Barbara Bush paid tribute to her late grandmother, former First Lady Barbara Bush, during her secret, family-only wedding to fiancé Craig Coyne on Sunday.
When Bush, the daughter of former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush, walked down the aisle at her intimate ceremony in Kennebunkport, Maine on Sunday in front of 20 members of her family, she paired her custom ivory silk crepe Vera Wang gown with a special item: her late grandmother’s bracelet.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“It’s really sweet. The ‘something borrowed’ that I’m wearing is this bracelet that my grandfather gave to my grandmother on their 70th anniversary,” Bush told PEOPLE.
The former first lady passed away in April at the age of 92 just days after announcing that she would not seek further treatment for her failing health.
“A former First Lady of the United States of America and relentless proponent of family literacy, Barbara Pierce Bush passed away Tuesday, April 17 2018 at the age of 92,” read a statement from her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, who also attended the Sunday wedding. “She is survived by her husband of 73 years, President George H. W. Bush; five children and their spouses; 17 grandchildren; seven great grandchildren; and her brother, Scott Pierce. She was preceded in death by her second child, Pauline Robinson ‘Robin’ Bush, and her siblings Martha Rafferty and James R. Pierce.”
Even before walking down the aisle, Bush’s five-week engagement to Coyne started with a tribute to her late grandmother. Coyne, who began dating his now-wife following a blind date in November, dropped to one knee in the same spot where Barbara’s grandparents got engaged in in August 1943, almost exactly 75 years earlier.
Keeping with tradition, Bush also donned her “something blue” in way of a pair of earrings from her twin sister, Jenna Bush Hager.
Hager attended the ceremony with the special duty of matron of honor, alongside her two daughters, Margaret, 5, and Poppy, 3, who served as flower girls with Coyne’s niece, Emma, 5. Poppy also served as ring bearer during the ceremony.
“It was a very secret wedding, a little bit like my elusive sister. But also, just family in a place that means family love, and it was just beautiful,” Hager told her Today colleagues, adding that she was still “crying 24 hours later.”
Along with Hager, Bush’s parents, former President Bush and wife Laura, attended the ceremony. Her father walked her down the aisle.
