Where do you get married when you’re one of the most famous couples in the world, relentlessly hounded by the press, and trying to keep your big day private? For John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, the answer was Cumberland Island.
“I think it should be someplace romantic and remote, rustic. It should feel like we’re the only two people there. And to pull it all off, we just have to elude every single journalist in the country,” Sarah Pidgeon’s Bessette says in episode six of Love Story. Cumberland Island, a barrier island off the coast of Georgia that’s just a little larger than Manhattan, fit the bill.
The island is known for its unparalleled natural beauty, and for being extremely removed from everything; perfect for seeking refuge from it all. As Kennedy says in the show: “No commercial airport, one hotel, population of like 20 people. No paved roads, no town, just hundred-year-old oaks and wild horses on the beach.”
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30 years after Kennedy and Bessette’s wedding in 1996, many of these characteristics remain true. The island is still home to oaks covered in Spanish moss, unpaved roads, undeveloped beaches and marshes. There is just one hotel: The Greyfield Inn. A select number of campers are allowed to pitch tents on the island’s campsites. The population today is said to be just 30 to 40 people—and 150 to 200 wild horses. Most of the island is designated by the government as a National Seashore, a protected area preserved for its natural, untouched beauty and wildlife, including sea turtles, armadillos, and alligators.
Cumberland Island is only accessible by ferry or private boat, and has a long history as a retreat for some of America’s wealthiest families, including the Rockefellers, the Candlers (whose ancestor founded Coca-Cola), and the Carnegies. In the show, Kennedy Jr. says he’d been to Cumberland Island with his ex-girlfriend Christina Haag, which is also referenced in Haag’s memoir, Come to the Edge.
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