Biden’s granddaughter weds at White House
WASHINGTON — Naomi Biden, the eldest grandchild of President Joe Biden, and Peter Neal were married in a private ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on Saturday morning. It was the quintessential Biden affair: planned by the close-knit family and a handful of trusted aides, and treated like a state secret, despite a public backdrop.
“It has been a joy to watch Naomi grow, discover who she is, and carve out such an incredible life for herself,” Joe Biden and Jill Biden, the first lady, said in a statement. “Now, we are filled with pride to see her choose Peter as her husband and we’re honored to welcome him to our family. We wish them days full of laughter and a love that grows deeper with every passing year.”
The White House kept details of the event minimal, but a person familiar with the planning said beforehand that a luncheon for the family and wedding party would be held in the White House immediately after the South Lawn ceremony. A black-tie evening reception with dessert and dancing was to follow.
Of the seven Biden grandchildren, Naomi Biden, 28, is a particularly influential presence in Joe Biden’s life. It was she who called a family meeting to urge her grandfather to run for the presidency in 2019. And she will be involved in the family discussions when Biden, who turns 80 a day after the wedding, mulls a second run.
A Washington attorney with an interest in politics, Naomi Biden has been a frequent presence at White House events, twirling in a feather-fringed dress on the South Lawn when Elton John played there in September, and sitting in the audience at a Cinco de Mayo celebration in May. She is the daughter of Hunter Biden, the president’s son, and Kathleen Buhle, who divorced in 2017.
Naomi Biden, as the president often says, was named for his firstborn daughter, who died in a car crash along with Joe Biden’s first wife, Neilia, in 1972.
In April, the president introduced himself as “Naomi Biden’s grandfather” at a White House event celebrating the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. In October, Naomi Biden stood beside her grandparents in a pink wig — her grandmother’s was purple — and handed out Halloween candy to trick-or-treaters.
So it surprised few who know the family that the president and first lady were active in the wedding planning process, according to people familiar with the event. Jill Biden told the “Today” show in September that she had been in most of the planning meetings and had watched her granddaughter “blossom,” adding, “Really, there’s just such joy about it, and I cannot wait.”
Wedding planning meetings were kept to a close group, including the first couple and Hunter Biden; Anthony Bernal, Jill Biden’s senior adviser; and Elizabeth Alexander, her communications director. But it was the first couple whose names were listed on the wedding invitation.
White House advisers have said very little on the record about the wedding, except to relay that the Biden family would handle all costs related to the event.
Naomi Biden and Neal live at the White House, according to two people familiar with their situation.
“Consistent with other private events hosted by the first family and following the traditions of previous White House wedding festivities in prior administrations, the Biden family will be paying for the wedding activities that occur at the White House,” Alexander wrote in an email.
Along the way to matrimony, Neal, 25, and Naomi Biden have posted the occasional update to Instagram. The couple was feted with a floral-themed shower in August, and they traveled to Wyoming, where Neal grew up, for festivities with friends later in the summer. Neal, 25, is from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and is the son of Drs. Mary C. Neal and William C. Neal of Jackson Hole. On Thursday, Neal posted a photo of the pair standing under a white arch at a marriage license bureau in Washington.
White House weddings are rare. There have only been 18 of them, with couples ranging from President Grover Cleveland and Frances Folsom, who wed in the Blue Room in June of 1886, to Pete Souza, President Barack Obama’s White House photographer, and Patti Lease, who were married in the Rose Garden in 2013, in a small affair studded with blue flowers. (The couple had been together for two decades and saw no need to marry until Obama’s constant badgering won out.) Naomi Biden is the first grandchild of a president to marry there.
It is generally up to the couple to share as much or as little as they want about their nuptials, but the curiosity factor is always high.
With privacy a primary concern, the Bidens hired Bryan Rafanelli, the wedding planner responsible for high-profile politicalworld events including Chelsea Clinton’s wedding in 2010, to carry out the proceedings. He has been known to require confidentiality agreements with his vendors, which the White House also requires.
Naomi Biden and Neal, who did not respond to a request for comment, were set up on a date by a mutual friend in New York City in 2018, according to the White House. Neal proposed on Sept. 4, 2021. Naomi Biden is an associate at the high-powered law firm Arnold & Porter. Neal graduated from law school at the University of Pennsylvania this year. He is an associate at Georgetown Law’s Center on National Security.