What John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s Cumberland Island Wedding Was Actually Like

“I remember thinking how lucky we were that it wasn’t hotter,” remembers Mary Ferguson, co-owner of Cumberland Island’s Greyfield Inn the place John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette spent their wedding ceremony weekend. It was September in Georgia, a month that may be both sweltering or gentle because the Southern local weather decides whether or not it desires to lastly shrug off summer season. The warmth will be welcome if you wish to wash in heat climate for just a bit longer—much less so in case you’re planning a marriage in a modest wooden chapel with no electrical energy or AC, as Carolyn and John have been. Fortunately, on September 21, 1996, temperatures on Cumberland Island sat modestly within the 80s: sizzling, however not too sizzling.

Lately, almost each facet of Carolyn Bessette and JFK Jr.’s relationship has been described as “iconic”—their minimalist ’90s style, their Tribeca outingstheir sparse lofttheir jobs, even their fights. But their easy, non-public wedding ceremony, delivered to life on the display final night time within the sixth episode of Ryan Murphy’s love storyis indisputably among the many most era-defining moments of their time collectively.

When John and Carolyn acquired engaged, there have been excessive expectations for what many anticipated could be a “fairytale” wedding ceremony match for American royalty. John’s older sister, Caroline, had married a decade earlier in a 400-person Cape Cod wedding ceremony, not too removed from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port. Multiple Kennedy cousins ​​served as bridesmaids, and 1000’s of spectators gathered to witness the nuptials. John and Carolyn’s wedding ceremony was additionally a sort of fairytale—simply not the one everybody anticipated from them.

“I think it should be somewhere romantic and remote—rustic,” Sarah Pidgeon’s Carolyn tells Paul Anthony Kelly’s John Jr. within the love story episode, aptly titled “The Wedding.” “It should feel like we’re the only two people there.” There’s no option to know whether or not Bessette ever actually mentioned that, however that sentiment actually rings true to actual life.

“I might know of somewhere,” John tells Carolyn within the present. That someplace was the Greyfield Inn on Cumberland Island off the southern coast of Georgia.

Hidden amongst Cumberland Island’s swaths of Spanish moss, Greyfield was initially constructed by Thomas Carnegie, brother to Andrew, for his daughter in 1900. When the non-public residence was became an inn in 1962, stewardship remained within the Carnegie household. At the time of the Bessette-Kennedy wedding ceremony, it was managed by Carnegie descendant Mitty Ferguson, who owned the property together with his spouse, Mary. John found Greyfield through Mitty’s sister, Gogo Ferguson, who spent summers in Martha’s Vineyard with John and Carolyn.

“Greyfield is not a spectacle location,” Mary, Mitty’s spouse, tells ELLE Decor. “It feels protected, intimate, and removed from the world in a way that allows a celebration to feel deeply personal rather than performative.”

Greyfield Inn was inbuilt 1900 as a house to members of the Carnegie household, earlier than it was became an inn in 1962.

There’s no business airport on Cumberland Island, which suggests guests might solely get to Greyfield through non-public aircraft or boat. It additionally meant paparazzi and press would have a tough time attending to the island to snap an image of the marriage—in the event that they even knew about it. The lack of a business airport did imply it was unimaginable to fly the present’s solid and crew out to movie on location in Georgia, says love story manufacturing designer Alex DiGerlando. Instead they constructed the interiors of the Greyfield suites on a soundstage and used a Long Island property for the Inn’s exteriors.

Greyfield’s remoteness and privateness was its main promoting level for John and Carolyn. That summer season, they approached Gogo and Dave about the opportunity of internet hosting their rehearsal dinner and reception on the grounds. “Once it was determined yes, Greyfield is a go, Gogo and Dave called me and my husband,” Mary says. “We only had three months’ notice.”

Only 30 to 40 visitors have been invited, and they reportedly solely discovered of the marriage a couple of days upfront. Very few photos have been made public through the years and particulars are scant—though a couple of morsels have been eked out, just like the reserved floral displays organized by Kennedy household pal, Rachel “Bunny” Mellonand the picture of JFK. Jr kissing the hand of his new bride as they step out of the weathered chapel that immortalized the romantic irreverence of the weekend.

A collection contained in the Greyfield Inn.

Greyfield itself, nonetheless, was largely unchanged for the festivities, though a tent was arrange on the entrance subject. “John and Carolyn seemed to like simplicity,” Mary says. “There is so much natural beauty surrounding Greyfield and on the island. The interior of Greyfield is authentic, relaxed, with an unpretentious gorgeous charm. This setting provided exactly what they wanted.”

John and Carolyn wed on the First African Baptist Church, surrounded by roughly 40 visitors.

The ceremony itself passed off a couple of miles away on the historic First African Baptist Church, a modest one-room church positioned within the Settlement space of ​​the island. Of all of the fabled moments from the marriage weekend, manufacturing designer DiGerlando needed to ensure he captured this one excellent.

Production recreated First African Baptist Church on a horse farm in Rockland County, New York.

“Everyone [in production] was like, ‘we’ll find a church,’” he says. “You’ve seen the picture of the church. You’re not just going to find that. That’s a super specific thing.” So DiGerlando constructed a duplicate of First African Baptist Church on a horse farm in Rockland County, New York, layering in vegetation to create the phantasm of coastal Georgia.

DiGerlando needed to work with the prop division and particular results groups to make sure the set was totally hearth retardant so they may recreate the ceremony’s dusky candlelit glow. Allegedly, the timing was much less about romantic ambiance and extra a consequence of the bridal celebration arriving two hours late due to last-minute alterations illustrated to Carolyn’s customized Narciso Rodriguez wedding ceremony costume, a rumor within the present. Regardless it is one other photos that element that is come to outline a fairytale wedding ceremony remembered a long time later.

“They’re kind of unfussy and unpretentious in their tastes,” DiGerlando says of the well-known couple. “It’s them, right?”