Spain's royal wedding sparkles in the rain

Spanish Crown Prince Felipe of Bourbon stands next to his bride former journalist Letizia Ortiz during their wedding ceremony at Madrid's Almudena Cathedral yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

A torrential downpour began just as Letizia prepared to enter the cathedral in a fitted wedding gown with a 15-foot train, a conservative V-shaped neckline and a high collar. The tiara had been worn by Felipe's mother Queen Sofia at her wedding.

The heavy rain forced the bride to arrive in a Rolls Royce rather than walk along the red carpet from the Royal Palace to the adjacent Roman Catholic Almudena Cathedral, as others in the wedding party had done.

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"Letizia, take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity to you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit," the dashing prince said, at one point forgetting his lines, in a traditional exchange of vows.

The televised ceremony was beamed to more than a billion people worldwide.