BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. married Emily Ruth Black Saturday night to the cheers of her hometown friends, who shivered in freezing winds waiting to greet a wedding party that arrived a half hour late.
About 400 spectators behind police lines cheered the arrival of the bridal couple; the groom's uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; and three double-decker busloads of guests and members of the wedding party.
A number of ushers surged out of the first bus, glasses in hand, singing 'Get Me To The Church On Time' as an accordionist pumped out the tune from the musical 'My Fair Lady.'
High winds whipped the bride's long veil over her head as she walked from a limousine to the door of the First Christian Church, where she was baptized.
The combined Protestant-Roman Catholic ceremony united a son of one of the nation's leading political families with the daughter of a widowed school teacher, Elizabeth Black, who has since remarried and is Elizabeth Pawley of Cameron, Mo.
The bride's father died when she was 2. Kennedy's father was assassinated June 5, 1968, while campaigning for president.
The ceremony capped a romance which began at the University of Virginia law school where Miss Black, 24, met Kennedy, 27.
The bride walked down the aisle as a string trio of Indiana University students played the march from Handel's 'Suite No. 1.'
The couple exchanged rings and simple vows before the Rev. Gerald Creedon, a Roman Catholic priest who is a Kennedy family friend, after readings from Scripture by the Rev. Terry Etter, assistant minister of the First Christian Church.
'It is clear that Emily has learned much about caring from her family and from this community,' Creedon said.
The bride has been taking instruction in Roman Catholicism and 'most likely will convert to Catholicism' around Easter, said Kennedy family friend and spokesman Eric Sklar.
Neiman-Marcus, from which the bridal party gowns were ordered, said the bride's gown was specially designed by Phyllis of the House of Bianchi. The classic candlelight gown had a high regina neckline, long fitted sleeves, a lace-covered bodice with a dropped waist, and a full skirt with court train, trimmed with scalloped and clustered pearls and sequins.
The veil cascaded from a circlet of handmade satin and lace rosebuds.
The bride's matron of honor, her sister, Sarah Hochberg of Chicago; the maid of honor, Alexandra Cury; and eight bridesmaids, six of them Kennedy sisters or cousins, wore gowns with taupe taffeta skirts and white lace camisoles covered with sheer crepe jackets.
Kennedy, his two best men, Dr. Timonthy Haydock and Peter Kaplan, and 26 ushers, nine of them Kennedy relatives, wore black tuxedos and black bow ties.
Invitations were inspected at the church door.
The day began with a noon mass by Creedon at Beck Chapel on the Indiana University campus, at the request of the groom's mother, Ethel Kennedy.
'She really wanted to have a mass and communion on the wedding day. It was very important to her. Since the wedding is in a Christian church there are no provisions for communion there,' Sklar said.
After the wedding guests boarded the double-decker English buses to ride to the University Club for a reception.
Sklar said the Kennedys would leave Sunday for a honeymoon of less than a week in the Caribbean, before the groom returns to finish law school.
