Society types can expect The New York Times to note their weddings. But it's the bride and groom with the quirky courtship story who get the big play.
The tattooed free spirit who, after many twists and turns, and in an organza dress and sparkly sneakers, tied the knot with the once-spoken-for officemate? She gets a full story.
The granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy? She has to settle for a few paragraphs.
That is, unless the granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy and the tattooed-and-sneakered free spirit happen to be one in the same.
Maeve Kennedy Townsend and David McKean were the stars of last Sunday's "Vows" feature in The Times.
If the offbeat bride, and not her famous forebears, rescued the couple from wedding-notice obscurity, surely the forebears are why The Times put White House correspondent Sheryl Gay Stolberg on the story.
"She is someone I hear interviewed on NPR," said Townsend, 29, sounding surprisingly star-struck for a gal with Uncles Ted and Arnold.
The bride said her mother, former Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, was on board with the wedding-day sneakers.
Unconventional bridal footwear is nothing compared to the platinum dreadlocks and extreme vacations in her past.
"I'd gone backpacking by myself through Uganda for four weeks and neglected to call my parents for a few weeks," she said.
"My mom was a little concerned that I would do something really outrageous during the wedding. I've sort of calmed down."
View's not all that much
The real estate fliers for Gov. William Donald Schaefer's just-listed townhouse play up the "waterfront" views.
But Schaefer himself played down that feature back in 2001, when the state's chief tax collector was appealing his property tax assessment.
Schaefer complained that he'd gotten zinged on the assessment - it had gone up 6.5 percent to $141,290 - because the state classifies the property as "waterfront." The house is near the Patapsco River and Nabbs Creek in Pasadena's Chestnut Hill Cove community.
"He says he can see the water - from his roof, or in the winter when the trees are bare," The Sun's Amanda J. Crawford reported at the time.
Schaefer told her: "I can see the water coming out of the spigot."
