President Grover Cleveland and Frances Folsom, 1886
Behold! Here's some coverage of the wedding of President Grover Cleveland and Frances Folsom, a union to be much side-eyed! He was 49, her Dad's friend, and the executor of her father's estate, and had, per Wiki, "supervised her upbringing." (It's hard to say how closely this was done given that he was a man and lived in another state in the 1800s; I cannot imagine he was really that involved in the day-to-day.) She was 21! That's highly questionable and kind of gross, but Wiki assures me that the public was fine with it! (I assume a lot of WOMEN gave each other Meaningful Looks about this, however.) Anyway, they had five kids, she was apparently very popular, and once Cleveland kicked it, she married an archeology professor and then told everyone she didn't think women were smart enough to vote. Stuff it, Frances!
President Roosevelt and Mr and Mrs Longworth, 1906
Voila! It's Teddy Roosevelt (on the right), with his daughter Alice and her new husband, Nicholas Longworth. That gown is blue -- it was her signature color -- her train is resplendent, and she led a VERY interesting life, and sounds like she was a hoot and a handful who was born before her time. (For example, she once campaigned against her own husband here and had a child who was not his. She was banned from several White Houses! She is the person who coined the phrase, "if you can't say anything nice, come sit by me." DEFINITELY read her linked Wikipedia page.)
1967
And here she is, sixty-one years later, at the wedding of LBJ's daughter Lynda to Capt. Charles Robb. (She also attended Tricia Nixon's wedding.) She once allegedly said she wore wide-brimmed hats so that LBJ couldn't kiss her and INDEED! Here is the proof.
Eleanor Randolph Wilson, 1914
Information Caption shares that Eleanor here was Woodrow Wilson's youngest daughter, who married his 50 year old Secretary of the Treasury, William Gibbs McAdoo. This look has TRULY a lot of tulle, as was the manner of the time. Her Wiki is very bare bones, especially compared to Alice's, which could be a novel; the photo of her featured is lovely, though, and her New York Times obit is a much more robust read, and informed me that she was often on best-dressed lists. This dress does feel as if it were quite au courant at the time., and to me her bouquet is perfect. Anyway, she and the groom divorced in 1935 and he apparently IMMMMMEDIATELY turned around and married a twenty-six year-old nurse six weeks later. He was 72! Calm down, McAdoo!
Luci Baines Johnson, 1966
Let's zip ahead to the 60s! Luci Johnson -- LBJ and Lady Bird's younger daughter -- got married in a Catholic ceremony in a church (she converted to wed this dude), but the reception was at the White House, so to my mind it counts. This is a very large cake! Their wedding was televised, and had massive coverage in Life Magazine. (It's on the cover, but you have to scroll a bit to get to the wedding coverage itself. Pretend you live in olden times and are using the microfiche machine. Her bridesmaids look like cult members to me, but I rather like her dress.)
Lynda Bird Johnson and Charles S. Robb, 1967
The Johnson administration did not leave the American people wanting for weddings. (Which was probably good for PR -- Americans in general enjoy eyeballing a wedding.) From left to right we've got: Lady Bird Johnson, President Lyndon B. Johnson, the bride, the groom, and the groom's parents. Truly, Mrs Robb's look here takes it for me. The glasses! Meanwhile, I might hate Lynda Bird's dress, which is by Geoffrey Beene, and I DEFINITELY think her bouquet is way too small. Truly fun fact: She dated George Hamilton prior to this.
Tricia Nixon and Edward Cox, 1971
Tricia Nixon's bouquet is ALSO tiny. But her dress has aged very well -- she also got the cover of Life and you can really see it there -- and this was the first wedding held in the Rose Garden. Julie Nixon, her sister, got married to David Eisenhower in a tiny private ceremony right after Nixon was elected, and you can read all about that in this really interesting Washington Post piece. She and Tricia seem to have often been at odds, because when I was looking for details about this dress (designed by "Priscilla," who also did Luci Baines Johnson's dress, and who was apparently a thing for society brides in the '60s), I stumbled on a piece where Julie called Tricia "the Howard Hughes of the White House," which is A BURN.
Tricia Nixon and Edward Cox, 1971
Behold this GIANT CAKE! The New York Times reported that it was a pound cake and that when they tried its recipe, it was a disaster. (It's a funny piece; they apparently kept trying to get it right and kept failing.)
Big finish!
