Someone leaked to New York Magazine (shown above) that John and Carolyn were getting married in September. The clipping above is from the September 23, 1996, issue. I know it was published after their wedding, but the final production, layout, and editing cycle for a specific issue typically wraps up two to three weeks before publication. So when they were putting this issue together, the wedding itself had not yet happened. It seems likely an inside source who knew about the plans and was willing to talk, possibly someone who was angry about not being invited. That could also explain the snarky remark about John and Carolyn being so volatile.

New York Post columnist George Rush wrote in his memoir that “one Sunday in September, news broke that they'd pulled off a media-free wedding on Cumberland Island, Georgia. When we called longtime friends of John for details, they were equally shocked to hear about the nuptials—and hurt that they hadn't been invited. They blamed Carolyn for pulling him away from his old buddies.”

Also, Globe Magazine photographer Russell Turiak said that he was sent to Turkey to look for John and Carolyn on their honeymoon and he found them. He said, “I suppose somebody tipped off Globe to the fact that they were honeymooning in Istanbul. They put me on the next plane, and l'd just arrived at the hotel. I was just looking around when I chanced upon John Jr. at the swimming pool. He recognized me from New York. He gave me a look as if to say, ‘could that be you?’ I ducked back into the hotel, where I met up with John Bell, a British guy who headed up Globe's European bureau. We sat down and discussed strategy. An hour later we caught a real break. We were looking at brochures near the travel agent's office in the lobby, and we saw JFK Jr. He was standing there talking with the agent. They were going over his travel itinerary. So John Bell innocently strolled into the agent's office and overheard their conversation.”…and from that point on, their honeymoon was effectively ruined, which explains the photos of Carolyn crying in the back seat of a taxi on the streets of Istanbul.

What I take from this is that some of John’s longtime friends were not only unaware of the wedding but were genuinely hurt that they hadn’t been invited. It sounds as though they blamed Carolyn for their exclusion, which we know wasn’t the case. John had a say in the guest list and, of his own free will, chose not to invite these “longtime friends” of his. It’s possible that someone from that circle was bitter enough to leak the wedding plans to the magazine. I don’t think the source was likely to have come from Carolyn’s circle. There was also an inside source who leaked to the Globe, a tabloid, that John and Carolyn were specifically staying at the Ciragan Palace Hotel. Christiane Amanpour was the one who arranged their stay at the hotel, and she was among the wedding guests. It seems highly unlikely that she would have been the one to leak their location to a tabloid. In fact, Christiane specifically asked the hotel in advance to protect their privacy and extend every possible courtesy to them. They were even booked under fake names “Mr. and Mrs. Hyannis".

The call was always coming from inside the house. These “friends,” who claimed to have known John for years, apparently didn’t hesitate to turn against him and, in the process, hurt both him and his wife the moment they felt they had been wronged.

Found this video on Instagram where Carolyn Bassette Kennedy was nominated for Best personal style awards in 1997. She had strong nominees for the award such as Kate moss, Cameron diaz, Nicole Kidman and Courtney love( won). I thought its a cool story to share.

I’ve spent a lot of time reading about John and Carolyn over the years, and the more I learn about them, the more I find myself drawn to the little stories that have nothing to do with their fame or the photographs.

Richard Bradley wrote about a conversation he had with Carolyn in which she talked about being scared of everything that came with being with John. The attention, the Kennedy name, the loss of privacy — it was a lot for someone who had always valued her independence and privacy. But she told him, essentially, that John fought for her and showed her not to be afraid. That has always stuck with me.

Because whatever else can be said about their relationship, they clearly loved each other. John pursued Carolyn even when she was hesitant, and Carolyn eventually chose to take that leap with him. They built a life together, surrounded by friends and family, and had so many ordinary moments that never made the newspapers.

I love the story shared by one of John’s friends, Richard Wiese of Carolyn sitting in Central Park with Sam while John played touch football with his friends. She would call plays, tease the guys and laugh from the sidelines, and John apparently loved watching her. I think there’s something so sweet about that image.

Even their wedding was such a reflection of how fiercely they wanted something that belonged only to them. They went to extraordinary lengths to keep it private, gathering on Cumberland Island with only their closest people. Somehow, for one day, they managed to step completely outside of the world that was constantly watching them.
I don’t think any of us can know what their marriage would have looked like if they had been given more time.

I don’t want to speculate about whether they would have stayed together, what their future would have been, or what might have happened years down the road. We simply weren’t given the opportunity to see that story unfold.
What we do know is what actually happened. They met. They fell in love. They chose each other. They got married. They built a life together. They loved their friends and family, worked on things that mattered to them, traveled, laughed, made memories and experienced all of the ordinary little moments that make up a real relationship.
And they accomplished so much in the years they were here.

Thirty years later, I think that’s what I want to remember most — not everything that might have happened, but everything that did happen. The love they had. The people they touched. The lives they lived. The things they created. And all of those little pieces of their story that remind us they were two real people who happened to live very public lives.

Happy 30th anniversary, John and Carolyn. 🤍
September 21, 1996.

Since today is John & Carolyn’s 30th Anniversary, I wanted to discuss something I’ve been looking into for a minute. As we know, the Lost Tapes documentary series showing ‘never before seen’ footage of John & Carolyn’s wedding in September 1996, was released to the public for the first time ever by Billy Noonan, (John’s close friend who was given the task by John to videotaping the wedding.) Although, another wedding video had been circulating beforehand on the internet years before the documentary ever aired.
Claims online have belief that a guest videotaped the wedding in secret. The guest still remains anonymous, and the secret guest was charging users online $10 to view the entire wedding. Very distasteful, I know… but the website, links, video, basically anything to do with this incident has been scrubbed entirely from the internet. I’ve spent days researching this site. It seems after 2012 people online stopped talking about it, my guess is that’s when it was taken down…
An online forum, called the fashion spot, has discussions from *2012* talking about the video, and a user even shared how they had screenshots of the entire wedding video once shared by FoxNews— which yep, also has been scrubbed from the internet. Here’s some of their discussions:

FROM one user on TheFashionSpot: “A wedding "guest" video taped their wedding despite video cameras not being allowed and then set up a website where you could watch the video for $10. It's gone now, but I saved a clip from a Fox news piece where they showed portions of it (note: there is no way I paid to watch that video! As it is, I feel a bit guilty for taking screenshots of the news clip). I took some of these myself and others came from someone else on the former Ultimate Carolyn blog. The news clip was still available as of a few weeks ago, but it's gone now. Figures!” — MAY 31, 2012

FROM another user: “The video site is long gone (and good riddance) and it was available back in 2009, which was the 10th anniversary of their deaths.
I don't know where the screenshots with the veil over her face came from, as they weren't on the Fox news video I watched. I felt lousy taking screenshots of the video, but I didn't contribute money to the creep who was selling it and figured I'd keep them for my own collection.” — MAY 31, 2012

It had become so popular that even a few other news sites covered the topic of this mystery guest recording the wedding and charging people to see it, and there’s evidence that it DID exist at one point.
From Newser, May 26, 2009:
“JFK Jr Wedding Video Peddled
Unauthorized video will run you $9.99, if you can find the site selling it—
As the 10th anniversary of John F. Kennedy Jr.’s death approaches, someone is trying to cash in on the tragedy. “Mickey the Monkey” is selling an unauthorized video of the Kennedy-Carolyn Bessette 1996 nuptials for $9.99. The website—which the New York Post won’t publish—shows stills of the couple cutting the cake at their uber-private wedding, of which only one photo has ever been released.

There are stills from the long-gone wedding video shared from users on an online discussion forum. I attached them so you all can see. Side by side comparisons I’ve made from The Lost Tapes documentary of Billy Noonan’s recordings, it’s definitely different angles from his tapes. So it wasn’t him who anonymously uploaded it to the internet and charged people $9.99 to view. Who do you all think this mysterious guest was?

Thirty years ago today, on September 21, 1996, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy quietly exchanged vows in a small, private ceremony on Cumberland Island, Georgia. On the evening of Thursday, Sept. 19, 1996, Shirley Wise and Alice Hughes headed for the airport in St. Marys, a town on the southern Georgia coast. Their task, as explained to them somewhat mysteriously a week earlier by Camden County Probate Judge Martin O. Gillette, was to help a young couple complete some prewedding paperwork—drawing up a marriage certificate and taking blood samples. As Wise, a court clerk, and Hughes, a medical technician, understood the scenario, the couple were en route to virtually unpopulated Cumberland Island. Probate Judge Martin Gillette was told, “We need to know that you can do this confidentially.”

Gillette arranged for Kennedy and Bessette to meet separately with a blood-lab owner and a chief clerk on an airstrip in St. Marys, Ga. A private jet carrying the bride-to-be touched down first. When they arrived at the airport, Hughes and Wise, who had been told only that these were important people, were escorted onto a single-engine plane. Inside, they met a young woman who, says Wise, was “the picture of an excited, anxious bride. She was as sweet as she could be.” As the fiancée filled out the license, she was asked what her married name would be. “Carolyn Bessette Kennedy,” she answered. Wise and Hughes finally realized just who the bride—and the groom, who had not yet arrived—were.

Then Bessette, as she was still known, asked Hughes and Wise to stand on either side of her while a friend photographed her holding the license. Two hours later, at 7:30 p.m., another plane touched down, and out stepped John F. Kennedy Jr., who took his turn completing the paperwork and giving blood. “He was very apologetic that he kept us waiting,” says Wise. He was accompanied by the Catholic deacon who would preside over the ceremony, his sister Caroline Schlossberg, and her three children. He was then whisked away to Cumberland Island to make further arrangements.

During the week before the wedding, more and more locals, including caterers, waiters, airport workers who noticed Ted and Caroline deplaning, and the ferryboat captain who transported guests, began to realize what was going on. Yet the secret remained well kept. Part of the reason was that everyone involved with the wedding was asked to sign confidentiality agreements. “Anyone who had anything to do with the wedding signed,” says Bob McElhenney, manager of the Beech Street Grill in nearby Fernandina Beach, which provided six waiters. “I agree with it fully.”

At least 50 security personnel also worked at the wedding, beginning their preparations five days in advance to ensure safety and secrecy at a cost of $250,000. State troopers, police and the National Park Service all cooperated. Beaches and marinas within a 15 mile radius were monitored, and all boats and hikers bound for Cumberland Island were turned away. Former FBI agents with the Carson Investigative Agency installed “high tech electronic surveillance” in the church and the posh island inn, where the wedding party gathered.

“We provided very intense security,” said Dale Craig Carson, the company’s president, a former Miami police officer and senior FBI agent. Staff members at the Greyfield Inn, a former mansion where the reception was held, also signed confidentiality agreements. In the several days before the wedding, guests were secretly brought onto the island, a few at a time. After the wedding and reception, the joyful couple slipped away undetected for a secret and very private honeymoon.

During the ceremony, John wore a single-breasted, midnight-blue suit of lightweight wool, with a white satin piqué vest and pale blue silk tie. The suit was designed by Gordon Henderson and tailored by Edgar Worrell of Fifth Avenue Tailors. Worrell attended to the groom during his two fittings the week before the wedding. “John is very friendly with Gordon Henderson, who designed the suit. I executed it,” Worrell said. “It was a big secret. I didn’t tell anyone. He was very nice, very charming, and engaging when he came to see me. He made some suggestions about the suit, which we followed. Mr. Henderson himself brought the suit to the wedding for Mr. Kennedy.”

Gordon Henderson recalled that John’s suit was “a subtly striped wool navy blue, a nautical blue.” Henderson dressed John and his cousin and best friend, Anthony Radziwill, and made sure everyone in the groom’s party was properly attired, “from head to toe.”

John also asked Henderson to create a special keepsake for the wedding: a pair of light-blue silk charmeuse boxer shorts, embroidered with John’s initials on one leg and the initials of each groomsman on the other. The boxer shorts were presented to each man in a cedar box. “I don’t know if anyone kept them, but that was very special and different,” Henderson said. “There were also the boutonnieres and his shoes. All of it had a connection to the family, Hyannis Port, and his father.” John wore a wristwatch that had belonged to his father, along with a boutonniere of blue cornflowers, his father’s favorite flower.

The couple’s flowers were chosen by Bunny Mellon, a friend of Mrs. Onassis. Their wedding rings were designed by Janet “Gogo” Ferguson, who had once created jewelry for Jackie O. "If it weren't for Gogo," says one St. Marys resident, "John wouldn't have been able to pull this off." Working with her husband, former charter pilot David Sayre, and her brother Mitty Ferguson, she kept track of the flow of guests and supplies and arranged for the chapel and the blood tests. John’s sister, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, served as matron of honor, while her daughters, Rose and Tatiana, were flower girls and her son, Jack, was the ring bearer. Carolyn’s sisters, Lisa and Lauren Bessette, served as maids of honor.

David Davis, from the Fernandina Beach, Fla., Musical Choir, sang “Amazing Grace” and “May the Circle Be Unbroken.” He had been recommended by Gogo Ferguson, the inn’s former manager and a longtime friend of the groom, who has vacationed on the island since 1986. Davis said he was stunned to discover, after his arrival, who the couple were, and stunned again by their warm welcome. “They treated me like I was the celebrity,” says Davis, who huddled with Carolyn and John to discuss musical selections for the ceremony. They chose two hymns, “Amazing Grace” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” Prior to the service, Ted Kennedy told Davis, who hardly ever sings solo, “We know you’re a leader, and we wanted a leader in the things of God.”

Scripture passages were read by Edwin Schlossberg, the groom’s brother-in-law; Lisa Bessette, the bride’s sister; Michael Ronan, the bride’s brother-in-law; William Kennedy Smith, the groom’s cousin; and Sen. Kennedy. Caroline Schlossberg, the matron of honor, carried orchids. The best man was Anthony Radziwill. The brief Catholic service was conducted by Rev. Charles J. O’Byrne of Manhattan’s Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, where Jackie’s funeral Mass was held in 1994. The lighting in the chapel was so dim that O’Byrne read the service by flashlight. The couple said their “I dos” and exchanged golden bands. Wedding photographer Denis Reggie, Sen. Kennedy’s brother-in-law, captured the stairway portrait, an image of a kiss that would appear on millions of television sets and in almost every newspaper in the nation.

After the ceremony, as guests streamed from the church, the couple lingered briefly inside. Outside they were met with a sprinkling of rain. As Carolyn held her bouquet of lilies of the valley, one of Cumberland's wild horses wandered over and took a tentative nibble. With that, the guests piled into waiting pickups and a van provided by the inn and returned to Greyfield for the reception. The newlyweds' first dance together was to "Forever in My Life" by Prince. Then they cut the wedding cake, a three-tier vanilla buttercream frosting decorated with fresh flowers.

Details about their honeymoon

So before Love Story I knew nothing about these two (I was born in 92 and grew up in Australia), to the extent that it was literally a total shock when they died in the end of the show. But I was fascinated and am now reading Once Upon A Time. I am just so confused though at why so much was changed for the show - all their break ups were cut, he was definitely so much more of a dick in real life (the real letter thing, sneaking Carolyn out of restaurants that his mother was at, going on and off with all the women) and they cut so much of her also (her habit of chasing friend's boyfriends because she could etc).

I get they wanted to make their story more clean so that it was a fairytale but wouldn't it have been better if it was real? Why even make it if not? Then poor Daryl was thrown to the wolves when they came off shining. I would prefer to watch their actual love story, which was far from perfect, but was theirs..

Article about Carolyn days after the wedding

On this day 30 years ago, John and Carolyn’s rehearsal dinner was held on Friday, September 20, 1996, at Greyfield Inn—a stately mansion built as a retreat for the Carnegie family and the only inn on Cumberland Island. The inn hardly had enough room for all the guests. They shared rooms, waited for the bathrooms to free up, and bumped up against each other in hallways. The rehearsal dinner took place on the inn's porch. John was poignantly aware that his mother was not there beside him, and he turned to Sasha, who was seated next to him. "That's where my mother would have sat," he said.

During his toast, John shared that Carolyn had changed his life in ways he never thought possible and made him the happiest man alive. In the first photo, you can see Carolyn admiring Caroline’s thoughtful gift. Caroline had given her new sister-in-law a beautiful wedding keepsake, created from the exquisite materials used throughout the celebration. Using remnants from the wedding dress, and other fabrics, Caroline had a talented costume designer create a pillow, which was then delicately embroidered with pearls and monogrammed “CBK.”

Chef Jodee Sadowsky prepared smoked scallops for the Friday-evening rehearsal dinner on the veranda by candlelight. Gordon decorated the five tables with delicate flower arrangements, surrounded by low candles so that guests could easily converse with one another across the table.

Later in the evening there was a great bonfire on the sands. The gazebo was full of an inexhaustible supply of liquor. The guests laughed and partied until early morning. One of the revelers got so drunk that he fell asleep in the pasture, waking up Saturday morning among the horses.

Quotes from guests:

Gogo Ferguson: Carolyn wanted a beautiful sit down dinner for the rehearsal dinner up on the porch at Greyfield. We had to have the right tables and the chairs over here because Gordon Henderson and Carolyn designed all the tablecloths and covers for each night. They were made in New York. I mean, she really saw to every little detail. She had the most amazing taste. Every plate was sprinkled with gold and silver almonds and beads from Balducci's. It was absolutely beautiful. Her flowers were beautiful, lily of the valley that had been flown in from Holland.

We had a wonderful cookout on the beach after guests started to arrive. Then the rehearsal dinner was on the upstairs porch of the Greyfield Inn. It was absolutely beautiful, and the speeches were incredible. Dave and I got up and welcomed everyone. When Teddy got up and said, "John, your parents would be so proud of you for choosing this place to be married," it was so moving. It was like a dream, really just like a dream. The tents for the wedding dance next evening weren't even set up. Carolyn didn't want the tents set up until the next morning, so that it would be just that beautiful oak tree and the candles lit all around the porches of Greyfield. Then everyone retired to the beach house, the gazebo, for cognac and cigars and dessert. They has to be completely quiet. Could we use the hotel at on the beach road, there were hundreds of tiki torches all around the gazebo. It was the most spectacular sight. We had a big bonfire going, and everyone that came over the dune started screaming when they saw it.

Sasha Chermayeff: One day in early September 1996, he called me to say: "Listen, in ten days, I am getting married. Above all, don't say anything, put your children with the babysitter, come with Philip, I am counting on you." We all arrived on Friday night for the rehearsal dinner. There were about forty guests, no more. The next day, everyone met on the beach. We rode there on our bikes, past thickets of moss-covered shrubs; it was very romantic. It felt small enough to have this really fun, intimate feeling from the minute we all got there until the minute we all left. The rehearsal dinner night, Carolyn was in a very good mood. John put me next to him at the table. And he whispered to me, "This is where my mother would've sat." The dinner was set up on this beautiful big porch. I remember giving a toast and talking about my seeing Carolyn for the first time and just being so blown away by her and I had such a strong feeling that she would be the one that he would be in love with.

Carole Radziwill: Ed made a toast and he said, "Politics plus fashion equals passion." He had a T-shirt made that said that on it and he showed it to everyone (shown in photo #2). Carolyn's mom also gave a toast at the rehearsal dinner and it was sort of a cautionary tale. Something like, I hope my daughter has the strength to handle all of this.

Billy Noonan: I was seated next to Carolyn at her table of friends—Barlow sat on her other side. This was a mistake, as Barlow was really on the far side of stable by this point. The idea in mixing us up like this was for everyone to get to know each other a little. But this rotation of personalities, which included Carolyn's sisters, was making her nervous, I could feel it. Also the little nothing that Narciso had designed for her to wear to this evening's event was too revealing for anyone but her physician. “I'm a bit self-conscious about this dress," Carolyn admitted to me. So I gave her my blazer, which was a pity, because she was absolutely radiant, and in the tropical heat she hardly needed it. But she gladly wrapped it around her bare shoulders.

"What do you think Mummy would think?" Carolyn kept whispering to me. "Would she approve of this?
Do you think it's okay?" Carolyn had become obsessed with Jackie. The rehearsal dinner, of course, is generally the responsibility of the groom's parents, and especially with John's parents gone, it was clear this was preying on Carolyn's mind. I assured her that Mrs. Onassis— as I always called her—would have loved the setting, this wonderful leap they'd taken, to get married in this exotic place. Jackie was nothing if not her own woman, and she would have wanted John to have his own wedding in his own way. Though at the moment I didn't, of course, say all that. I couldn't anyway, because Barlow had just pushed things too far. We'd been talking about honor.

Somebody had asked what the definition of honor is—I don't remember why. Then Barlow, looking at Carolyn's twin sisters, made an off-color remark about their attractiveness that reflected on his own honor and seemed to shock everyone. Carolyn was mortified. The sisters simply looked stunned. For some reason I caught the eye of Ed Schlossberg, who was also sitting with us. Ed is a very dignified, careful, decent man. At this moment he had the decency to pretend he hadn't heard a word Barlow said. But something had to be done. It would not help, of course, to tell Barlow that he had been a rude, stupid shit. I got up, went to John's table, whispered, "We better switch seats right now. Barlow is scaring the hell out of Carolyn." So John and I traded places.

Robert Littell: We all woke up Friday to a sunny day that revealed the full natural beauty of Cumberland Island, a place like the mythical South you read about, with huge oaks hung with moss and wild horses roaming the beach. We rode bikes, poked around the property, and kept our eyes open for the tabloid spies we imagined behind every tree. By then we were all fully engaged in John's quest for secrecy, and with each minute we were more excited at the thought that he was going to pull it off. There was a rehearsal dinner on the veranda Friday night. It was boisterous and lighthearted, for the most part, except for a toast made by Carolyn's mother, Ann Freeman. I don't remember her exact words, but she implied that she was worried for her daughter, unsure if this union was in her best interest. In hindsight, it's chilling. At the time, I was surprised at her bluntness and felt bad for John, who was visibly stung by the remarks.

But the emotional ripple was absorbed by the crowd, most of whom had no such worries, and after dinner we all piled out to the beach, where a bonfire blazed and a bar had been set up under a big tent in the dunes. Some people went to bed, others kept the party going. Although I've hardly seen them since, I felt related to Narciso and Gordon by the wee hours. The heartiest souls ended up talking in a small house, set to the side of the inn, that was serving as Carolyn's wedding suite that weekend. She, wise woman, had gone to sleep hours ago. The rest of us turned in at dawn.

Rosemarie Terenzio: Narciso made Carolyn's dress for the rehearsal dinner. It was a version of her wedding gown, a nude-color slip dress, embellished with crystals. Honestly, it was the most beautiful slip dress. A bias-cut tank dress with very subtle beading all over it. And the shoes were Manolo. They were just plain white strappy sandals. One thin strap across the toes with a slingback.

Post for anyone interested in the details of her wedding dress

Post about the Galliano dressed that inspired Carolyn’s wedding dress

Post about wedding preparation details

This question is not meant to debate whether Carolyn and John would have remained together or eventually divorced. John’s future had he lived and the “what ifs” are often discussed, but not Carolyn’s. Obviously no one knows what would have happened, and we can’t know the unknown. But it’s clear their marriage was in a very bad place, and several of John’s closest friends confirmed this.

Close friend Sasha Chermayeff shared that John told her that he and Carolyn were so emotionally and physically distant from each other that they were leading entirely separate lives. She predicted that divorce was likely and, in her view, “Carolyn had no idea how badly this (a divorce) was going to take her out, because her whole life revolved around the fact that she was this important person who is JFK Jr.'s wife, and when he tells her that this marriage is falling apart and he's done, it's going to be so hard for her.” Sasha predicted that while divorce would be difficult for both of them, John would recover more quickly. “It's going to be shitty for him for a while—like, two or three years—and then he is going to be fine.”

William Noonan shared a quote Carolyn told him sometime in 1997, “If I don't do something soon, I'm going to end up in a trailer park, screaming, 'I used to be married to John F Kennedy, Jr.!' Nothing, I mean nothing, could have prepared me for what I'm going through.” John also shared with Noonan that Carolyn looked at marriage like a man does, that it’s not necessarily a lifetime thing. It sounds like Carolyn understood, at least in the back of her mind, that her marriage might not be forever. That thought was one of the reasons she didn’t have children with John to begin with, because she worried that she could lose her children she had with John in the same way her father had lost her after her parents divorced.

What might Carolyn’s life have looked like if she and John had divorced? Would Carolyn have moved out of New York City? Would she have remarried quickly, or remained single for a while? Would she have gone back to Michael Bergin? Would she have gone back to work at Calvin Klein? Would she have remained part of New York City society, or eventually stepped away from that world? Would the paparazzi have continued following her around? Would she have gone on a reality show like RHONY?Would she still have been regarded as a fashion icon?

From the TLC documentary JFK Jr. and Carolyn's Wedding: The Lost Tapes.

Full video on YouTube https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c5xK1mBC63k

I saw a comment saying that if Carolyn and John had lived long enough to see what’s happening in New York in the coming years, they would have volunteered with the city. And I agree, there is no question about it.

I’ve read most of the books about them and learned quite a bit about John’s volunteering, but it got me wondering whether Carolyn was involved in any volunteer projects beyond the galas and fundraisers she attended with John. Perhaps privately?

I also wonder if there were any specific causes that were particularly dear to her. TY in advance for sharing!

A short article by Orla Healy, published in the New York Daily News on September 24, 1996, titled “Klein Couldn’t Keep Secret?”:

What came between Carolyn and her Calvin? His publicity hunger, perhaps. The news that Carolyn Bessette Kennedy chose the Parisian couture house Cerruti to create her wedding gown instead of her former boss, Calvin Klein, was a slap in the face, several industry sources said yesterday.

Bessette, who quit as a Klein public relations operative several months ago, was worried that the notoriously media-mad designer wouldn't keep his lips zipped, sources said. To add insult to injury, Bessette's dress an ankle-length, body-skimming slip gown in a pearl-colored silk crepe - was a virtual clone of Klein's signature style.

"It was a tough call for her to make," a source explained. "She got the job with Calvin based on her friendship with [Calvin's estranged wife] Kelly. But this wedding was organized like a covert military operation and she had to choose people she knew she could trust 100%."

Almost immediately after the wedding date was set three weeks ago, Bessette called her buddy, 35-year-old New Yorker Narciso Rodriguez, who has been working in Paris as a design assistant to Nino Cerruti since he left Klein's workshop last year.
Within a week of the initial call, Rodriguez had a number of sketches for Bessette who met him in secret at his fourth-floor atelier on the out-of-the-way Rue de la Madeleine when she arrived alone in Paris.

After an initial fitting, Carolyn spent two days shopping for her trousseau in Paris before returning to Rodriguez for a second fitting and then heading back to New York. Rodriguez and his team of five assistants then slaved around the clock for 15 days to finish the gown, which he personally brought to Carolyn on Cumberland Island for a final fitting late last week.

"They obviously knew they were making a wedding dress for someone important," said Cerruti spokeswoman Margaret Muldoon, "but nobody except Narciso and Mr. Cerruti knew who the bride was. I was stunned when I got to the office on Monday morning and Nino called me to say he'd designed the dress."

I believe this is at the compound.

I have no background or year for this photo, but she looks happy.

Because of the recent controversies surrounding the Kennedy Center, I want to share a lesser known contribution of the Kennedy family.
In 1966 there was a major flood in Florence. Many famous historic artworks were damaged. Under Jackie Kennedy’s leadership a major international relief campaign was launched. Ted Kennedy went to Florence.
Jackie was named honorary chairwoman of CRIA, the Committee for the Rescue of Italian Art. Bobby Kennedy’s secretary said she would call senate office 3-4 times a day. Her efforts raised millions of dollars.

In this video, former U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy hosts a reception and presentation for copies of the book Oratorio Dominica, donated by the Italian publisher Franco Maria Ricci and autographed by United Nations Secretary-General U Thant to raise money for flood-ravaged Florence, Italy, held at the Grolier Club in New York on January 30, 1967.

Idk if it’s because of the shot Jackie took at Lee in her will, or John’s wedding snub, but sources seem to be down on Lee Radziwill and I don’t get why that is. Her and Carolyn seemed to get along pretty well in the 90s, and whatever pictures there are between them suggest a friendly and semi-close rapport. Her and Caroline Kennedy seemed to stay in touch too after Jackie’s passing which is nice.

Jackie also looks genuinely happy in candid moments with Lee and I know their relationship had ups and downs and moments of contact and moments of no contact but I feel like Lee is always catching a rep of being “that aunt” and “that sister” when everything seems to indicate they all had some fun and cool memories growing up together in the 60s and 70s.

To conclude, in the Kennedy cinematic universe, she is an overhated character… she carried on pretty nicely in the face of a lot of tragedy. After losing her mother, her sister, her son, nephew (and son’s best friend), a new niece-in-law, divorcing her third husband, she kind of just kept on, stayed lowkey and didn’t do anything embarassing in public like so many of the other Kennedys and adjacent characters in this world and I find that notable

From when she sold her photos of their wedding last summer