Gov. McKernan and Rep. Snowe Wed in Maine

Gov. John R. McKernan Jr. and Maine’s only congresswoman, Olympia J. Snowe, exchanged marriage vows Friday in a private ceremony attended by about 100 friends and relatives.

“It was wonderful,” Snowe said as the newlyweds talked briefly with reporters outside the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity. Snowe is of Greek descent.

“We walked around the table four times--we did it so well, we did it an extra time,” McKernan said, jokingly referring to the ceremonial walk that is part of the traditional wedding ritual.

No governor and member of Congress have ever married while both were in office, according to records checked by the Associated Press.

The ceremony in Maine’s second-largest city, adjacent to Snowe’s hometown of Auburn, consummated a romance the two have quietly maintained for a decade.

The two met as Republican members of the Maine House of Representatives and served together as the state’s two representatives in the U.S. House in the early 1980s.

McKernan, 40, was divorced from his first wife in 1978. Snowe, 42, was widowed in 1973 when her first husband was killed in a car crash. The governor has an 18-year-old son.

The couple planned to fly on a friend’s plane to New York City for a honeymoon weekend. After that, they will travel to Washington, where McKernan will attend a national governors’ conference and Snowe will tend to her congressional duties.

About 7,500 people have been invited to a March 4 reception at the Augusta Civic Center; the tab will be covered by leftover funds from Snowe’s last campaign.