maine in 2007, according to The New York Times, though Jenna revealed during a February 2020 episode of Today With Hoda & Jenna that she popped the question first after they'd been dating for only three months.
"I asked Henry to marry me," Jenna shared. “He said no, and then he asked me five years later … I might've had a Christmas cocktail and we were dancing, and I said, 'This is it, I know it, let's just get married, what are we waiting for?' He smiled, and he was like, 'I'm crazy about you, but you're young.'"
After their official engagement was announced, there was some speculation that the wedding could be held at the White House, but they chose to host their ceremony in the Bush family's hometown in Texas.
Their Texas wedding included barbecue and the bride in a pickup truck
Jenna and Henry got married on Saturday, May 10, 2008, exchanging vows in front of 200 guests at the Bush family's ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Before the ceremony took place at 7:30 p.m., Hager's family hosted wedding guests for a barbecue lunch. And when it was time to get the show on the road, the bride arrived in style.
"I think my dad picked me up in a pickup truck — in his pickup truck — and he said, 'You look beautiful, baby,' and then we both just wept up and down," Bush Hager shared on TODAY of the special moments before the then-president walked her down the aisle. "I remember seeing Henry clearly, standing there at this cross that my dad had helped build for us. It's still there, so we have our Christmas services there that we put together. Our kids have gotten to stand on it."
Jenna wore a white beaded organza dress by Oscar de la Renta, The New York Times reported, while the bride's 14 "attendants" (her twin sister Barbara was the lone bridesmaid) wore pastel chiffon Lela Rose dresses. After the ceremony, guests dined and danced beneath a tent, and Nashville-based singer Tyrone Smith performed, according to People.
"Our little girl, Jenna, married a really good guy, Henry Hager," President Bush said at a 2008 press conference. "The wedding was spectacular. It's just — it's all we could have hoped for. "The weather cooperated nicely. Just as the vows were exchanged, the sun set over our lake and it was just a special day and a wonderful day and we're mighty blessed."
You can see photos of their wedding ceremony and reception, including one of them cutting the cake, via the White House archives.
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Their second wedding reception was held at the White House
A month later — on June 21, 2008 — another reception was held at the White House, where the newlyweds celebrated with 600 guests. They cut a wedding cake in the Blue Room of the White House and the U.S. Marine Band played for all of the attendees. Jenna and President Bush also shared a father-daughter dance.
