How 'Love Story' Recreated John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette's Wedding Adam RatheFri, March 6, 2026 at 3:18 AM UTC 0 How Love Story Recreated John & Carolyn's Wedding Eric Liebowitz/FX It wasn't a simple process—but planning a wedding rarely is. The sixth episode of Love Story, the FX series that follows the relationship and untimely deaths of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn BessetteKennedy, is titled "The Wedding," and follows the couple and their friends and families to Cumberland Island, Georgia for the nuptials that (in real life) took place on September 21, 1996.
How 'Love Story' Recreated John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette's Wedding
Adam RatheFri, March 6, 2026 at 3:18 AM UTC
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How Love Story Recreated John & Carolyn's Wedding Eric Liebowitz/FX
It wasn't a simple process—but planning a wedding rarely is. The sixth episode of Love Story, the FX series that follows the relationship and untimely deaths of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, is titled "The Wedding," and follows the couple and their friends and families to Cumberland Island, Georgia for the nuptials that (in real life) took place on September 21, 1996. Among the things for which the wedding is remembered today, its miraculous secrecy might be the most impressive; two of the world's most watched people sneaking off to get hitched alongside some not-entirely-anonymous guests, even before the age of social media, would require quite a bit of planning. Depicting the ceremony and celebration also came with its challenges; Connor Hines, the series's creator, says, "My initial question was, 'How do we recreate one of the most famous and most discreet weddings of all time?' It was a very tall order."
It began with finding a location. Filming in Cumberland Island itself wouldn't be possible, so Hines and his colleagues went to work. "We scouted all along Long Island," he says. "In addition to a chapel—which we didn't know that we'd ever find outside of New York City—we did need to find something like the Greyfield, the inn where everyone stayed." It wasn't about finding a perfect replica but instead conveying the right tone: "It was more important," Hines says, "that we had the feeling of being on the island than matching every detail." The production settled on a spot outside New York, near the town of Nyack, and decided to build their own version of the eight-pew First African Baptist Church, which didn't have electricity and was lit for the ceremony (both the actual one and the recreation) by candlelight. "Everybody on our production," Hines says, "was at the very, very, very top of their game. They left no stone unturned in terms of making this feel as intimate and romantic as it really was. It came together beautifully."
Paul Anthony Kelly as John F. Kennedy Jr. and Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette in Love Story's "The Wedding." Eric Liebowitz/FX
Recreating certain other details of the wedding required more than a bit of creative tightrope walking. "Obviously, this weekend was well documented," Hines says. "There are books, and friends and friends of friends have talked about what happened, so we know that it wasn't intended to be by candlelight, that it began about two hours late, that John couldn't find his suit and his cousin Anthony brought him an extra, that Carolyn had issues with her dress. But we had to be very specific about the elements we wanted to share since we didn't have all the time in the world to depict this. Juli Weiner, who wrote the episode, knocked it out of the park, and Gillian Robespierre, the director, made it the most beautiful thing."
Other defining details of the wedding weekend had to be cut because of the time constraints that come with episodic television. "You don't get to keep everything that you want," Hines says with a laugh. "They got married on this island that had wild horses, which is a beautiful and haunting image. We wanted to take advantage of that and portray that landscape, but at the end of the day we had to be diligent about what was necessary to the story. Ideally, we would have waded into the landscape more, but really we got all of the most important things out of it."
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When it came to depicting John and Carolyn's wedding, Hines says, "This was the last episode when we could bask in romance before the shit hits the fan." Courtesy FX
How do you decide what to leave out, when every little detail has been parsed and fans (and critics) can be so observant about the smallest details—even for a show that's clear about being a dramatization and not a documentary? "Ultimately you have to ask yourself, 'What is the episode about emotionally,'" Hines says. "For example, we knew that Carolyn's mom gave a concerned toast, saying that she was worried about her daughter marrying into this family just because of everything that came along with it. But we had no record of what she said and nobody in any of the books mentioned one word. Everybody just described the tone of what she said and that afterwards Carolyn was upset. Those are moments when you're like, okay, well we know what Ann's apprehensions were and fears were going into this… I think we can comfortably portray what it is that she was trying to say in that moment and feel like it's rooted in the essence of what is true."
Connor Hines, the creator of Love Story—as well as a writer and executive producer—is thrilled with how the series depicts the wedding of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. "It came together beautifully," he says. JJ Geiger
It's also worth noting that "The Wedding" is among Love Story's most romantic episodes and showcases a dreaminess that isn't always apparent between John and Carolyn. "We really wanted to lean into the love," Hines says, "because we knew that shortly after, when they returned from their honeymoon, they became a global sensation. This was the last episode when we could bask in romance before the shit hits the fan."
Basking in romance is something that might have been on Hines's mind more than usual lately, as he himself is engaged and planning a wedding. Is he going into the experience having learned anything from John and Carolyn? "Having filmed this, I am absolutely scaling back in terms of what I want for my own wedding," he says. "We're striving for as intimate and low-key an experience as possible. We're going to Vegas in two weeks, and don't think I haven't thought about just popping into a chapel with Elvis."
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Published: March 6, 2026 at 06:45AM on Source: RED MAG
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