Andie MacDowell marries schoolmate

MacDowell's most recent film is the comedy Crush

Film star Andie MacDowell has married her old schoolmate Rhett DeCamp Hartzog in a private ceremony attended by family and friends.

The couple were married on Saturday evening in Asheville, North Carolina, and held a reception for more than 200 people at the Biltmore Forest Country Club.

The hour-long wedding ceremony was "just real sweet and simple", said MacDowell's sister, Babs Rogers Richard.

MacDowell was accompanied by both her daughters, Sarah Margaret and Rainey, and by her 15-year-old son, Justin.

Soderbergh's Sex, Lies and Videotape was MacDowell's breakthrough

Justin MacDowell gave his mother away, despite being on crutches, having torn a ligament in his leg the night before while playing basketball.

MacDowell, 43, wore a strapless, satiny oyster-white Vera Wang gown.

Both MacDowell and Mr Hartzog went to Gaffney High School in South Carolina, MacDowell graduating in 1976 and Mr Hartzog a year later.

Cosmetics model

Their romance is said to have begun more than a year ago.

The couple are expected to make their home in North Carolina's Biltmore Forest.

MacDowell was a cosmetics model before becoming a film actress.

Her breakthrough was the Steven Soderbergh-directed Sex, Lies and Videotape in 1989.

She subsequently starred in film hits Groundhog Day and Four Weddings And A Funeral.