Yes, the secrecy was a triumph, and the planning and logistics really were impressive. But this wasn't the Normandy invasion, it was a wedding, and something more important has been overlooked: how incredibly romantic it must have been. The setting was one of the wild, unspoiled sea islands off Georgia--to visitors, they seem like remnants of the New World as it was before its discovery. This one, Cumberland Island, is inhabited by armadillos, wild boar and wild horses. Spanish moss hangs from its ancient oaks. There is a tiny wooden chapel, where the ceremony was held by candlelight. Crickets sang in the grass. Could there be a more beautiful and tender place to hold a wedding?
Give John F. Kennedy Jr., 35, and Carolyn Bessette, 30, credit. They succeeded in keeping their marriage on Sept. 21 a secret from the press and saved themselves from an attack of helicopters that would have rivaled something out of Apocalypse Now. Of course, they could not cover their tracks forever, and the tabloids have already discovered them on their honeymoon in Turkey. But they accomplished more than just the news blackout. Give them credit for holding a wedding that had dignity, style, mystery and joy, in the manner of the groom's mother. This occasion may have been the most important of Kennedy's adult life so far, publicly as well as privately, and he carried it off with an imagination and delicacy that not everyone assumed he possessed.
Getting there was a long and complicated process. The Boston Globe reported that the chapel on Cumberland had been reserved for three months. Certainly, the planning began at least two months ago, when Bessette asked Narciso Rodriguez of Cerruti to start designing her dress. For weeks in August and September, Kennedy and Bessette seemed to be purposefully throwing the press off the scent. He was seen around New York City on his own. She was in Paris, and the papers gave an account of her night out with a Frenchman at a fashionable restaurant. The man turned out to be Rodriguez. "I am her supposed French lover," he later joked.
All along, the real action was taking place on a remote Georgia island. Cumberland is 18 miles long and accessible only by boat, unless you are brave enough to land a small plane on the grassy little airstrip, where horses tend to graze. The National Park Service owns a huge tract of land; a few very wealthy families and a handful of longtime residents own the rest. There is no telephone service; none of the roads are paved; and only the Park Service and full-time residents are allowed to have cars.
Late in the 19th century, Thomas Carnegie, brother of Andrew, was snubbed as too nouveau riche by the ultra-snobby club on nearby Jekyll Island. So he bought the southern end of Cumberland and built several mansions. One of them, Greyfield, was turned into an inn by some of Carnegie's descendants. Oliver and Mary Jo Ferguson, the husband and wife who operate Greyfield, are old friends of the Kennedys', and John and Carolyn had visited them several times. The rehearsal dinner and reception were held at the inn, a great rectangular frame house surrounded by oaks, and several in the wedding party stayed there. Janet Ferguson, Oliver's sister and a jewelry designer, is another good friend of the Kennedys', and made the couple's rings.