The marriage of Jenna Bush and Henry Hager at her parents' 1,600-acre Crawford ranch near Waco, Texas, was a welcome, quiet interlude during a turbulent presidency and a reminder that the players in the White House, Democrats or Republicans, are nevertheless people with real lives and real feelings.
The wedding could have been staged as an elaborate show with all the trappings of royalty as some weddings of the children of presidential couples have occurred.
Instead, the newlyweds exchanged their wedding vows in strictly enforced privacy at a large limestone cross erected near a lake on the Bush ranch, in an event witnessed by 200 guests, including family and friends.
It underscored something President Bush has always emphasized. The White House occupants, whoever they are, remain citizens of the nation with private lives. Their entitlement to presidential privileges is granted by the voters. They remain short-term residents of the White House, at most limited to an eight-year tenure.
A candidate for a master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Virginia, Hager met his bride during her father's re-election campaign in 2004, when he was an aide to Karl Rove, the top political adviser to the President at the time. Hager's father chairs the Republican Party in Virginia.
Reportedly, President Bush, in giving his daughter away, became wistful, typical of fathers at daughters' weddings, and the President's ability to express emotion is one of his more enduring traits.
The new Mr. and Mrs. Hager are far from being one of America's average couples. They come from families of means and will reportedly honeymoon in Europe. But after that, the couple will start out in a two-bedroom apartment in Baltimore where the new Mrs. Hager will resume her teaching career and her husband will work for Constellation Energy, both private citizens trying to get on with their lives as best they can.