Presidential daughter Jenna Bush has married her long-time boyfriend Henry Hager under the Texas stars.

It was a private but lush affair Saturday night, with 200 family members and close friends.

It was also a rare moment of levity and joy for US President George Bush, who is bogged down in an unpopular war in Iraq, some of the lowest ratings ever for a president and a mushrooming subprime mortgage crisis that has dragged the country to the brink of recession.

'Today is my daughter Jenna's wedding day. This is a joyous occasion for our family, as we celebrate the happy life of her and her husband Henry,' Bush said in his weekly radio address early Saturday morning.

Jenna, 26, is the blonde twin most often linked to daddy Bush's mischievous side.

While both she and dark-haired Barbara, who was her maid of honour, had run-ins with the law for under-age drinking, Jenna has stuck her tongue out at the press and paid the heftier fines.

While Barbara was the fifth generation Bush to attend prestigious Yale University, Jenna went to the nearby University of Texas at Austin.

With such deep roots in Texas, Jenna's decision to get married at the ranch instead of at the White House, where the world would have watched, was logical, said mother Laura Bush last week.

'She just wanted to get married at home. She just feels a lot more comfortable there,' the first lady told reporters.

Only a few details about the affair escaped before Saturday.

President Bush let loose that it was his idea to build an outdoor altar for the religious vows.

'That's where she's going to get married, right in front of this Texas limestone altar with a cross on it - by our lake,' the president told ABC news recently.

The secrecy extended to the groom's family, who booked the traditional rehearsal dinner Friday under an alias to protect the affair.

Even the owners of the Range restaurant, Dave and Katie Hermann, an hour's drive from the Bush ranch, weren't told the real identity of the rehearsal dinner party until 10.30 p.m. Thursday, the Dallas News reported.

Jenna and Henry, who turned 30 Friday, met in 2004, when he was working in the White House for Bush's former political strategist, Karl Rove, USA Today reported.

The couple are to live in Maryland's port city of Baltimore, where they have bought a 128-year-old row house for $440,000.

He is to work at an energy company while Jenna is an intern for Unicef in Latin America.

She has written several books, including a children's book that she wrote with her mother.