Patricia Nixon Cox on her wedding day, June 12, 1971
Dallas Morning News, Sunday, June 13, 1971, Page One, Section A, Courtesy of Genealogy Bank
Tricia, Ed Tie the Knot
Showers Delay Wedding in Rose Garden
By Merikaye Presley, Washington Bureau of The News
Washington – Clouds parted over the White House Saturday afternoon just long enough for Tricia Nixon and Ed Cox to exchange wedding vows in the rose garden without getting wet.
The wedding of President’ Nixon’s elder daughter was delayed about half an hour because ran was falling lightly.
However, when the processional began at 4:30, the rains stopped and did not begin again until the ceremony ended near 5 p.m.
Tricia, 25, the eighth presidential daughter to be married in the White House, and Ed, 24, the son of a socially prominent New York family, culminated their seven-year courtship with the 11 minute ecumenical wedding ceremony performed by Dr. Edward Latch, chaplain of the House of Representatives.
Although skies were overcast all morning and scattered showers fell, Tricia decided shortly after noon to go ahead with the garden ceremony upon which she had her heart set.
Witnessing the ceremony were 400 guests, mostly family friends and relatives, who were seated in gold chairs facing the altar outside the President’s oval office. A 12 foot high white wrought iron gazebo entwined with flowers covered the couple and minister as vows were exchanged.
The ceremony was composed by Tricia from Episcopal, Catholic and Methodist wedding services. As a surprise to both their parents, Tricia and Ed paused to kiss their mothers after the ceremony was over.
The processional began at 4:30 p.m. when the bridegroom, his best man and brother, Howard Cox, Jr., and Dr. Latch entered the rose garden as the Army Strings played “Trumpet Tune.”
Next, the eight groomsmen, three bridesmaids and matron of honor Julie Nixon Eisenhower proceeded to the altar.
Shortly after 4:30 p.m., Tricia dressed in a sleeveless long white down with a circular train, slowly descended the staircase from the Blue Room balcony on the arm of her father.
As they turned into the garden, the Army Strings broke into the stirring “Trumpet Voluntary” and the congregation rose.
When the bridal party was in the place at the altar, Dr. Latch addressed the congregation, then said to Tricia and Ed, “The union into which you are about to enter is most precious because it will bring you together in a relationship so intimate and so close that it will inevitably and profoundly influence your entire future.”
Continuing the ceremony selected by the bride, he said, “Ideally, married life ought to be a life of self-sacrificing love, of great and unreserved giving of self,” and asked, “Is it in this spirit and for this purpose that you have come hither to be joined together.”
The bride and groom replied, “It is.”
President Nixon then gave the hand of his blonde daughter to the minister, who placed it in the groom’s hand.
Tricia and Ed exchanged traditional vows, and Ed, receiving the ring from the minister, slipped it on Tricia’s finger, pledging, “In symbol and pledge of our constant faith and love, with this ring, I thee wed.”
After the congregation recited the Lord’s Prayer, the couple knelt for additional prayers and the benediction before beginning the recessional out of the garden and into the Blue Room.
Multi-colored flowers bloomed in the rose garden, and the lavender and green gowns of the bridesmaids shimmered next to the formal gray cutaways of the groomsmen.
First Lady Pat Nixon wore a white lace dress covered with pastel embroidered flowers. Mrs. Howard Cox, mother of the groom, had on a blue and white silk print dress.
After the guests had been greeted, the bride and groom whirled around the dance floor. Then President Nixon took his daughter in his arms and danced his first public dance in the White House since becoming President.
Three American champagnes, both pink and white, and 19 different hors d’ourves and pastries were served by butlers to the guests.
In the early evening, Tricia moved to the focal point of the north portico hall, the 6-tiered wedding cake which towered more than seven feet above the table.
Pink sugar cherry blossoms decorated every layer of the cake and filled a sugar openwork dome on its top.
With her husband by her side, Tricia plunged the knife into the 5-foot-wide bottom layer point first and carefully cut the first piece.
The cake cutting caused much jubilation, particularly with the First Family trying to prove that their favorite recipe for old-fashioned pound cake was a success.
Tricia and her husband fed each other a piece of the huge cake and they hugged each other. “It works,” shouted Julie. “It works absolutely,” said Tricia.
Two of the reporters who tasted the cake said it was “good” and “lemony” with a delicate texture that made it crumble easily.
After the cake cutting, Tricia walked halfway up the grand staircase, and tossed her bridal bouquet over the railing into the foyer.
Minutes later, Tricia and Ed, still wearing their wedding finery, walked out the front door of the mansion where guests pelted them with rose petals before they climbed into their waiting limousine, departing for a secret honeymoon destination.
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Rufus & Lizzie Boswell Layfield
