A JOYOUS Prince William has a wife - and Britain a new princess - after a spectacular service that entwined the most imposing ceremonial traditions of the 1000-year-old English monarchy with the quicksilver immediacy of the digital age.
Westminster Abbey, Gothic and ever mysterious, played witness to the young couple who took their vows before 1900 guests - among them kings, prelates and prime ministers. About 1 million well-wishers listened in silence and later cheered on the streets and parks of London while another 2 billion the world over watched the first royal wedding to be streamed live on YouTube.
The Abbey was full of guests 90 minutes before the wedding began, the women's hats and fascinators competing with the lush green-and-white floral display.
The bride, on the arm of her father Michael Middleton, arrived at the Great West Door on schedule at 11am. She wore a diamond-studded Cartier tiara lent to her by the Queen, and was sheathed in an ivory satin Sarah Burton full-length gown with a comparatively modest three-metre train.
Ms Middleton was accompanied down the aisle by the choral masterpiece composed for the coronation of King Edward VII, Prince William's great-great-great-grandfather.
As the choir's voices soared into the arches of the ancient abbey - the resting place of no fewer than 17 monarchs - spines tingled with the theatre of the moment. The collision of youth with lineage, continuity and tradition seemed briefly to reduce the distance between ancient histories and the here and now.
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