William weds Kate as billions watch — and hope

PAISLEY DODDS

Asso­ci­ated Press

LONDON (AP) — With not one but two kisses and ten­der whis­pered words, Prince William and Kate Mid­dle­ton smiled and blushed Fri­day as they started their life as future king and queen. A day of seam­less pageantry inspired hopes that this royal cou­ple might live hap­pily ever after.

They appeared at ease through­out their wed­ding day, with William fight­ing back gig­gles at times, while Kate’s smile lit up tele­vi­sion screens, espe­cially when her new hus­band leaned over to say, “You look beautiful.”

Their inti­macy stood in sharp con­trast to the lack of chem­istry between a wooden Prince Charles and Diana Spencer 30 years ago when they began a mar­riage that ulti­mately col­lapsed in embar­rass­ing tabloid head­lines and turned many Britons against the monarchy.

A mil­lion peo­ple lined the pro­ces­sion route from West­min­ster Abbey to Buck­ing­ham Palace, many cry­ing with joy. Cheers went up as the cou­ple exchanged the tra­di­tional kiss on the bal­cony, fol­lowed by chants of “One more kiss!” The cou­ple waved and smiled and, to a frenzy of delight, obliged.

An esti­mated 2 bil­lion peo­ple tuned into the live broad­cast in what may have been the most-viewed event in history.

The secu­rity oper­a­tion was the largest since Charles and Diana’s 1981 wed­ding, and the day went off with­out a hitch. Police dis­persed scat­tered protests from anti-monarchists and anar­chists and arrested 55 peo­ple for offenses includ­ing drunk­en­ness, breach of peace, and theft, but the mood was over­whelm­ingly celebratory.

“Everybody’s happy, everybody’s united,” said 61-year-old Sabry Dar­wish, who was in the crowd watch­ing the parade route. “Every­body is behind the bride and groom.”

Many praised the couple’s rare com­bi­na­tion of humil­ity, humor and grace. Kate was a com­moner from a wealthy but middle-class fam­ily who actu­ally worked for a liv­ing after uni­ver­sity; William has long had his mother’s touch in con­nect­ing to the pub­lic, and sur­prised fans who slept on the pave­ment overnight by per­son­ally thank­ing them Thurs­day for brav­ing the cold.

The 28-year-old prince even dis­played a qual­ity almost never seen among roy­alty: humor. Sur­vey­ing the 1,900 guests fill­ing the abbey in their wed­ding fin­ery, he turned to his father-in-law, Michael Mid­dle­ton, and quipped: “We’re sup­posed to have just a small fam­ily affair.”

Then after a recep­tion at Buck­ing­ham Palace, he took his new wife for a spin, dri­ving a dark-blue Aston Mar­tin Volante fes­tooned with rib­bons, bows and bal­loons — and a license plate that read “JU5T WED.”

It was the kind of dis­play that made some won­der whether the cou­ple just might bring the British monar­chy back from the abyss.

“It’s a real turn­ing point for the royal fam­ily,” Nicki Hook­ings, 47, said at one of thou­sands of street par­ties across Britain to cel­e­brate the national holiday.

For much of the world, the wed­ding was a dra­matic reaf­fir­ma­tion of 29-year-old Kate’s beguil­ing star power. Despite the pres­sure, she car­ried the day with an easy smile, youth­ful exu­ber­ance and a sense of deco­rum that matched the event. And when it was over all over, she curt­sied eas­ily before Queen Eliz­a­beth II, com­fort­ably shar­ing the stage with the woman who has reigned since 1952.

Crowds from Aus­tralia to Zim­babwe clasped Union Jack flags and donned hats — and wed­ding gowns — to show their enthusiasm.

“It’s one happy event in the world right now,” said San Fran­cisco attor­ney Laura Claster, who trav­eled to Lon­don to be with the crowds. “It gives us a day of cel­e­bra­tion to for­get the trou­bles in the world.”

In a state­ment, the White House offered con­grat­u­la­tions. “On this occa­sion, the Amer­i­can peo­ple extend heart­felt con­grat­u­la­tions to the peo­ples of the United King­dom and the Com­mon­wealth and share in their hopes for a bright future for the Royal couple.”

The day was a visual feast for fash­ion enthu­si­asts. Guests wore extrav­a­gant hats, some cost­ing more than 1,000 pounds ($1,600), but all eyes were on the bride’s dress, the best-kept secret of the day.

The ivory-and-white satin gown, with its dra­matic neck­line, sheer lace sleeves and eight-foot train, was designed by Sarah Bur­ton at Alexan­der McQueen and reminded some of the wed­ding dress worn by a princess from another era, the late Grace Kelly of Monaco.

Kate wore her hair down and pulled back from her face, cov­ered with a lace-edged veil and a dia­mond tiara on loan from the queen. Her dra­matic oak-leaf-shaped dia­mond ear­rings were a gift from her parents.

William, second-in-line to the throne after his father, wore the scar­let tunic of an Irish Guards offi­cer, rein­forc­ing his image as a ded­i­cated mil­i­tary man. Maid of honor Pippa Mid­dle­ton wore a sim­ple col­umn dress, while best man Prince Harry chose for­mal mil­i­tary attire.

The sight­ing of the wed­ding gown prompted swoons of admi­ra­tion as Kate stepped out of a Rolls-Royce with her father at the abbey. Against all odds, at that moment the sun broke through the steely gray skies.

The long aisle lead­ing to the altar was lined with maple and horn­beam trees as light streamed in through the high arched win­dows. The soft green foliage framed the cou­ple against a red car­pet as they recited their vows flaw­lessly before Arch­bishop of Can­ter­bury Rowan Williams.

After a cer­e­mo­nial drive around Lon­don in an open-topped horse-drawn car­riage, the cou­ple appeared with the queen and their wed­ding party on the bal­cony of Buck­ing­ham Palace, where the highly antic­i­pated first — and sec­ond — kisses brought screams of delight from the crowd.

It was then that pho­tog­ra­phers from around the world cap­tured one of the day’s most mem­o­rable images: As the cou­ple locked lips, 3-year-old brides­maid Grace van Cut­sem held her hands over her ears and scowled as she tried to block the sound of Royal Air Force planes scream­ing overhead.

Ear­lier in the day, the queen had bestowed upon the cou­ple their first royal wed­ding present: the titles of the duke and duchess of Cambridge.

There has been spec­u­la­tion that William, his pop­u­lar­ity only enhanced by his new wife, should step ahead of his father to become the next king. Many con­sider the 62-year-old Prince Charles stuffy and dis­con­nected from ordi­nary people.

But that’s unlikely to hap­pen. Many in Charles’ inner cir­cle say he’s waited too long to step aside — even for his son.

In Buck­le­bury, the sprawl­ing vil­lage where Kate grew up 50 miles (80 kilo­me­ters) west of Lon­don, jubi­lant crowds filled the streets to cel­e­brate the home­town girl who could be queen. Some of its res­i­dents were at the wed­ding, includ­ing the town butcher and baker.

“These are two young peo­ple very much in love,” butcher Mar­tin Fidler said out­side the abbey.

John Haley, owner of the Old Boot Inn who knows the bride from her vis­its to the pub in the nearby vil­lage of Stan­ford Din­g­ley, said he teared up as he caught her eye dur­ing the ceremony.

“It was unbe­liev­able,” he said. “It was just fab­u­lous and more than I expected.”

The palace was hold­ing two par­ties: one in the after­noon for 650 guests, and a din­ner dance for 300 close friends.

Arriv­ing for the lat­ter, Kate pro­nounced it a “great day.”

“I am glad the weather held off,” she said, appear­ing radi­ant in a strap­less white satin evening gown with a cir­cle skirt and dia­mante embroi­dered detail around the waist, another Sarah Bur­ton creation.

Ben Fogle, a friend of the cou­ple and tele­vi­sion pre­sen­ter, said the mood was relaxed dur­ing after­noon fes­tiv­i­ties at Buck­ing­ham Palace with “very funny and heart­felt speeches.”

The flag went down as the queen and her hus­band left the palace for the younger roy­als to party the night away — and for Harry to make his best man’s speech away from his grand­par­ents’ ears.

It was rumored that Harry planned a “British fry-up” break­fast for those still stand­ing at dawn.

The cou­ple has been liv­ing in a mod­est house in Wales near the base where William serves as an Air Force search and res­cue heli­copter pilot, and will con­tinue to do so after their hon­ey­moon, which remains shrouded in secrecy. The prince “really is one of us,” said Sgt. Keith Best, a para­medic on William’s team.

___

Posted by AP News on Apr 29 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.