CRAWFORD, Texas — Weddings signify new beginnings. And while the residents of this central Texas town share a genuine hope for the future happiness of presidential daughter Jenna Bush, who’s being married here tonight, many love the idea that, for them, it signifies an ending.

“It’s Crawford’s last big fanfare,” says massage therapist Kay Owens, 53, who admits that some of the town’s 750 residents have ended up as “stressed-out” clients on her massage table.

Make no mistake, she says — Crawford is overwhelmingly conservative and Republican and proudly supported President Bush in the last two elections. But seven years of attention has been, well, just a tad frenetic.

“A helicopter flies over our place every time we come in,” says Ronny Owens, 54, Kay’s husband, who works in the used-car business. “I do a lot of hunting, and I can’t go down to the creek no more near the president’s ranch.”

“We’ve tried a few times,” Ms. Owens says with a laugh, “but the Secret Service always comes running.”

On a bright, humid Saturday, helicopters and Secret Service agents were visible just about everywhere. Later this afternoon, the 200 guests — none of whom are residents of Crawford — will make their way down Farm Road 185 for the right turn onto Prairie Chapel Road, toward the 1,583-acre ranch where Jenna and Henry Hager will exchange vows at sunset.

About seven miles away, in downtown Crawford, TV crews huddle around trucks that carry satellite dishes aimed at the sky, and tourists by the dozen flock to stores such as the Red Bull and the Yellow Rose.

The Red Bull is offering up punch and wedding cake, said store manager Jamie Burgess, who has run out of the prized collectibles — Jenna-and-Henry mouse pads and coffee mugs. Her competitor, the nearby Yellow Rose, had just a few mugs left today.

“There’s a lot more traffic and a bunch of airplanes flying around, but it’s not for the worse, it’s for the better,” says Lori Hernandez, a “30-something” department store worker from nearby McGregor.

Crawford has a single flashing red light, dividing Farm Road 185 from State Highway 317, which was racked with a savage thunderstorm Friday night that pelted the area with a driving rain and quarter-size hail. There was no word by noon today about whether the president’s ranch had sustained damage.

This morning, not even the 90-plus-degree heat could deter the tourists, who are back in force, posing in front of Bush standees in front of the Red Bull and near the Yellow Rose, which bears the sign, “Our Heroes, Support Our Troops,” punctuated by words from the president: “We will not tire, we will not falter, we will not fail.”

A blond, nattily dressed TV reporter narrates her story in front of the monument that honors Crawford High School’s 1964 Class B state champions in football. The General Store is selling burritos and kolaches (the Czech-German influence here is strong), and the Coffee Station, where President Bush once took British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin, is serving up its trademark monster burgers with fried onion rings and fried jalapenos.

Paula Martin, 50, of Temple, has driven in for one purpose: To score big on Bush memorabilia.

She has picked up six Jenna-Henry coffee mugs from the Yellow Rose and a T-shirt, which she plans to wear to the real White House in June. Like many in Crawford, Ms. Martin is happy to count herself among the 29 percent of Americans who think the president is doing a good job.

“I have been here 25 times,” she says, “just hoping to catch the president. I just think he has a good heart, and I think it’s in the right place. The United States is one of the few countries where the people try to tear down our leaders. I think they do a lot of good things we probably don’t hear about.”

At the Coffee Station, which doubles as a gas stop, Althea Rogers, 42, is filling up her tank. Regular unleaded is priced at $3.61 a gallon. When President Bush took office, on Jan. 20, 2001, the national average for regular unleaded was $1.46 a gallon.

Does she blame him for the high cost of filling up?

“I don’t really blame him,” says Ms. Rogers, a postal worker. “I don’t see where he’s the direct reason. One person can’t make that happen.”

Ms. Rogers has lived in Crawford for 16 years and says that, as the home of the Western White House, the town has changed dramatically, and in her opinion, for the better.

“A lot of the town has gotten more involved in politics,” she says. “They just seem more upbeat. There are just a lot of things going on now.”

Not everyone feels so upbeat, however. Realtor-rancher Mark Mattlage, 57, chose to return to his hometown in May 2007, after years of living in such exotic places as Key West, Fla. He has owned his ranch-style home and the hundreds of acres around it for years, less than two miles from the Bush property.

Even before he returned, he allowed anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan to stage demonstrations on a portion of his land. In mid-2006, he retracted the offer, after his insurance company threatened to hike his insurance liability costs astronomically. He was perturbed, he says, when Ms. Sheehan reacted in a manner that he deemed inappropriate. (Her supporters later acquired their own land nearby.)

So, he says, he’s no fan of her, or the president, for whom he has never voted, but has never met. Mr. Mattlage shares his home with his business partner.

“It’s probably two connections,” he says. “The Sheehan thing and me being gay. Everyone out here knows I’m gay — they’ve known it since I was 15 — and they’re no different now than they were back then. These people here in Crawford, they’re the salt of the earth. They’re not going to tell you they’re tired of all this, because they’re Republican and voted for him twice. But the truth is, they are tired of it.”

Like his neighbors, Mr. Mattlage wishes Jenna a long and happy life, but as for the presidency that forever changed his beloved hometown …

“I’ll be glad when it’s over,” he says.