©Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures
John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier’s wedding
Newport, R.I., Sept. 12, 1953
by LIFE photographer Lisa Larsen
LIFE magazine reported on the scene in an article in a Sept. 1953, issue:
The marriage of Washington’s best-looking young senator to Washington’s prettiest inquiring photographer took place in Newport R.I. this month and their wedding turned out to be the most impressive the old society stronghold had seen in 30 years. As John F. Kennedy took Jacqueline Bouvier as his bride, 600 diplomats, senators, social figures crowded into St. Mary’s Church to hear the Archbishop of Boston perform the rites and read a special blessing from the pope. Outside, 2,000 society fans, some who had come to Newport by chartered bus, cheered the guests and the newlyweds as they left the church. There were 900 guests at the reception and it took Senator and Mrs. Kennedy two hours to shake their hands. The whole affair, said one enthusiastic guest, was “just like a coronation.”
Lisa Larsen (1925-1959) was one of LIFE's poioneering female photojournalists. Born in Germany, she moved to the United States as a teenager. She started out as a picture file clerk at Black Star, but soon became a freelance photographer for many publications, including Vogue, The New York Times, Parade, Glamour, Charm, Holiday, and LIFE. After 1948, the bulk of Larsen’s photojournalism was contract work for LIFE. In the beginning of her career at the influential magazine, she was assigned mainly entertainment and fashion stories, such as photographing the Vanderbilts, Kennedys, Bing Crosby, and the Duke of Windsor as well as the Greenbriar Hotel. But soon Larsen was moving on to more political stories, first shooting the official post-election portrait of First Lady Bess Truman and her daughter Margaret and then shooting the Dwight D. Eisenhower presidential campaign in 1950. She also shot Vice President Alben Barkley on the campaign trail, and he referred to the good-looking Larsen as “Mona Lisa.” Her most famous domestic political work is probably her photographs of the John F. Kennedy/Jacqueline Bouvier wedding in 1953.
Larsen was particularly talented at capturing the essence of her subjects. She said: “I feel it is very important to know your subjects as individuals. Ideally this takes time–and often you don’t have time. You work under pressure. . . . I dislike superficial and I especially dislike superficial relationships.”