"I do," done Crawford style

CRAWFORD, Texas — So close and yet so far: Tiny Crawford is sort of like a bridesmaid at arm's length from Jenna Bush's wedding today.

All of the action will be at President Bush's 1,600-acre ranch seven miles outside the one-stoplight town.

Friday night's rehearsal dinner was even farther away, 54 miles from the ranch in a town called Salado, meaning the more than 200 Bush family and friends invited to the nuptials might never even set foot downtown Crawford.

"It's a private ceremony. It's an exciting time for the Bush family," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Friday. "They're all beginning to converge here in Texas and in Crawford and I know the president and Mrs. Bush are really looking forward to this weekend."

The bride, first lady Laura Bush and daughter Barbara weren't even in Crawford most of Friday. Early in the day, the three attended a bridal lunch for family and friends at an inn in Salado, more than an hour's drive south of Crawford. They stayed the day in the small tourist village, founded before the Civil War, getting ready for the evening events. The president made his way solo to Salado.

There the parents of the groom, Henry Hager, hosted the rehearsal dinner for members of the family and the wedding party at the Old Salado Springs Celebration Center in the heart of the town filled with coffee shops, western-style stores, antiques, eateries and clothing shops.

Later, all of the wedding guests were invited to what was billed a "Texas-sized celebration" at the Salado Silver Spur Theater in the village, once a stagecoach stop.

With no hotels in Crawford, local residents are more likely to welcome tourists who just want to say they were in Crawford when Jenna Bush married her longtime boyfriend.

It wasn't until late this week that the downtown began to show signs of the event, which will end up in presidential history books.

A white banner with red wedding bells on either side of "Congratulations Jenna and Henry" stretches across a local storefront.

A few doors down, a white wedding veil adorns an 18-foot metal sculpture of an angel, a gift to Crawford in 2004.

Some businesses, such as The Yellow Rose, are doing a brisk business selling coffee mugs with the couple's photo inside a red heart.

Down the street, a life-size cardboard cutout of a much-younger Bush greets patrons at The Red Bull Gift and Gallery. There, visitors can buy $3 Jenna and Henry key rings, a $10 mouse pad emblazoned with the smiling couple or a mug with the same photo and date of their marriage.