Barack and Michelle Obama’s Wedding, 1992
A South Side church, a Stevie Wonder song sung by the maid of honor and a reception in a lakefront clubhouse. The Obamas married as two young Chicagoans who had met at a law firm, long before anyone was watching.
When Michelle Robinson married Barack Obama in October 1992, they were two young Chicagoans who had met at a law firm, and he had spent the months before the wedding running a voter-registration drive. It was a wedding in their own church on the South Side, followed by a reception in a lakefront clubhouse. Nobody present could have known that the couple would one day live in the White House; what they saw was a Chicago wedding done with care, and a bride without her father, who had died the year before.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Date | Saturday, October 3, 1992 |
| Place (ceremony) | Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago |
| Reception | South Shore Cultural Center, Chicago |
| The dress (designer) | Designer not on the public record |
| Officiant | The Reverend Jeremiah Wright |
The couple
They met in June 1989 at the law firm Sidley Austin, where Barack Obama was a summer associate and Michelle Robinson, an associate at the firm, was assigned to mentor him. Their first date was to see Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. They became engaged in 1991. In the months before the wedding, from April to October 1992, he directed Illinois Project Vote, a registration drive that signed up an estimated 150,000 African American voters and earned him a place on Crain’s Chicago Business’s “40 under Forty” list the following year.
The year before the wedding was also one of loss: Michelle’s father, Fraser Robinson III, died in March 1991.
The ceremony
The couple married at Trinity United Church of Christ, a predominantly Black congregation of the United Church of Christ on Chicago’s South Side, where both were members. The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the church’s pastor, officiated. Santita Jackson, who had attended high school with Michelle and was her maid of honor, sang Stevie Wonder’s “You and I (We Can Conquer the World).”
The dress
The designer of Michelle Obama’s wedding dress has never been publicly credited, which suits the occasion: this was a wedding planned by a young couple for their families, not a fashion event, and it came long before the scrutiny her clothes would later attract. For more on the gowns worn by famous brides, see our guide to celebrity wedding dresses.
The reception
The reception was held at the South Shore Cultural Center, the former South Shore Country Club, on the shore of Lake Michigan. Its Mediterranean Revival clubhouse, designed by the architects Marshall and Fox and completed in 1916, was once the preserve of an exclusive private club; the Chicago Park District bought the property in 1975 and turned it into a public cultural center.
Why it mattered
The Obama wedding is a reminder that the marriages the public later comes to admire usually begin without ceremony in the grand sense. It was a church wedding with family and friends, a reception in a public building and a song chosen for its words. Its details have become well known only because of what came after, and they hold up because they were chosen for the couple, not for an audience.
Borrow the idea
Marry in your own congregation. If you belong to a church, synagogue or mosque, a wedding there, officiated by your own minister, carries a continuity no rented venue can match. Our order of the ceremony explains each part.
Look at public venues. Park-district halls, historic clubhouses and cultural centers are often handsome and more affordable than private venues. Ask about catering rules and end times; our wedding budget guide has cost ranges.
Ask a friend to sing. A song performed by someone who knows you both, like Santita Jackson’s “You and I,” is more moving than any band. Choose it for the words, print them in the program, and give the singer a proper rehearsal in the room. Browse our ceremony music ideas.
Honor a parent who is missing. A reading, a named moment of silence or a photograph near the guest book lets a lost parent be present without sadness overtaking the day. Tell the officiant in advance and choose one gesture, not several.
Don’t let a busy year crowd out the wedding. The groom spent the months before this wedding running a statewide registration drive. If your work peaks before the date, delegate the logistics early, and protect the week of the wedding itself. Our 12-month planning checklist shows what can be done well in advance.
Written and edited by the Today’s Weddings editors. How we research and check what we publish is set out in our editorial standards. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
