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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Miriam Burrell

Naomi Biden on getting married at the White House: ‘It’s hard to ask people for their social security number with their RSVP’

The eldest granddaughter of Joe Biden, Naomi Biden, wed at the White House last week

(Picture: Norman Jean Roy/Vogue)

Naomi Biden said she and her husband Peter Neal “really wanted to honour” the “beauty and history” of the White House during their wedding.

US President Joe Biden’s eldest granddaughter has opened up to Vogue about her elaborate nuptials which took place on the South Lawn of the historic White House, last weekend, in front of 250 guests.

“There’s just such beauty and history in this place, and we really wanted to honour that,” the 28-year-old lawyer said, while admitting the circumstances were a little unusual and “it’s hard to ask people for their social security number with their RSVP”.

Being a couple so close with their families, Naomi said she always planned to have a wedding in “someone’s backyard”.

“I think if my pop weren’t president, it would probably be their house in Wilmington or Peter’s family’s backyard in Jackson [Wyoming].”

Decadent details of the day have been captured in a digital cover story that will appear as a feature in the January/February 2023 issue of Vogue magazine, including Naomi’s stunning Ralph Lauren wedding dress, trailing veil and the eight-tier cake - which the couple had to climb a ladder to cut.

Naomi Biden and her grandmother Jill Biden on the cover of Vogue (Norman Jean Roy/Vogue)

The bride was walked down the aisle by her parents, Hunter Biden and Kathleen Buhle, before an hour-long ceremony. A luncheon in the State Dining Room followed before a black-tie reception that included cake-cutting and dancing.

Naomi revealed that despite her “pop” now being President, her relationship with her grandparents “hasn’t changed that much”.

“When I was in middle school, we lived so close, and they were at every sports game and our school plays. We still do the same things. It’s always been this way.”

Jill Biden told Vogue that her granddaughter “has a strong sense of herself and had a vision for her wedding”.

“It was fun to see her finding so much joy in all the details.”

Naomi Biden married Peter Neal on November 19 (Norman Jean Roy/Vogue)

Since 1800, only 19 weddings and four receptions have been held at the White House. Naomi is the first grandchild of a president to wed there.

Jenna Bush held her reception there in 2008 but the last grand-scale wedding of a member of the president’s family at the White House was in 1971, when Tricia Nixon married Edward Finch Cox with 400 guests.

Naomi and her husband Peter, 25, also a lawyer, have been living in the White House for a few months when their lease ran out on their apartment in Washington DC.

Naomi has lived less than a mile away from her grandparents for most of her life, Vogue reports, and they would often attend her sports games and school plays, as well as sharing family movie nights.

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