Cnn.com
MADRID, Spain -- The heir to the Spanish throne has married a former television presenter in the country's first royal wedding in nearly a century.
The archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, pronounced Crown Prince Felipe and Letizia Ortiz husband and wife after they exchanged vows Saturday morning at Almudena Cathedral in Madrid's old quarter.
With the wedding, Ortiz is now Princess Letizia of Asturias -- the first commoner in line to be Spain's queen, The Associated Press reported.
More than 1,400 guests filled the cathedral, including Britain's Prince Charles, former South African President Nelson Mandela and Jordan's Queen Rania.
Onlookers, some of whom had camped out on the streets in the square outside the church, were drenched in heavy rain as the bride arrived at the cathedral.
In his homily, Rouco Varela urged the couple not to be intimidated by the enormous responsibility of being heirs to the Spanish throne.
"Fear not these extraordinary demands," AP quoted him as saying. "You are not alone in your path. Their majesties the king and queen of Spain, the royal family, your relatives and loved ones, the good people of Spain are with you."
Ortiz, 31, wore an off-white gown with a flowing silk veil and a 15-foot (4.5-meter) train embroidered with heraldic symbols.
She also wore the same diamond and platinum tiara that Greek-born Queen Sofia wore at her wedding to King Juan Carlos in 1962 in Athens.
Felipe, 36, wore a crisp navy blue uniform reflecting his status as a Spanish army major, with braided epaulets, a light blue sash and medals of honor from the army, navy and air force.
"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," Reuters quoted the prince as saying in a traditional exchange of vows.
Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the new princess, and many others crowded on balconies of nearby buildings.
After the wedding, the newlyweds waved to the crowds as the couple rode through the streets of Madrid in a vintage, black armor-plated Rolls-Royce.
The motorcade passed the "Forest of the Absent," a grove of potted olive and cypress trees honoring the more than 190 people killed in the March 11 terrorist attack in the Spanish capital.
The procession ended at a church where Princess Letizia, honoring Spanish royal tradition, left her bouquet to pay homage to a statue of the Virgin Mary.
Despite the wedding celebrations, the Madrid train bombings were still on people's minds, including the royal family's.
"When March 11 happened, they were very close to us so we like that a lot. We like that the royal family has been with us," says one Spanish woman.
The royal family cried at the state funeral for the bombing victims at the Almudena Cathedral just two months ago
Last week, the wedding couple went to the Atocha station, hard hit in the commuter train attacks, and then to a school to meet children whose parents died in the bombings.
The couple canceled the bachelor party and bridal shower out of respect for the bombing victims.
They've also asked Madrid to forget the planned street dance, and instead give the money for the event to a victims' charity.
One million flowers were planted for the wedding, and state television broadcast the festivities live to an estimated 1 billion viewers around the world.
Some say the wedding hoopla could actually help the Spanish capital heal some of the wounds wrought by the terror attacks.
The signs are there, with about 300,000 people hitting the streets each night this week to take in the views of some of the capital's monuments that have been illuminated especially for the wedding.
"The only thing that can justify this is to give the people a moment to party, and a way to defy the fear of terrorism. In other words we'll have life in all its splendor," said Jose Garcia Abad, the director of El Siglo magazine.
The city mounted what was described as its biggest security operation for the wedding.
More than 23,000 police and security forces were pressed into service for the event, which was billed as Spain's "wedding of the century."
Airspace over the city was closed, and F-18 fighter jets and two AWACS planes on loan from NATO monitored the skies.
The ceremony was the first royal wedding in Spain since that of the prince's great grandfather, King Alfonso XIII, in 1906.
The prince's father, King Juan Carlos, and grandfather, Juan de Borbon, married abroad during the rule of Gen. Francisco Franco.