(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-11 09:29

The rehearsal dinner for about 100 people was hosted by the parents of the groom, who turned 30 on Friday. Hager's father, John Hager, is the chairman of the Virginia Republican Party and is former lieutenant governor of Virginia and former US assistant secretary of education.

The rehearsal dinner crowd, including the president, then walked down a street in Salado with the Belton High School Marching Band from Belton, Texas, to a "Texas-sized celebration" at another establishment. All the wedding guests were invited to this event. They were entertained by the five-member Duke Merrick Band from Charlottesville, Va., which performed classic Texas songs and original pieces by Merrick, a relative of the Hager family.

The groom's family also is hosting a barbecue lunch Saturday in Salado ahead of the wedding.

Henry Hager met Jenna during her father's 2004 re-election campaign. He graduated from Wake Forest University and worked as an aide to Bush's former top political adviser Karl Rove. He is set to receive a master's degree in business administration later this month from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business.

Between February 2005 and January 2006, he was an economic policy aide in the office of Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and regularly briefed the secretary on economic data. "He was widely regarded as a super star," said Ann Marie Hauser, press secretary at Commerce.

After the wedding, the couple is rumored to be honeymooning in Europe, although the White House would not comment. After that, they plan to live in a two-bedroom, two-bath town house on the south side of Baltimore. She plans to return to teaching and he will work for Constellation Energy, a power supplier based in Maryland.

The ceremony begins about a half hour or so before sunset. The couple will marry at a cross, made of beige colored Texas limestone, that was erected near the ranch's man-made lake. The cross and altar, made of the same stone used to construct the Bush's ranch house, will serve as the altar and a landmark at the ranch for years to come. The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston is officiating.

This is big doings for Crawford, home to about 700 central Texans. They likely will not get a glimpse of the bride and groom, but the couple's photo is plastered across coffee mugs, mouse pads, key rings and other Western White House trinkets for sale at a few stores along the main drag.

A rusty, metal sculpture of an angel, a gift to Crawford after Bush's re-election, is adorned with a veil and a bouquet of white flowers for the occasion. The sign at the Coffee Station in Crawford, where Jenna orders fried jalapenos, says "Congrats Jenna and Henry." The Peace House, home away from home for anti-war protesters when they're in Crawford, set up a red sign that says "Peace to the Newlyweds."

Dick and Kathy Karmy drove 70 miles from their home in Cleburne, Texas, to visit Crawford on wedding day. "I have a girlfriend in Washington state and she said `You've got to go and get me a mug,'" Kathy Karmy said.

Mary Wood of San Antonio, about a 90-minute drive from Crawford, stopped at a table the Crawford Chamber of Commerce and Waco Convention and Visitors Bureau set up outside a bank to welcome visitors to town. Since so many people wanted to know how to drive to Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch, they offered a homemade map, even though the ranch property is barricaded far from the entrance.

"I almost came during the week, but then I said it would mean more to be here on the wedding day," said Wood, who had a camera hanging from her neck so she could take a photo of the "Prairie Chapel Road" sign. "It's just a big kick to say I was here."

   1 2   

   1 2