Something Old, Something New: Tricia Nixon

Something Old, Something New: Eight First Daughters’ Fashionable White House Weddings highlights the glamorous weddings of eight women who took their vows at the White House over two centuries and how their bridal fashion reflects both the taste of each era and their own personal styles. This exhibit was curated by Jillian Staricka, the 2023 Digital Exhibits Intern and MA student in Costume Studies at New York University.

Tricia Nixon

Married to Edward Cox on June 12, 1971

Tricia Nixon, the last presidential daughter to wed at the White House, married Edward Finch Cox on the summer afternoon of June 12, 1971. Despite some pushback due to security concerns, including those voiced by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, Tricia insisted on having the ceremony in the Rose Garden and began a new tradition of outdoor weddings at the White House. Though the setting gave the ceremony a contemporary air, the couple maintained a traditional approach, rather than the increasingly common “casual and homespun weddings.” Tricia wore a gown designed for her by Priscilla Kidder, a transformative figure in the wedding gown design industry and iconic American fashion designer. Tricia’s dress, sheathed in silk organdy and intricate embroidery and trailed by a trumpeted court train, turned her into the vision of a princess, which Kidder publicly stated was her intention for the bride. The hundreds of guests in attendance at the American-as-apple-pie wedding were greeted by the perfumed scent of flowers displayed throughout the White House from over two dozen florists from across the nation, “almost as carefully culled as the guest list.”

Gallery

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Tricia Nixon’s Wedding Dress

Creator: Priscilla Kidder

Tricia Nixon’s wedding ensemble is held in the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California. The bridal look, designed by Priscilla Kidder with the input of the bride herself, was a white crepe molded underslip overlaid by illusory layers of silk organza and incorporated a sleeveless patterned-lace bodice with a v-neckline, a trumpet style skirt with a court train, and swaths of embroidered floral motifs.

Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum

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Wedding Portrait of Tricia Nixon Cox

Date: June 25, 1971

Creator: Dick Winburn

Medium: Black and white copy of Tricia Nixon's formal wedding portrait

Tricia is a vision of American beauty in this official wedding portrait in the White House. When designing and producing the wedding look, Priscilla Kidder, who had previously designed the bridal gowns for Luci Johnson, Julie Nixon, and many other high-profile clients, emphasized that the look would be one hundred percent American-made.

Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum/NARA

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Tricia Nixon’s Wedding Party

Date: June 12, 1971

Creator: Oliver F. Atkins

Medium: Photograph

The Nixon-Cox wedding party poses for photographs in the Blue Room after the ceremony. The bridesmaids were draped in pastel; Priscilla of Boston provided layered silk organdy dresses with corresponding floppy hats to top off the look. The pastel theme echoed the decor and flowers bursting from every corner of the White House State Floor which was said to be a true “bower of flowers.”

Courtesy of Henry & Carole Haller and Family

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Tricia Nixon and Edward Cox Dance at their Wedding Reception

Date: June 12, 1971

Creator: Oliver F. Atkins

Medium: Photograph

During the newlyweds’ first dance, Tricia’s stunning juliet cap and illusion silk veil are on full display. The structured cap was made in the same mode as the gown with matching appliqued roses of Alençon lace and embroidered lilies of the valley. The multilayered floor-length veil was embellished with pearls all throughout.

Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum/NARA

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Tricia Nixon and Edward Cox Wedding Ceremony in the Rose Garden

Date: June 12, 1971

Creator: Robert L. Knudsen

Medium: Photograph

In this aerial view of the ceremony, the greenery of the Rose Garden, dotted with roses of reds, pinks, whites and yellows, ushered in the new era of outdoor weddings for the White House, reflective of the growing trend in the U.S. in the 1970s. The shade of green of the crabapple trees throughout the Rose Garden was said to have matched the shade of Tricia’s bridesmaids’ layered silk organdy dresses, also made by Priscilla of Boston. Though the crowd looks intimate, just beyond it, on the South Lawn, press tents captured the nuptials for the nation.

Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum/NARA

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Designer Priscilla Kidder of Boston

Date: 1971

Designer Priscilla Kidder of Priscilla of Boston holds a piece of white silk satin with an inscription in blue thread reading, “Gown by Priscilla of Boston for the White House Wedding of Tricia Nixon to Edward Finch Cox, June 12, 1971.” This piece was sewn into Tricia’s dress as her “something blue.”

© 1971 Harry Benson

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