“Sooo not sure how best to update but was supposed to do so weeks ago… but we have finally figured out where the ceremony will be…,” the bride-to-be wrote on Twitter. “And much to the relief of the secret service and with the dog’s endorsement… we’ll be getting married on the South Lawn! Couldn’t be more excited.”
Naomi has updated her previous announcement in April, when she said that she and Neal would hold their ceremony elsewhere, but planned on celebrating their reception at the White House. Those plans have changed, according to the oldest daughter of the president’s second son, Hunter, whose finances are currently being investigated.
The South Lawn, where the president’s oldest grandchild will be married, was open to the public until World War II and is now considered a private part of the White House grounds. The area is used for various events such as the annual White House Easter Egg Roll and includes tennis courts, a putting green, and a garden; it also acts as a landing area for the president’s helicopter, Marine One.
Naomi’s wedding, which will take place on November 19th, will be the first wedding ceremony at the White House in almost a decade. The couple first met in 2018 and have been engaged for about 11 months after Neal first proposed to Naomi on September 4 of last year. According to White House officials, no taxpayer money will go towards the wedding, as it is a private event.
“I can assure you that taxpayer dollars would not go to that,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said at a briefing on Thursday. “Look, that is a personal affair that’s happening — that is not White House business.”
The last wedding that took place at the White House was in 2013 in the Rose Garden, during which President Barack Obama’s chief White House photographer Pete Souza married Patti Lease.
Other weddings, and some receptions, have also taken place at the White House, including President George W. Bush’s daughter’s wedding reception in 2008, President Richard M. Nixon’s daughter who was married at the White House in 1971, and Hillary Clinton’s brother who celebrated a wedding at the White House in 1994.