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- The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Cha Ching!!! This site is simply amazing. They gave me details down to the type of invitation the couple used to invite their 800+ guests. Make sure you check this place out and then you can tell people you took an interest in government and politics this year. All the wedding day details are quoted directly from this site.
- The fantabulous (my own word) photographs are all available for purchase at PrintsandPhotos.com! Yes. For all of you crazy, vintage-photography loving freaks out there, I have found the pot o' gold at this great site. I'll start with my favorite and then take you through the details of the day.
(Image - PrintsandPhotos.com)
"Jacqueline Lee Bouvier and John F. Kennedy were married on the morning of September 12, 1953, in the picturesque St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Newport, Rhode Island."
(image - PrintsandPhotos.com)
"The bride, given in marriage by her stepfather, Hugh D. Auchincloss, wore a dress of ivory tissue silk, with a portrait neckline, fitted bodice, and a bouffant skirt embellished with bands of more than fifty yards of flounces. Her rosepoint lace veil, worn first by her grandmother Lee, was draped from a tiara of lace and orange blossoms. Jacqueline wore a choker of pearls and a diamond bracelet that was a gift from the groom. The bride’s bouquet was of pink and white spray orchids and gardenias. "
"[The] attendants, dressed in pink taffeta, included her sister, Lee, then Mrs. Michael T. Canfield, as matron of honor: her stepsister Nina G. Auchincloss as maid of honor: a bevy of ten bridesmaids, among them the groom’s sister Jean and sister-in-law Ethel, and the bride’s former boarding school roommate, Nancy Tuckerman. Half sister Janet Auchincloss was flower girl and half brother James Auchincloss served as a page. "
Senator Kennedy’s best man was his brother Robert and among the ushers were brother Edward Kennedy, brother-in-law Sargent Shriver, cousin Joe Gargan, brother-in-law Michael Canfield, Lem Billings, Red Fay, Torbert MacDonald, Senate colleague George Smathers, and Charles Bartlett, who had introduced the couple."
"The ceremony was performed by Archbishop Cushing, a friend of the Kennedy Family, and he was assisted by four other priests, including the former president of Notre Dame and the head of the Christopher Society. Before the mass, a special blessing from Pope Pius XII was read. Tenor soloist Luigi Vena from Boston sang Gounod’s Ave Maria. "
"The reception was held on the huge terrace of the 300 acre Auchincloss oceanfront estate, Hammersmith Farm, for more than twelve hundred guests. The wedding cake, four feet tall, had been ordered by Joseph Kennedy. Meyer Davis and his orchestra played under a huge canopy."
Invitations: lettering on the invitation was not raised. It was printed in black ink on a cream colored paper.
Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Dudley Auchincloss
The invitation in the holdings of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum is framed. The frame is nine inches high and seven inches wide. Presumably the invitation was originally approximately six inches in height and approximately four inches in length. (5.75" X 3.75" of the invitation is visible).
