Alex wagner and sam kass wedding

POCANTICO HILLS, N.Y. - President Barack Obama set aside the pressures of the world's trouble spots on Saturday to assume the role of spectator for something more joyous: the wedding of the Obama family's longtime chef and friend.

Chef Sam Kass and MSNBC host Alex Wagner were tying the knot in an evening ceremony at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a farm-to-table restaurant in Pocantico Hills, just north of New York City.

Obama and Kass have a close relationship, which Obama highlighted earlier this month by spending hours at dinner at Kass' apartment amid the turmoil in Iraq, Ukraine and Ferguson, Missouri.

It's long been said that time is a president's most precious commodity. That Obama would spend five hours at Kass' home on one of the aide's final evenings as a bachelor was a testament to their bond.

Obama's rounds of golf are often his only other outings that last as long - and those games sometimes include Kass.

Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Malia and Sasha