Fashion heir David Lauren proposed to longtime girlfriend Lauren Bush on Friday at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art—where they first met—with a " brilliant diamond ring." Their union brings together the worlds of fashion, politics, and philanthropy—and two dynastic American families. Bush is the granddaughter of President George H.W. Bush and niece of President George W. Bush; she's also a former runway model and a charity heavyweight whose Feed Projects line of bags has fed 60 million poor children. Lauren is the son of fashion pioneer Ralph, and helms the marketing and digital technology arms of the world's most lucrative designer brand. No word yet on whether the bride will take her husband's name, which would surely create an even more iconic brand: Lauren Lauren.
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It’s no surprise that the biggest wedding event of 2010 belonged to the Clintons. In a July blowout in Rhinebeck, New York, Chelsea walked down the aisle with Marc Mezvinsky, the son of two former members of Congress: Edward Mezvinsky, who represented Iowa in the 1970s, and Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, who served a term representing Pennsylvania. The wedding was star-studded, as the Clintons held court among friends such as Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, and Madeleine Albright.
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Weiner, a fiery Democratic congressman from New York, and Abedin, Hillary Clinton's right-hand woman for years, sealed a political power union in July. The Long Island ceremony was officiated by none other than former President Clinton. Abedin rose from a White House intern in the mid-1990s to a top aide to Hillary from her days in the Senate and campaigning for the presidency to her current perch at the State Department. Bill Clinton, at the engagement party he hosted for the pair, said of Abedin, "I have one daughter. But if I had a second daughter, it would be Huma." Weiner has been representing New York in Congress since 1999, and most recently made viral news for his impassioned rant against Republican opposition to a bill that would grant health care to 9/11 rescue workers.
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Nelson Rockefeller’s decision to marry Margaretta “Happy” Murphy was described by pundits as an act of political self-destruction. He’d been ahead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but after news broke of his marriage to Happy in May 1963, his popularity took a dive. He’d divorced his first wife, Tod, shortly before in order to marry Happy, whom he’d been seeing for five years. An heir to a cordage fortune, Happy had also divorced her husband and given up custody of her children. Happy and Nelson married despite the scandal, and retreated to Rockefeller’s Venezuelan ranch, once owned by Simon Bolivar, for their honeymoon.
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Though Tricia Nixon had the more glamorous ceremony of the two Nixon daughters, Julie’s was no less an American royal wedding. A month before her father took office, she married David Eisenhower, the grandson of the general and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The couple turned down a White House wedding in favor of a private ceremony in Manhattan’s Marble Collegiate Church—or as private a ceremony as the descendants of two presidents can have.
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Tricia Nixon and Edward Finch Cox had the first-ever wedding in the Rose Garden. It was a union of two dynasties: Tricia Nixon was the eldest daughter of President Richard Nixon, who, though the most powerful man in the world, came from a working-class background; her betrothed, on the other hand, was descended from a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Tricia was known to be the more reserved of the Nixon daughters, so it was surprising that she opted for a ceremony replete with an Army band and a 350-pound cake. The couple honeymooned at Camp David.
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In a truly royal wedding, Lisa Halaby, a Princeton-educated architect and daughter of the chairman of Pan American Airways, married King Hussein of Jordan in a traditional Islamic ceremony in the Raghdan Palace in Amman. She had met the king in 1977, while she was working as a designer for Alia Airlines. Hussein proposed on May 13, 1978; she became his fourth wife. In an interview with Dominick Dunne of Vanity Fair, Lisa said “We courted on a motorcycle. It was the only way we could get off by ourselves.” She converted to Islam and was renamed Noor al-Hussein—the Light of Hussein.
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Maria Shriver, a niece of John F. Kennedy, married Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mr. Universe, at St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Shriver, working as a reporter for CBS at the time, was introduced to Schwarzenegger by Dan Rather at a celebrity tennis tournament. Schwarzeneger, of course, starred in Pumping Iron and Conan the Barbarian, among other films, before going on to become governor of California.
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Caroline Kennedy married Edwin Schlossberg at the Hyannis Port Club; the two had met while working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Caroline wore a white silk organza gown with embroidered white shamrocks and a 25-foot train; Edwin wore a Willi Smith blue linen suit with a silver linen tie. The full Kennedy court was present: Sen. Ted Kennedy walked Caroline down the aisle, Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger was matron of honor, and John F. Kennedy Jr. was best man. George Plimpton gave a fireworks show.
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Teresa Heinz and Sen. John Kerry were brought together by their interest in the environment: They first met at an Earth Day rally in 1990, and again two years later at the Earth Summit in Rio. Teresa became a philanthropist after she inherited a fortune from her first husband, Sen. John Heinz III, himself the heir of his family’s ketchup millions. Before she married Heinz, she worked as a translator for the United Nations; she’s fluent in five languages. The couple was married in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in an evening ceremony. Teresa wore a peach gown designed by Oscar de la Renta, and Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul & Mary fame, performed.
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Amy Carter’s quiet and unique nuptials didn’t have the grandiose qualities of a “royal” affair. Just 140 people attended the ceremony, held at the Pond House, the home of former President Jimmy Carter’s mother. Amy baked the wedding cake herself, and the couple exchanged vows under a trellis fashioned from her old childhood swing set. Amy was adamant that her father not give her away: “Amy said she didn’t belong to anyone,” said the former president.
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John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette really had to pick a remote location to get away from the paparazzi: Their wedding took place on a remote Georgia island called Cumberland, devoid of paved roads and telephone service, and populated by wild horses and armadillos. Bessette wore a pearl-white crepe dress designed by Narciso Rodriguez of Cerruti and a silk-tulle veil; Kennedy wore a dark blue single-breasted suit by Gordon Henderson, a white pique vest, and his father’s watch.
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President John F. Kennedy’s nephew Bobby Shriver and Malissa Feruzzi tied the knot at a Catholic church in the upscale Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Bobby’s sister Maria Shriver and her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, were both in attendance, as were Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, and Russell Simmons.
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Jenna Bush is the daughter and granddaughter of U.S. presidents, and her husband, John Henry Hager, is the son of a former Virginia Republican Party chairman. As if their wedding weren’t royal enough, their relationship became public when they showed up together at a White House dinner for the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. Rather than marry at the White House, the couple decided on a private ceremony at the Bushes’ Crawford ranch—a small, private affair, with a Marine band.
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Vanessa Kerry, daughter of senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry, married fellow physician Brian Nahed in the Brandegee House, an Italian-style historical home in Boston. The couple met during their residencies at Massachusetts General Hospital. Apparently, John Kerry helped out in planning the wedding, sketching dresses, interviewing bands, and choosing tablecloths.
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