President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will host a wedding reception at the White House this November for their eldest granddaughter, Naomi Biden, the first lady’s communications director Elizabeth Alexander confirmed to CNN. The White House reception is set for November 19; there is no word yet on where the nuptial ceremony will occur.
“The first family, the couple, and their parents are still in the planning stages of all of the wedding festivities and look forward to announcing further details in the coming months,” Alexander said.
Naomi Biden, 28, is the daughter of Hunter Biden and Kathleen Buhle. She is a lawyer, currently based in Washington, DC. Biden became engaged to Peter Neal, 24, in September of last year when Neal proposed near his childhood home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, according to a White House official. Biden’s engagement ring includes the band of Neal’s grandmother’s engagement ring. The couple has been together for approximately four years, after meeting in New York City on a date, set up by a mutual friend. Neal is in his final semester of law school at the University of Pennsylvania.
The White House has a long history as the location for weddings of presidential offspring, dating back to the 1800s, when the children of James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, John Tyler and Ulysses S. Grant were married there. Both of Woodrow Wilson’s daughters held their weddings at the White House, as well as his niece, in 1913, 1914, and 1918, respectively.
More recently, Lynda Bird Johnson, daughter of Lyndon B. Johnson, was married in the White House East Room in 1967. Her sister, Luci Johnson, held her reception at the White House the year prior, following a ceremony at a nearby church. Tricia Nixon was walked down the aisle in the Rose Garden by her father, Richard Nixon, when she married Edward Cox in 1971.
However, Naomi Biden will follow her most recent predecessor in president-related White House wedding celebrations – Jenna Bush, daughter of George W. Bush – by holding only the reception at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Bush married Henry Hager at the Bush family ranch in Crawford, Texas, in May 2008, but her parents later hosted a reception for 600 guests, complete with music by the United States Marine Band, at the White House the following month.
