PRINCE FELIPE & LETIZIA TIE THE KNOT

In the first Royal wedding on Spanish soil since 1906, Prince Felipe married former journalist and TV anchorwoman Letizia Ortiz on Saturday, converting her into Princess Letizia of Asturias, and the first commoner in Spanish history to be in line to be queen. Princess Letizia is also the first Spanish-born queen in a century. The weather may have let the couple down - it started to rain just as the bridegroom and his mother, Queen Sofia, approached the Almudena Cathedral 15 minutes before the ceremony was due to start - but the city of Madrid and its people did them proud. It was one of the biggest events ever staged in the capital and the city council had been totally engrossed by the wedding preparations for weeks. So instead of traffic fumes, people who live in the city centre have been waking up to the smell of roses. Many reisdents commented: "Why can't it always be like this?" The council planted more than a million red, yellow and white roses, geraniums and petunias along the route to be taken by the newly weds in their 1948 Rolls Royce Phantom IV (formerly owned by Dictator General Franco) from the cathedral to the church in Antocha where Princess Letizia, following a centuries-old royal custom, offered her bouquet to the Virgin. Buildings in the city centre had been painted and draped with red and gold tapestries and thousands of visitors - foreign and Spanish alike - wandered around the streets in the days preceding the wedding, admiring their new look or buying wedding souvenirs, such as cups, spoons and plates with the faces of the royal couple, from shops usually only visited by tourists. There were also long queues in Madrid's main square, Puerta del Sol, to buy special wedding programmes and mementos. On the day, the crowds outside the Cathedral got a closer look at the ceremony unfolding inside thanks to a huge television screen which had been installed on the roof of the nearby Opera House. Because of the March 11th bombings, security was very tight. About 20,000 police were on patrol and airspace was closed for the ceremony. Madrid mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon said the wedding was "just what Madrid needs following the worst suffering Madrid has experienced in decades". Even the left-leaning paper El Pais was all for it. "Madrid has the right to smile. The people have the right to dream," it said in its special Royal Wedding section. The paper, like many Spaniards, saw the marriage as an opportunity for the nation to show that it had recovered from the horror of the train bomb attacks, which killed 192 people and injured nearly 2,000 others. Spanish national television pulled out all the stops. Regular programming was suspended from 4 pm Thursday afternoon and replaced by wedding-oriented coverage, including a history of the Bourbon dynasty and hours of speculation about The Dress, the menu for the wedding lunch - both of which were kept secret till the last minute - who would come, who wouldn't, and so on. As more than 1,500 VIPs watched Doña Letizia walk up the aisle on her father's arm, the world finally got to see the bridal gown, created by veteran Spanish designer Manuel Pertegaz, who had said from the beginning that it would be nothing outrageous, but modest. The gown was deceptively simple with its long sleeves, a tightly fitting bodice with a turned-up collar and the traditional, sweeping skirt and train. As the ceremony wore on, the television cameras were able to reveal the rich embroidery in silver and gold thread around the collar, the edge of the sleeves and all around the skirt. The overall effect was one of understatement. A simple tiara kept the bride's veil in place and earrings were her only jewellery. But the bride was quite simply beautiful, obviously in love, and while she took the whole thing very seriously, she managed to look relaxed at the same time. Prince Felipe wore a navy blue uniform with braided epaulets, a light blue sash and medals of honour. After the traditional Roman Catholic ceremony, in which the archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, pronounced the couple husband and wife, the couple went off in the Rolls to the Antocha church while the guests - including 30 heads of state, members of 40 royal houses and 1,400 official guests - repaired to the Royal Palace for aperitifs while they waited for the newly weds to return. While the banquet was sumptuous, pre-wedding parties had been cancelled out of respect for the victims of the March 11th and the money that would have been spent on them went to a charity set up for the victims. A spectacular wedding night show was also cancelled for the same reason. The banquet was catered by one of the city's most exclusive restaurants, Jockey, at a cost of 180 euros per head. The wedding cake, prepared by master pastry chef Francisco Torreblanco weighed 170 kg and stood nearly two metres high (6.6 feet). The whole affair is estimated to have cost the tax payer more than 20 million euros, which upset the country's anti-monarchists. About 600 of them turned up on Saturday to demonstrate in a square in Madrid and other demonstrations were planned in Spain's major cities. However, they were so small that they weren't even covered by the media. Most people, it seemed, wanted to put serious politics aside for a day and enjoy themselves and what the posters portraying Prince Felipe and his bride called "History in the Making". And for those anti-monarchists who might have interpreted the rain as foreboding ill for the couple, apparently it means just the opposite. According to one lady interviewed in the street on the day, "Novia mojada, esposa afortunada." Literally translated, that means "wet bride, happy wife". The wedding was watched by more than 1,300 million people around the world, making it Europe's biggest royal wedding since Prince Charles married Diana Spencer in 1981.