Not very many people have seen wedding photographs of Presidents simply because they only enter the public spotlight when entering office. For our earliest Presidents of course that wasn’t all the case simply because they were leaders from the very start like George Washington who was the Father of the nation. As an article portraying the wedding photographs of US Presidents, it would be highly interesting to see our nation’s leaders on their special day. While most of the US presidents were married once, quite a few of them married twice or thrice. Such photographs also give you some insight on weddings of those times.
George Washington served as the first president of the USA from 1798 to 1797. Although letters suggest that he was in love with Sally Fairfax, he married Martha Dandridge Custis who was a wealthy widow. Both George and Martha made a good couple as Martha was both gracious and an intelligent administrator who managed a planter’s estate. The couple never had any children of their own but raised Martha’s three children from her first marriage. The painting of their wedding was done by Junius Brutus Stears in 1849 who cleverly recreated the wedding scene of 6th January 1759.
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President Rutherford was requested by his mother to court his wife Lucy Hayes years earlier than their marriage but he refused thinking her to be too young. He instead courted other women. After four years he gave in to his mother and began seeing Lucy. After an engagement in 1851, they were married on 30th December 1852.
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Grover Cleveland was a bachelor when he became President. His sister Rose acted as a hostess for his guests. Cleveland fell in love with Frances Folsom, the daughter of his friend while she was studying in Wells College. With permission from her mother, Cleveland began writing her and they were finally married on June 2nd, 1886. The wedding took place in the Blue room of the White House. Incidentally at 21, Frances Folsom Cleveland was the youngest first lady in history and known to be the most beautiful. This is an artwork of the wedding.
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Herbert Hoover was pursuing an engineering career in Australia when he cabled a marriage proposal to Lou Henry who had just graduated from Stanford. Herbert Hoover and Lou Henry were married on February 10, 1899 in Monterey California. They were both 24 years old. Although Lou was a Quaker; the couple was married in a civil ceremony by a Roman Catholic priest, Father Ramon Mestress from the Cathedral of San Carlos Borromeo.
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The 34th president of the United States, Eisenhower graduated from West Point in 1915. When he was stationed in Texas, he met his future wife Mamie Doud. He proposed to her on Valentine’s Day which she happily accepted. They were married in the home of Mamie’s parents in Denver Colorado on July 1st 2016 just before the USA entered World War I.
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Both harry Truman and Bess Wallace knew each other since childhood even attending the same school together in Independence, Missouri. Truman courted Bess before joining the army in World War I and proposed to her in 1911 but she refused his proposal. Not to be discouraged, he proposed again in 1919 which she accepted and the couple was married on June 28th 1919 in the Trinity Episcopal Church, Independence, MO.
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Claudia Alta Taylor also known as ladybird was introduced to Lyndon Johnson when he was just an aspiring congressional candidate. The couple was married in St. Mark's Episcopal Church in San Antonio, Texas on 18th November, 1934. Ladybird Johnson was one of the shrewdest first ladies and a clever business woman. It was she who raised funds for Johnson’s presidential campaign investing in businesses that made them millionaires. Ladybird is also the recipient of a Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold medal, the highest civilian award.
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George Bush met Barbara Pierce when she was just 16 at a Christmas dance. After a brief courtship, they were engaged a year and a half later. As a navy torpedo bomber pilot, George Bush eve named three of his planes, “Barbara”. They were married on January 6th 1945 at the First Presbyterian Church in Rye, New York.
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Elizabeth “Betty” Bloomer divorced her first husband on grounds of excessive cruelty. It was soon after that she met Gerald Ford at a time he was to become a member of the house of US Representatives for the first among 13 times. They were married in the Grace Episcopal Church, Grand Rapids, MI, on October 15, 1948.
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Ronald Reagan Met Anne “Nancy” Robbins when she was an established actress who had even worked under contract for the likes of Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Before she met Reagan, Nancy dated actors like Clark Gable, Peter Lawford and Robert Stack. When she met Reagan, they dated for three years before marrying in the Little Brown Church in the Valley, Los Angeles, CA, March 4, 1952.
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President John F Kennedy met Jacqueline Bouvier at a dinner party in 1952 when he was a congressman. After he was elected as a US senator from Massachusetts, they married at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Newport, RI, and September 12, 1953. Jackie Kennedy was known for her restoration in many areas of the White House and her love for the arts.
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Clinton met Hillary Rodham in 1971 and the couple began dating. Clinton proposed to her but she refused being unsure at the time. Rodham was an up and coming lawyer with a political career where she had even served as an impeachment inquiry member advising the house committee on the judiciary during the Watergate scandal. It wasn’t until 1975, that she relented and agreed to marry Bill Clinton. They bought a house together and were married in Fayetteville, AR, in 1975.
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George Bush met his future wife Laura Lane Welch during a backyard barbecue at a friend’s house. He proposed to her in September and she accepted. They were married in Midland, TX, November 5, 1977.
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Michelle LaVaughn Robinson met Barack Obama when they worked together as young lawyers in the Law Firm Sidley Austin. They revealed that their first date was to see a Spike Lee Movie “Do the Right Thing” and that’s what they exactly did. The couple was married in Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, IL, in October 1992.
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Melania Knauss from Slovenia was an upcoming model when she met Trump at a party in the KitKat Club at the Times Square nightclub. Trump had since then separated from his first wife Marla Maple. It was Melania who got Trumps number from the host and the couple soon began dating. They were married in an Anglican service at Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, FL, January, 22, 2005. Among wedding photographs of presidents, here is a photograph of Trumps second wedding day.
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