--- description: As former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton heads into her wedding weekend, TIME takes a look at other presidential kids and their nuptials. —By Kate Abbott title: Chelsea's Big Day: A Brief History of White House Weddings image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) # Chelsea's Big Day: A Brief History of White House Weddings by [TIME](/author/time/) Jul 29, 2010 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Jul 29, 2010 4:00 AM CUT As former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton heads into her wedding weekend, TIME takes a look at other presidential kids and their nuptials. —By Kate Abbott ### Nellie Grant, 1874  Ulysses S. Grant's only daughter wed in the White House at the age of 18, in "perhaps the greatest American social event of the nineteenth century," according to presidential historian Doug Wead. Nellie's romance, which captivated the nation with its storybook overtones, began when she met Englishman Algernon Sartoris on an Atlantic cruise. Culver Pictures ### Amy Carter, 1996  Amy met her husband while she was an employee at an Atlanta bookstore where he was the manager. Her wedding, outside of Plains, Ga., was as stubbornly low-key as she was. Amy refused to let her father Jimmy Carter give her away and baked her own cake for the reception, and the couple drove off in a car with a pro-choice bumper sticker. Getty Images ### JFK Jr., 1996  America's prince John F. Kennedy Jr. married his girlfriend Carolyn Bessette in secret on an island off the coast of Georgia. Forty guests were in attendance, excluding most of the Kennedy clan — they would draw too much attention. The chapel in which the small ceremony was held didn't have electricity. DENNIS REGGIE / AP ### Jenna Bush, 2008  Jenna met Henry Hager while he was working for her father's 2004 re-election campaign. Jenna chose to have a private ceremony on the family ranch in Texas rather than a White House celebration. When asked if he was helping with the wedding plans, George W. Bush said, "They're letting me spend money." Shealah Craighead / The White House via WireImage / Getty Images ### Alice Roosevelt, 1906  Upon returning from the Philippines, Theodore Roosevelt's famously boisterous daughter announced her engagement to the much-older Congressman Nicholas Longworth. At the wedding reception, fearless Alice cut her wedding cake with a sword. Corbis ### Jessie Wilson, 1913  The same year her father Woodrow Wilson took office, Jessie married Harvard Law graduate Francis B. Sayre in the White House — in the same spot (the East Room) as both Nellie Grant and Alice Roosevelt. The couple's engagement went largely unnoticed by the press, and to make up for lost time, the Washington Post used its entire front page to cover the details of the wedding. Corbis ### FDR Jr., 1937  The family's golden boy, Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. married Ethel DuPont, the first of his five wives, in 1937 in Delaware. The news of the couple's engagement sparked controversy, as DuPont was an heiress to one of the nation's prominent Republican families. The ceremony was hailed as the "wedding of the decade." Bettmann / CORBIS ### Margaret Truman, 1956  Margaret opted to have her wedding in the same Independence, Mo., church as her parents, though without any of the "hurly-burly," as she called it. She spent a week in seclusion before the big day, emerging from the Truman home only a handful of times, including once to partake in a small press conference. AP ### Luci Baines Johnson, 1966  Luci and her mother planned for a Texas-size ceremony in D.C. At one point, the guest list included 700 people and her seven-tiered wedding cake weighed 300 lb. She was only 19 years old when she married Patrick Nugent. Bettmann / CORBIS ### Caroline Kennedy, 1986  After graduating from Columbia University with a law degree, Caroline took a job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where she met her future husband Edwin Schlossberg. Jackie Kennedy planned their Massachusetts wedding, and Caroline was walked down the aisle by her uncle Teddy. 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