Never-before-seen wedding photos of JFK and Jackie Kennedy

A collection of 13 original -- and, most likely, never published -- negatives from the Sept. 12, 1953 wedding of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier will be auctioned off this month. The photos, taken by freelance photographer Arthur Burges, were found in his darkroom after his death in 1993, and provide a very intimate look at the wedding.

RR Auction is selling the negatives in their original folder along with a set of prints made from those negatives. Bidding began on Sept. 26 and runs through Oct. 15.

There were more than 800 guests at JFK and Jackie's wedding, including many notable individuals, according to the JFK Library.

Four of the negatives show the newlyweds leaving St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Newport, Rhode Island.

The bride wore a dress of ivory tissue silk, with a portrait neckline, fitted bodice, and a bouffant skirt embellished with bands of more than 50 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 bride's attendants, dressed in pink taffeta, included her sister, Lee; Mrs. Michael T. Canfield as matron of honor; her stepsister Nina G. Auchincloss as maid of honor; and 10 bridesmaids, among them the groom’s sister, Jean, and sister-in-law, Ethel, as well as the bride’s former boarding school roommate, Nancy Tuckerman.

John Kennedy’s best man was his brother Robert, and among the ushers were brother Edward, brother-in-law Sargent Shriver, cousin Joe Gargan, brother-in-law Michael Canfield, friends Lem Billings, Red Fay, and Torbert MacDonald, Senate colleague George Smathers, and Charles Bartlett, who had introduced the couple.

Jackie's half sister Janet Auchincloss was flower girl, and half brother James Auchincloss served as a page.

The reception was held on the terrace of the 300-acre Auchincloss oceanfront estate, Hammersmith Farm, for more than 1,200 guests.

Guests were served a luncheon of fruit cup, creamed chicken, and ice cream. Their five-tier wedding cake was 4 feet tall. The Meyer Davis Society Band played at the reception.

The wedding cake, 4 feet tall, was ordered by Joseph P. Kennedy.

Jackie and John honeymooned at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan, then spent two weeks in Acapulco, Mexico, before going to a hillside suite at the San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito, California.

John and Jackie Kennedy on their wedding day,Sept. 12, 1953.

The auction also includes a rare Hallmark card issued during the 1963 holiday season, featuring an image of a nativity scene on the front, signed inside in bold ink as president, “John Kennedy,” and as first lady, “Jacqueline Kennedy.”

The inside inscription of the 1963 holiday card that was signed by John and Jacqueline Kennedy just days before he was assassinated in Dallas.

Also for sale is a Kennedy presidential document from 1962 that appoints a black woman to the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Part of it reads, “Know Ye, that reposing special trust and confidence in the Integrity and Ability of Mrs. D’Jaris Hinton Watson, of New York, I do appoint her a Member of the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity…”