“I’m not sure how best to update but we should have done this weeks ago…but we finally figured out where the ceremony will take place…and much to the relief of the Secret Service and with the support of the dogs…we will be getting married at South Lawn!” he said on Twitter. “I couldn’t be more excited.” Naomi Biden said in April that she and fiance Peter Neill would only hold their wedding reception at the White House, with a ceremony held elsewhere. However, now Naomi Biden says her wedding plans have changed to take place entirely at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Naomi Biden’s tweet included a photo of the South Lawn of the White House, taken from the vantage point of the south side of the White House. The South Lawn of the White House is a vast green space of several acres, maintained by the National Park Service. It is the location of the recreational areas of the White House grounds, including the tennis courts, the putting green, and the White House Kitchen Garden. also hosts the traditional White House Easter Egg Roll. The South Lawn can serve as a ceremonial site for some official state visits and is the primary takeoff and landing point for Marine One, the presidential helicopter that transports the President to and from various locations. It has not, so far, been the site of a modern presidential family wedding ceremony. White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday that no taxpayer funds would be used for the wedding ceremony. He did not say whether the press would be allowed access to the event. “I can assure you that taxpayer dollars will not go to this,” he said at the news conference. “This is a personal matter that’s going on. It’s not a White House matter, so I can’t talk about it from here.” Naomi Biden, 28, is the daughter of Hunter Biden and Kathleen Buhle. He is an attorney 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 features Neil’s grandmother’s engagement ring band. The couple have been together for about four years after meeting in New York on a date arranged by a mutual friend. Neal graduated from law school this spring at the University of Pennsylvania. The White House has a long history as the site of weddings of presidential descendants, 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 had their weddings at the White House, as did his niece, in 1913, 1914, and 1918, respectively. Most recently, Lynda Bird Johnson, daughter of Lyndon B. Johnson, was married in the East Room of the White House in 1967. Her sister, Luci Johnson, held her reception at the White House the year before, 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. In June 2008, George W. Bush and Laura W. Bush hosted a 600-guest White House wedding reception for their daughter, Jenna W. Bush, whose wedding ceremony had taken place the previous month at the Bush family ranch in Crawford, Texas. CNN’s Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.
