article_snippet.sent: An invitation to a White House state dinner has always been one of Washington's most sought-after tickets.
article_snippet.sent: There's the elegant setting, VIP guests in tuxedos and designer gowns and a four-course meal served up by America's most famous kitchen.
article_snippet.sent: Shrouded in pageantry, a White House state dinner is the highest diplomatic honour the U.S. reserves for allies and other countries.
article_snippet.sent: It's also one of the most lavish affairs the government puts on.
article_snippet.sent: The State Department pays the entire tab, which averaged about $500,000 each for Obama's seven dinners, said White House spokesman Patrick Ventrell.
article_snippet.sent: Later dinners were for Mexico, China, Germany, South Korea, Britain and France.
article_snippet.sent: State dinners are one tool of diplomacy that can be used and used effectively and sometimes we use State dinners,' Ventrell said.
article_snippet.sent: There's no concern that should be raised by the number of state dinners,' said Capricia Marshall, who led the State Department team that oversees visits by foreign dignitaries until she stepped down in 2013.
article_snippet.sent: A state dinner for a foreign leader marks the finale of a state visit, which opens with herald trumpets and cannon salutes on the South Lawn of the White House, followed by meetings, a joint news conference with the U.S. president and an elaborate State Department luncheon.
article_snippet.sent: Then comes the state dinner, where President Gerald Ford raises a glass and toasts relations between the countries in front of hundreds of invited guests, ranging from Cabinet secretaries and other senior administration officials to members of Congress, business leaders, celebrities and others, as well as the working media.
article_snippet.sent: Make no mistake about it: every country wants to have a state visit,' said Ann Stock, a White House social secretary under President Bill Clinton.
article_snippet.sent: The origins of the state dinner were rooted in the the early 19th Century when The origins of the state dinner were held to honor the president's cabinet, Congress or other dignitaries, according to the White House Historical Association.
article_snippet.sent: It wasn't until the late 19th Century that the term state dinner referred specifically to a meal hosted by the president for a foreign head of state as the guest of honour.
article_snippet.sent: The first ruling monarch to attend a state dinner at the White House was King David Kalakaua of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), hosted by President Ulysses S. Grant on December 12, 1874.
highlights_snippet.sent: State Department pays cost of each event, which averages around $500,000 .
  