A guest at John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s intimate 1996 wedding detailed how the high-profile couple miraculously kept their ceremony a secret — and what went on behind closed doors.
Sasha Chermayeff, Kennedy Jr.’s best friend from high school, exclusively spoke with Page Six about her late pal’s “beautiful” Georgia wedding on the heels of FX and Hulu’s latest episode about their nuptials.
“I was sworn to secrecy,” Chermayeff told us, recalling that Kennedy invited her just a few weeks before he and Bessette were set to tie the knot. “I was one of the people that found out kind of late in the game.”
She noted guests were invited by word of mouth to avoid a paper trail.
The September 1996 ceremony took place at the historic First African Baptist Church in Cumberland Island, a secluded isle off the coast of Georgia.
“It was beautiful with that moss hanging down from the trees,” she reminisced.
Only 40 people were invited, with John’s sister, Caroline Kennedy, serving as Bessette’s matron of honor, and JFK Jr.’s cousin and best friend, Anthony Radziwill, taking on the role as his best man.
Caroline’s husband, Edwin Schlossberg, and their children, Rose, Tatiana, and Jack, were there, as well as Bessette’s mom, Ann Messina Freeman, and her sisters, Lauren and Lisa Bessette.
Other guests included Bessette’s best friends Jessica Weinstein, Jules Birnbaum and the designer of her wedding dress, Narciso Rodriguez.
Chermayeff met Bessette’s family and friends for the first time at the wedding, though she was already well-acquainted with nearly everyone on Kennedy Jr.’s guest list.
“We were all close because we all knew each other for years,” Chermayeff said. “We were the old guard.”
While previous reports claim that guests were left impatiently waiting for hours outside of the church as Bessette dealt with a wardrobe malfunction, Chermayeff said “nobody was worried about it.”
“The bride is always going to take her time and come out when she’s ready — nobody minded,” Chermayeff said. “The idea that it was like this uncomfortable thing and whatever people wrote is just wrong.”
Chermayeff explained that the tight-knit group was “having a good time” on the beach and just excited for the ceremony that was about to take place.
Despite the delayed start, the wedding ceremony — lit only by candlelight to divert any attention from the public — was “incredibly touching and beautiful,” Chermayeff said.
“I was stunned by how beautiful Carolyn looked. And John [was] also very emotionally charged there,” she said, calling the service “such a beautiful, happy moment.”
Chermayeff refuted claims that the guests were boiling hot while seated inside the small wooden chapel where the couple exchanged vows.
“It wasn’t in any way hot and uncomfortable at all… It was actually a beautiful climate,” Chermayeff assured, noting that Bessette left beautiful woven fans for guests to use if they needed to cool off.
The ceremony was nearly exposed when paparazzi helicopters began circling above the Greyfield Inn, where guests were getting ready, according to Chermayeff.
To avoid detection, the group quietly slipped off the property and made their way to the ceremony site by Jeep, preserving the secrecy of the day.
“We had lost the helicopters and they weren’t able to find the cars,” she said. “The beautiful ceremony was able to happen in silence with the water and not with the press, so it was a super lucky thing.”
“We were all happy about that. They just didn’t find us. So it’s like a miracle,” she said.
The lively reception at the charming inn took place under an airy tent decorated with fairy lights and greenery.
“Carolyn’s hair comes down, which was always symbolic,” she remembered. “You know, it kind of meant everything was loosening up.”
John and his new bride were making the rounds, chatting and “checking in on everybody” before dinner and a traditional cake cutting. The newlyweds and their guests capped off the night with plenty of dancing.
“The thing I remember most about the reception was those little girls,” Chermayeff said of Caroline’s daughters, Tatiana and Rose, who were 6 and 8 respectively at the time.
“They were teaching me the ‘Macarena,’ which was the big thrill at that moment,” she said.
The magnetic love between the Calvin Klein publicist and JFK Jr. was palpable on their wedding day.
“I mean, what can I say? It was like electricity — it wasn’t for show,” Chermayeff said. “There was so much energy between them. You could see it and feel it all the time.”
After exchanging vows, the newlyweds whisked off to Istanbul for their honeymoon — but the paparazzi quickly descended, bringing their brief spell of privacy to an abrupt end.
“Istanbul was very special, but I also think that was the beginning of them realizing that they were going to be followed everywhere,” Chermayeff said. “Carolyn was coming to this sort of realization that… getting off a plane in a faraway place wasn’t going to mean that you were going to have privacy.
“That was as harsh wake-up call.”
Bessette and Kennedy Jr. returned to their bustling life in downtown New York City, where it became increasingly more difficult for the pair to go anywhere without being harassed by photographers.
“[John] was used to it,” Chermayeff said. “But for Carolyn, it was just so much harder. John had been doing it his whole life. I always tell people, John didn’t know what it was like to go into a room and not be stared at.”
Bessette and Kennedy Jr. went on to spend their final years grappling with the pressures of a marriage under an unrelenting microscope until the tragic 1999 plane crash that ultimately claimed their lives.
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