Barack Obama Officiates Former Employees' Wedding

By Mike Iavarone III

January 26, 2018

It's only January, but we can confidently say that two former Washington D.C. staffers are already having the best year any newlywed couple may have in 2018.

This past weekend on Sunday, January 21, general counsel for the Obama Foundation and President Barack Obama's personal office, Dana Remus, and senior director for intelligence programs on the National Security Council Stadd and special assistant to the President, Brett Holmgren, had a surprise for their guests attending their small wedding at the District Winery. According to the Washingtonian, former President Barack Obama had been asked to officiate the couple's wedding, to which he happily accepted. “We had decided to invite him because he was such an important part of our lives, we asked him if he could attend the wedding,” recalls Brett. “We also asked him if he could officiate, and he was intrigued with the idea.”

WHEN OBAMA IS THE OFFICIANT!!! I had the HONOR of working with an AMAZING family the last few months planning the details of their wedding officiated by close friend and boss President Barack Obama. GAAAHH!!!!! My favorite moments with POTUS 1) rehearsing before the ceremony, 2) pinning the boutinnierre on POTUS 3) the signing of the marriage certificate (insert really funny moment on 4th Street hahaha!!!) Below is the article from today's post on POLITICO.COM "WEEKEND WEDDING – OBAMA ALUMNI: Brett Holmgren, former special assistant to President Obama and senior director for intelligence programs, on Sunday afternoon married Dana Remus, former White House senior counsel. Holmgren is now VP for cybersecurity oversight at Capital One and Remus is general counsel for the Obama Foundation and Obama’s personal office. Pool report: “President Obama officiated and Rev. Oran Warmer of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Alexandria was the celebrant. Friends and family danced the evening away at District Winery in Navy Yards.” SPOTTED: Susan Rice, Ian Cameron, James Clapper, Anita Dunn and Bob Bauer, Lisa Monaco, Denis McDonough, Karin Hillstrom, Anita Decker Breckenridge, Russ Breckenridge, Eric Schultz, Emily Blakemore, Sean Crotty, Stuart Murphy, Nick McQuaid, Joe Paulsen, Samantha Tubman, Michael Bosworth, David Guggenheim, Jeff Zients, Mary Menell and Yohannes Abraham." THANK YOU to this freaking amazing team of partners! 💖💖💖💖 VENUE: @districtwinery GLAM SQUAD: @jkwbeauty PHOTOS: @danielletreal FLOWERS: @lovebloomsdc BAND: @dcfusionband STATIONERY: @bellajenna CAKE: @booshey_bites AV @brucepikeproductions PLANNER @pinkboxe with my be-muse @12in12design ... and makeup for yours truly @shaunehayesmakeup 💛2018 is off to an amazing start!!!!💛

A post shared by PINKBOXE (@pinkboxe) on Jan 23, 2018 at 12:04pm PST

At first, Dana and Brett didn't know if the scheduling would work for Obama, but once the plans were figured out, they asked Reverend Oran Warder to speak at the service. Though the former first lady Michelle Obama was also invited, she was unable to attend.

After the bride walked down the aisle, Obama spoke and signed their marriage certificate. We'd be happy to get Obama's signature on a random baseball cap, let alone having our marriage certificate signed by him.

With Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding coming up on May 19, the bar has clearly been set high for wedding ceremonies this year, although we doubt the royal wedding will have a hard time competing with Dana and Brett's big day.

Photo credit: Getty Images

TopicsBarack Obama