The countdown to Naomi Biden’s White House wedding

At the White House, wedding preparations are made for a grand event with dance, dessert, and a presidential granddaughter walking down the aisle.

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will host the 19th White House wedding for their eldest grandchild Naomi Biden and her fiancé Peter Neal on Saturday.

Wedding logistics can be a challenge for any bride, but a White House wedding has the added complications of Secret Service background checks on guests, security clearances before people walk in, and questions from the White House press.

The South Lawn was a bustle of activity on Thursday and Friday with workers marking the aisle the bride will walk to meet her groom. Blue plastic on the floor showed that the bride will leave the diplomatic room to her waiting groom.

And deliveries are unloaded with multiple Ryder trucks in the driveway.

On the other side of town, Maisy Biden, the bride’s sister, received her dress from mother Kathleen Buhle on Thursday. She even left a note for the delivery drivers, imploring them, “My sister is getting married on Saturday. My dress is in this box. Please leave packages.’

The message must have been successful as she was seen picking up a box, a big grin on her face.

Meanwhile, the couple has their marriage certificate. Peter Neal posted a photo of him and Naomi at the Washington DC Marriage Bureau on Thursday, securing their license to marry.

The White Houses host hundreds of social events each year, but nothing beats a wedding.

Saturday’s event will have three parts, a source familiar with the schedule told DailyMail.com: the 11 a.m. ceremony on the South Lawn; followed by a private lunch for family and the wedding party at the White House; and an evening of dessert and dancing, which will also take place at the White House.

The weather is expected to be cool, around 40, but no rain is forecast.

Otherwise, the White House has released few details about the wedding other than that the Biden family is paying for it.

Naomi Biden, 28, is the president’s eldest grandchild and close to the first couple. She is the daughter of Hunter Biden and Kathleen Buhle, who divorced in 2017.

And the installation continues, she is ready to answer all pre-wedding questions.

She and fiancé Peter Neal, 25, would live in the White House. Otherwise, she works as a lawyer in Washington DC and Neal, who worked in Democratic politics, just graduated from law school and works at Georgetown Law.

They formed four years ago by mutual friends and got engaged last September while visiting Neal’s hometown of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The engagement ring contains the band from Neal’s grandmother’s engagement ring.

Event planner Bryan Rafanelli, who oversees their big day, designed Chelsea Clinton’s wedding and several state dinners for President Barack Obama. He’s also a big time to donate to Democratic candidates.

But the cost can be pricey. A Rafanelli wedding runs from $250,000 to $1 million, according to wedding websites.

And a White House wedding has complications that others don’t. Each person entering the premises must provide their social security number and date of birth for a background check. There are magnetometers and x-ray screens for bags at the entrance to enter the grounds.

Also, the White House typically requires a negative covid test for anyone who comes close to the president.

But Rafanelli is an old hand at dealing with this kind of protocol.

He said of Chelsea Clinton’s 2010 wedding, “We had to liaise with the Secret Service for the President, as well as diplomatic security for then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and then we had our own security company. With all this security, it looked like a military operation, but we still wanted to respect the city where it was held.”

And, he said Business Insiderhe was proud to keep the event private.

“I’m quite proud that to this day there are only six images from Chelsea and Mark’s wedding – and those were the photos released by the couple. Everything else was private and everyone who attended remembers what happened,” he said.

The White House doesn’t allow coverage of Naomi’s wedding. Photos are expected to be released Saturday afternoon. But the real challenge might be keeping it off social media.

The distinctive features of the South Lawn, the Rose Garden and the South Portico make the setting Instagram ready.

But Rafanelli noted that guests are generally respectful of the couple’s desire not to post on social media.

What’s interesting now is that guests are generally very good at not taking pictures if they’re asked not to. Sometimes we have to take down all phones from guests and staff, both to secure the wedding and to make sure everyone is there, but generally the people invited to a wedding are respectful,” he said.

Naomi Biden’s wedding on Saturday will mark the start of a busy social season for the White House.

President Joe Biden turns 80 on Sunday and his entire family will already be in town for the wedding.

Then, on Monday, the president will grant the traditional Thanksgiving turkey pardon. That afternoon, Jill Biden will greet the White House Christmas tree, which arrives from a Pennsylvania farm. That night, the pair travel to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, for a friends gathering with the troops.

Afterwards, the Biden family will head to Nantucket for their traditional Thanksgiving holiday, where they will also discuss whether the president will run for a second term in 2024.

Upon their return to Washington DC, the first couple will host their first state dinner, welcoming France’s President Emmanuel Macron on December 1.

Then the holiday season really kicks off.

Holiday parties have resumed at the White House.

In addition, the Kennedy Center Honors, traditionally attended by the president and first lady, will be taped on December 4 with George Clooney and U2 among the honorees.

But first is the wedding.

Saturday’s wedding is the 19th known to be held at the White House and the first on the South Lawn.

The last wedding to take place at the White House was on October 19, 2013, when Pesident Barack Obama’s photographer Pete Souza married Patti Lease in the rose garden. Obama attended.

The last family weddings were on May 28, 1994 when Anthony Rodham – Hillary Clinton’s brother – married Nicole Boxer during Bill Clinton’s term in office.

First daughter Tricia Nixon married Ed Cox in the rose garden on June 12, 1971 in one of the more famous White House weddings. Her father, President Richard Nixon, walked her down the aisle.

There is also a long history of presidential children getting married or having receptions there. James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, John Tyler, and Ulysses S. Grant all saw weddings during their tenure.

Modern first daughters Chelsea Clinton and Jenna Hager were married elsewhere.

Chelsea’s father was not president at the time of her marriage. Jenna’s father was and George W. Bush hosted a reception for his daughter at the White House, even though her wedding took place in their home state of Texas.