A re-enactment of the wedding ceremony of David and Ida Eisenhower, parents of President Dwight Eisenhower, takes place Saturday at Lecompton Territorial Days. Performing as the bride and groom, real-life couple Kim and Mike Stewart share a glace at each other during the ceremony. The Rev. Ken Baker portrays the couple’s officiant, The Rev. E.B. Slade.

Ed Shaw, center, of Silver Lake, Kansas, shares a laugh with Mary Jean Eisenhower, President Eisenhower’s granddaughter, after she gave him an autograph on his wedding program.

President Dwight Eisenhower’s father looked the part of the nervous groom at Lecompton’s Lane University Chapel on Saturday, fumbling for the right words and struggling to find the wedding ring in front of a crowd of more than 100.

But otherwise the wedding of David and Ida Eisenhower went off without a hitch, albeit 125 years after the real wedding of the future president’s parents.

The re-enactment was all part of the annual Territorial Days, taking place Friday and Saturday in downtown Lecompton. The event honors the rich political history of the city, with visitors touring museums and taking part in various activities throughout the weekend.

David and Ida met at Lane University in Lecompton and married in the same room as Saturday’s re-enactment.

While actors played the parts of the bride and groom, special guest Mary Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Eisenhower, attended the ceremony and was treated as a celebrity by the other attendees, even signing autographs.

“It was quite an honor,” said Paul Bahnmaier, president of the Lecompton Historical Society.

Bahnmaier helped coordinate the wedding, which used the same pulpit as the real wedding from more than a century ago, and spoke of the proud presidential and historical ties Lecompton has.

“Think what the world would be like today without Lecompton,” he said.

Mary Eisenhower, who runs People to People International, a Kansas City, Mo.-based nonprofit founded by her famous grandfather, said she was touched by the event and reception she received.

“What struck me was being in the same physical room that it happened in,” she said. “I tend to tear up at weddings, but I almost cried at this one too.”

As for the nervous groom — Lecompton resident Mike Stewart — the wedding-day jitters wore off after the ceremony. Stewart’s “bride” during the event was his actual wife, Kim, and he joked that the re-enactment served another purpose.

“Now we don’t have to renew our vows,” he said.