George and Laura Bush Marriage Profile

Here is information about the marriage of George and Laura Bush, their wedding, how they met, and more.

Born:

George Walker Bush: July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut. He grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas.

Laura Welch: November 4, 1946, in Midland, Texas.

George and Laura met at a back yard barbeque at the home of mutual friends and were married three months later. George took Laura to a miniature golf course on their first date.

Laura: "When George and I met, it was as if two parallel lives suddenly converged. Our childhood memories, the places we had known, even many of our friends overlapped. We were like the last two pieces of a puzzle, our similarities and contradictions sized to fit. George was boisterous and loved to talk, while I've always been quieter ... From the start, our marriage was built on a powerful foundation of trust. We had been cut, as it were, from the same solid Permian Basin stone."
Source: Laura Bush. Spoken From the Heart. 2010. pg. 99.

George and Laura were married on November 5, 1977, at 11 A.M. in a small wedding in the Glass Chapel of the First United Methodist Church in Midland, Texas. It was the same church where Laura had been baptized. The officiant was Reverend Jerry Wyatt.

They had 75 guests. They didn't have any bridesmaids, or groomsmen, or flower girls, or ring bearers. Their wedding invitations were printed by hand.

Their wedding reception luncheon was held at the Midland Racquet Club and their rehearsal dinner the night before was held "in the windowless basement ballroom of the new Hilton Hotel. Bar and George Bush had hosted it, and the menu was chicken and rice."
Source: Laura Bush. Spoken From the Heart. 2010. pg. 97.

George and Laura honeymooned in Cozumel, Mexico.

George wore a business suit with an orchid boutonniere. Laura wore a candlelight beige crepe de chine street length dress with long-sleeves, a single strand of pearls, and a corsage of white gardenias at her waist. In her memoir, Laura wrote that she carried a bouquet of gardenias and had gardenias pinned in her hair.

When they were married, both George and Laura were 31 years old.

Neither George or Laura were previously married.

Laura: Schoolteacher, librarian.

George: Served in Texas National Guard, CEO of oil and gas company, managing general partner of Texas Rangers baseball team, Texas governor from 1994-2000, U.S. President, 2000-2008.

Joe Hagan: "And what about George W. Bush? It’s unclear how the curators of his presidential library, which is slated to open next year at Southern Methodist University, will treat the ex-president’s life from 1968 to 1973. They’re unlikely to explore the finer details of his flight logs or offer any further information about his “lost year.” But his time flying planes in Texas during the height of the Vietnam War remains a defining part of his political biography nonetheless..."
Source: Joe Hagan. "Truth or Consequences." TexasMonthly.com. 5/2012.

On November 25, 1981, George and Laura's fraternal twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, were born.

Jenna married Henry Hager on May 10, 2008.

President George Bush converted from the Episcopal to the Methodist faith in 1986.

Laura has always been a Methodist.

Residence:

George and Laura resided at the Whitehouse in Washington, D.C. from 2000-2008.

They own a ranch at Crawford, Texas and purchased a 4-bedroom home in the affluent Preston Hollow area of North Dallas. The 8,000-square-foot home was built in 1959. It has 4 1/2 bathrooms, a wet bar and a fireplace.
Source: Deb Riechmann. "President, first lady buying home in Dallas." SFGate.com. 12/4/08.

George W. Bush: "It starts with being married to a remarkable person. And I am. I jokingly say that I stood up in front of a crowd once and said, "Laura's the greatest first lady ever," and then realized my mother was in the audience. But I meant it when I said she was the greatest first lady ever. Because she viewed the presidency and being first lady as an opportunity to improve people's lives. It wasn't a burden. She put her heart and soul into the experience, just like I did. So we had a shared experience. That makes a good marriage better. In many ways our marriage is great because she has made it great ... We spend less time with each other now than we did during the presidency ... My point is that she's busy and I'm busy, which makes our marriage not only interesting but exciting. It's exciting for me to see her busy and out there enjoying what she's doing. But we always make time to be with each other as well."
Source: Nancy Perry Graham. "What's Next for George W. Bush?" AARP The Magazine. Jan/Feb 2011. pg. 66.

George W. Bush: "She's busy and I'm busy which makes our marriage not only interesting but exciting. But we always make time for each other ... I meant it when I said she was the greatest First Lady ever. Because she viewed the presidency and the First Lady as an opportunity to improve people's lives. She put her heart and soul into the experience, just like I did. So we had a shared experience. That makes a good marriage better."
Source: Alla Byrne. "George W. Bush Wants Grandkids -- Desperately." People.com. 11/10/10.

Laura about George's drinking: "I was not going to leave George, and I wasn't going to let him leave me with twins. Our marriage was enduring, we loved each other, and we were two people who did not have divorce in our DNA. But I was disappointed. And I let him know that I thought he could be a better man."
Source: Laura Bush. Spoken From the Heart. 2010. pg. 118.

George W. Bush: "I give her all the credit about why I can say a good marriage has gotten better."
Source: "Bushes Discuss Their Marriage and Mutual Love of Jigsaw Puzzles." HuffingtonPost.com. 12/04/08.

Laura: "George and I have learned one important thing: whatever happens in life, we handle it."

George W. Bush: "I saw an elegant beautiful woman who turned out not only to be elegant and beautiful, but very smart and willing to put up with my rough edges, and I must confess has smoothed them off over time."
Source: CNN

Laura: "It was a small wedding, just about 75 people. It was in the church I'd been baptized in as a baby. So it was really a wonderful way to start a new marriage."
Source: CNN

Laura: "We had known each other about 2-1/2 months," she says of the proposal, "but I knew I wanted to marry him."
Source: ET