Alisa
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It was nice how the crowd cheered for the king and queen as they left the cathedral.
Felipe, Prince of Asturias & Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano: 22 May 2004
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
xicamaluca
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Soon, the new wed couple will appear in the balcony (the royal standart was already posted in the balcony) 
carlota
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it was the official plan, but they said that it would maybe changed because of the weatherOriginally posted by xicamaluca@May 22nd, 2004 - 5:56 am
Soon, the new wed couple will appear in the balcony (the royal standart was already posted in the balcony)
carlota
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curiosities
Una boda llena de curiosidades
Entre muchas otras, no se oirá la famosa marcha nupcial de Mendelssohn.
Por órdenes papales, tradición, coyuntura y no pocos líos familiares, la Boda Real de mañana en Madrid estará llena de curiosidades.
SIN MARCHA NUPCIAL. La boda del siglo no tendrá la clásica marcha nupcial de Mendelssohn (1809-1847). El cardenal-arzobispo de Madrid, Rouco Varela, ordenó cumplir a rajatabla las normas de un documento papal de noviembre del 2003 en el que se pide “purificar el culto de impropiedades (...) de músicas y textos desaliñados y poco acordes con la grandeza del acto que se celebra”. La decisión entierra una tradición que se había instaurado desde la boda de la princesa Victoria de Inglaterra con el príncipe Federico Guillermo de Prusia, en 1858.
PERO EN EL RECORRIDO nupcial por Madrid otra será la historia, pues habrá desde acordes de guitarra clásica española hasta música House.
LA CATEDRAL de la Almudena, donde se realizará el matrimonio, es ‘más joven que los novios’, pues se terminó de construir en 1993, año en que también se convirtió en la primera iglesia consagrada por un Papa fuera de Roma.
¿PAPÁ, ME DAS PERMISO? Antes de dar el ‘si’ a Letizia Ortiz, el Príncipe de Asturias tendrá que voltearse hacia su padre y pedir el consentimiento del Rey para poder casarse. Se trata de una centenaria tradición que la Infanta Elena, presa de la emoción, olvidó en su boda con Jaime de Marichalar (Sevilla, 1995). Un descuido que Felipe no podrá permitirse, por su condición de futuro monarca de España, ya que la Constitución exige el consentimiento del Rey para el matrimonio del heredero.
INNOVACIÓN PROTOCOLARIA. Como es la primera vez en la historia de España que un heredero a la Corona se casa con una divorciada, Casa Real no sabe cómo sentar a los padres de Letizia en la Iglesia, ya que hace años que no son pareja.
EL PRÍNCIPE y Letizia Ortiz serán la primera pareja que contraerá matrimonio en la Catedral de la Almudena, pero no serán los únicos: esa misma tarde, otro matrimonio se celebrará en la cripta de la Catedral. Y hay varias bodas más previstas en otros templos, lo que supone todo un reto para las familias y amigos de los contrayentes, pues Madrid será un caos por los cortes de calles que implicará la seguridad de la Boda Real.
INÉDITA ESCENA PARA LAS MONARQUÍAS. El Rey, heredero de una de las casas reales más viejas de Europa, saldrá de la Iglesia llevando del brazo a Paloma Rocasolano, la mamá de Letizia Ortiz, quien es sindicalista, agnóstica y -se dice-, antimonárquica.
VARIOS NOBLES DE ESPAÑA, y algunos muy cercanos al rey, están enfurecidos por no haber recibido invitación. Mejor suerte ha tenido Isabel Sánchez, maquilladora de Televisión Española, una de las invitadas de la periodista Letizia Ortiz.
SER BORBÓN NO BASTA. Leandro Alfonso de Borbón, hijo bastardo del rey Alfonso XIII y de la actriz Carmen Ruiz Moragas, es decir, tío del actual rey, tampoco ha sido invitado. De nada ha servido que hace menos de un año un juez lo reconociera oficialmente como hijo de Alfonso XIII.
CÉSAR GAVIRIA, Secretario General de la OEA y ex presidente de Colombia, quedará en la historia de esta boda como el primero de todos los invitados oficiales de alto rango que llegó a Madrid para asistir al enlace.
LA BODA DEL SECRETO. Se suele guardar el secreto de vestido de la novia, pero en esta boda ha habido muchos más. Durante semanas se ocultó el recorrido nupcial por razones de seguridad, y hoy sigue manteniendo en secreto el menú de la boda; el lugar de la luna de miel y, muy especialmente, el costo total de este gran espectáculo, que paga, en su gran mayoría, el contribuyente español.
Una boda llena de curiosidades
Entre muchas otras, no se oirá la famosa marcha nupcial de Mendelssohn.
Por órdenes papales, tradición, coyuntura y no pocos líos familiares, la Boda Real de mañana en Madrid estará llena de curiosidades.
SIN MARCHA NUPCIAL. La boda del siglo no tendrá la clásica marcha nupcial de Mendelssohn (1809-1847). El cardenal-arzobispo de Madrid, Rouco Varela, ordenó cumplir a rajatabla las normas de un documento papal de noviembre del 2003 en el que se pide “purificar el culto de impropiedades (...) de músicas y textos desaliñados y poco acordes con la grandeza del acto que se celebra”. La decisión entierra una tradición que se había instaurado desde la boda de la princesa Victoria de Inglaterra con el príncipe Federico Guillermo de Prusia, en 1858.
PERO EN EL RECORRIDO nupcial por Madrid otra será la historia, pues habrá desde acordes de guitarra clásica española hasta música House.
LA CATEDRAL de la Almudena, donde se realizará el matrimonio, es ‘más joven que los novios’, pues se terminó de construir en 1993, año en que también se convirtió en la primera iglesia consagrada por un Papa fuera de Roma.
¿PAPÁ, ME DAS PERMISO? Antes de dar el ‘si’ a Letizia Ortiz, el Príncipe de Asturias tendrá que voltearse hacia su padre y pedir el consentimiento del Rey para poder casarse. Se trata de una centenaria tradición que la Infanta Elena, presa de la emoción, olvidó en su boda con Jaime de Marichalar (Sevilla, 1995). Un descuido que Felipe no podrá permitirse, por su condición de futuro monarca de España, ya que la Constitución exige el consentimiento del Rey para el matrimonio del heredero.
INNOVACIÓN PROTOCOLARIA. Como es la primera vez en la historia de España que un heredero a la Corona se casa con una divorciada, Casa Real no sabe cómo sentar a los padres de Letizia en la Iglesia, ya que hace años que no son pareja.
EL PRÍNCIPE y Letizia Ortiz serán la primera pareja que contraerá matrimonio en la Catedral de la Almudena, pero no serán los únicos: esa misma tarde, otro matrimonio se celebrará en la cripta de la Catedral. Y hay varias bodas más previstas en otros templos, lo que supone todo un reto para las familias y amigos de los contrayentes, pues Madrid será un caos por los cortes de calles que implicará la seguridad de la Boda Real.
INÉDITA ESCENA PARA LAS MONARQUÍAS. El Rey, heredero de una de las casas reales más viejas de Europa, saldrá de la Iglesia llevando del brazo a Paloma Rocasolano, la mamá de Letizia Ortiz, quien es sindicalista, agnóstica y -se dice-, antimonárquica.
VARIOS NOBLES DE ESPAÑA, y algunos muy cercanos al rey, están enfurecidos por no haber recibido invitación. Mejor suerte ha tenido Isabel Sánchez, maquilladora de Televisión Española, una de las invitadas de la periodista Letizia Ortiz.
SER BORBÓN NO BASTA. Leandro Alfonso de Borbón, hijo bastardo del rey Alfonso XIII y de la actriz Carmen Ruiz Moragas, es decir, tío del actual rey, tampoco ha sido invitado. De nada ha servido que hace menos de un año un juez lo reconociera oficialmente como hijo de Alfonso XIII.
CÉSAR GAVIRIA, Secretario General de la OEA y ex presidente de Colombia, quedará en la historia de esta boda como el primero de todos los invitados oficiales de alto rango que llegó a Madrid para asistir al enlace.
LA BODA DEL SECRETO. Se suele guardar el secreto de vestido de la novia, pero en esta boda ha habido muchos más. Durante semanas se ocultó el recorrido nupcial por razones de seguridad, y hoy sigue manteniendo en secreto el menú de la boda; el lugar de la luna de miel y, muy especialmente, el costo total de este gran espectáculo, que paga, en su gran mayoría, el contribuyente español.
xicamaluca
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Yahoo! News
Spain's Crown Prince Felipe Marries
By MAR ROMAN, Associated Press Writer
MADRID, Spain - Crown Prince Felipe married former TV anchorwoman Letizia Ortiz Saturday in a glittering royal wedding, Spain's first in 98 years.
The archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, pronounced the couple husband and wife at Almudena Cathedral in Madrid's old quarter in a ceremony attended by royals and dignitaries from around the world.
Ortiz, 31, whose title is now Princess Letizia of Asturias, became the first commoner in more than five centuries of almost uninterrupted monarchy to be in line to be queen.
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," he said. "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."
A driving rain fell outside as Ortiz entered cathedral, wearing an off-white gown with a flowing silk veil and a 4.5-meter (15-foot) train embroidered with heraldic symbols. On her head, she wore the same diamond and platinum tiara that Greek-born Queen Sofia wore at her wedding to King Juan Carlos in 1962 in Athens.
Ortiz's bouquet was an arrangement of white lilies of the valley.
Prince 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.
A symphony orchestra and 70-member choir performed behind the altar.
Dressed as royal pages in gold jackets, the prince's five nieces and nephews — aged 2 to 5 — served as flower-bearers as the wedding party filed into the church.
Later, they scampered about during the ceremony, and at point the prince's oldest nephew, Felipe, kicked one of the other children playfully.
The 19th-century neoclassical church was brimming with white roses and carnations, and the walls adorned with centuries-old tapestries depicting biblical and mythological scenes.
Thunder rolled through the skies during the wedding Mass.
Outside in the rain, thousands of police lined streets chosen for a post-wedding procession in which the couple will ride in a 1948 Rolls-Royce Phantom IV inside a bulletproof glass box.
Police sharpshooters watched from atop buildings and helicopters hovered in overcast skies.
The congregation of some 1,400 royals and other dignitaries included Britain's Prince Charles, former South African President Nelson Mandela and Jordan's Queen Rania.
Some 5,000 onlookers gathered in the square outside the church, many camping out since before dawn.
"I've come here just for the wedding," said Manuela Lopez, who was draped in a the blue and yellow flag of the northern Asturias region from where the bride hails.
"I've spent between 200 and 300 euros getting here but it doesn't matter. I'm 60 and I wouldn't miss this for the world," she said.
Security for the wedding has been described as the tightest since Madrid hosted a Mideast peace conference in 1991. An estimated 20,000 police patrolled the streets, and F-18 fighter jets and two AWACS planes on loan from NATO (news - web sites) monitored the skies.
The city was festooned with thousands of geraniums, tulips and other flowers and a sea of red and yellow Spanish flags as it seeks a respite from mourning the 191 people killed in the March 11 terrorist attacks.
At a state funeral at Almudena Cathedral following the bombings, Prince Felipe, Ortiz and other members of the royal family went from pew to pew, trying to comfort sobbing mourners.
Just a year after she started dating the prince, Ortiz has traded the glare of television cameras for the limelight of royalty.
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 in exile during the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco (news - web sites).
The prince met Ortiz at a dinner party in late 2002 and they started dating secretly the following spring. Word of their engagement in November took the country by surprise.
Sociologists say many Spaniards would actually prefer their country were once again a republic, as it has been twice, albeit briefly, with a head of state elected by voters. The Franco regime restored the monarchy.
Polls suggest Spaniards don't mind that Ortiz is a divorcee and has no royal blood, although she and the prince have large shoes to fill because King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia are wildly popular.
Spain's Crown Prince Felipe Marries
By MAR ROMAN, Associated Press Writer
MADRID, Spain - Crown Prince Felipe married former TV anchorwoman Letizia Ortiz Saturday in a glittering royal wedding, Spain's first in 98 years.
The archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, pronounced the couple husband and wife at Almudena Cathedral in Madrid's old quarter in a ceremony attended by royals and dignitaries from around the world.
Ortiz, 31, whose title is now Princess Letizia of Asturias, became the first commoner in more than five centuries of almost uninterrupted monarchy to be in line to be queen.
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," he said. "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."
A driving rain fell outside as Ortiz entered cathedral, wearing an off-white gown with a flowing silk veil and a 4.5-meter (15-foot) train embroidered with heraldic symbols. On her head, she wore the same diamond and platinum tiara that Greek-born Queen Sofia wore at her wedding to King Juan Carlos in 1962 in Athens.
Ortiz's bouquet was an arrangement of white lilies of the valley.
Prince 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.
A symphony orchestra and 70-member choir performed behind the altar.
Dressed as royal pages in gold jackets, the prince's five nieces and nephews — aged 2 to 5 — served as flower-bearers as the wedding party filed into the church.
Later, they scampered about during the ceremony, and at point the prince's oldest nephew, Felipe, kicked one of the other children playfully.
The 19th-century neoclassical church was brimming with white roses and carnations, and the walls adorned with centuries-old tapestries depicting biblical and mythological scenes.
Thunder rolled through the skies during the wedding Mass.
Outside in the rain, thousands of police lined streets chosen for a post-wedding procession in which the couple will ride in a 1948 Rolls-Royce Phantom IV inside a bulletproof glass box.
Police sharpshooters watched from atop buildings and helicopters hovered in overcast skies.
The congregation of some 1,400 royals and other dignitaries included Britain's Prince Charles, former South African President Nelson Mandela and Jordan's Queen Rania.
Some 5,000 onlookers gathered in the square outside the church, many camping out since before dawn.
"I've come here just for the wedding," said Manuela Lopez, who was draped in a the blue and yellow flag of the northern Asturias region from where the bride hails.
"I've spent between 200 and 300 euros getting here but it doesn't matter. I'm 60 and I wouldn't miss this for the world," she said.
Security for the wedding has been described as the tightest since Madrid hosted a Mideast peace conference in 1991. An estimated 20,000 police patrolled the streets, and F-18 fighter jets and two AWACS planes on loan from NATO (news - web sites) monitored the skies.
The city was festooned with thousands of geraniums, tulips and other flowers and a sea of red and yellow Spanish flags as it seeks a respite from mourning the 191 people killed in the March 11 terrorist attacks.
At a state funeral at Almudena Cathedral following the bombings, Prince Felipe, Ortiz and other members of the royal family went from pew to pew, trying to comfort sobbing mourners.
Just a year after she started dating the prince, Ortiz has traded the glare of television cameras for the limelight of royalty.
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 in exile during the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco (news - web sites).
The prince met Ortiz at a dinner party in late 2002 and they started dating secretly the following spring. Word of their engagement in November took the country by surprise.
Sociologists say many Spaniards would actually prefer their country were once again a republic, as it has been twice, albeit briefly, with a head of state elected by voters. The Franco regime restored the monarchy.
Polls suggest Spaniards don't mind that Ortiz is a divorcee and has no royal blood, although she and the prince have large shoes to fill because King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia are wildly popular.
carlota
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you are right... it wasn't as the danish one... the protocol didn't let guests wear long dresses or tiaras because of the hour, the weather was very bad and the bride and groom didn't seem to be very excited. also, the balcony scene may be cancelled.
too bad...
carlota
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the other face of the royal wedding
La otra cara de la Boda Real
Servicios de La Opinión
22 de mayo de 2004
MADRID.- Al grito de “España, mañana, será republicana”, cientos de personas se congregaron anoche en la céntrica Puerta del Sol de Madrid para protestar por el enlace del príncipe Felipe y de su prometida Letizia Ortiz.
En una parodia festiva, a la que asistieron entre 300 y 500 personas, en su mayoría jóvenes, una chica disfrazada con una peluca rubia y un velo de novia imitaba a la periodista Letizia Ortiz, que hoy contraerá matrimonio con el heredero de la Corona española.
Entonando el himno republicano y al ritmo de los tambores, los manifestantes criticaron el gasto excesivo que generó esta boda. “Es dinero tirado”, clamaban haciendo ondear banderas rojas, amarillas y malvas, colores de la República española.
El “Movimiento Popular contra la Boda Real”, organizador de esta protesta, convocó para el mediodía de hoy, coincidiendo con la ceremonia religiosa en la catedral de la Almudena, un evento de las mismas características en la plaza del Dos de Mayo, en el centro de la capital.
La otra cara de la Boda Real
Servicios de La Opinión
22 de mayo de 2004
MADRID.- Al grito de “España, mañana, será republicana”, cientos de personas se congregaron anoche en la céntrica Puerta del Sol de Madrid para protestar por el enlace del príncipe Felipe y de su prometida Letizia Ortiz.
En una parodia festiva, a la que asistieron entre 300 y 500 personas, en su mayoría jóvenes, una chica disfrazada con una peluca rubia y un velo de novia imitaba a la periodista Letizia Ortiz, que hoy contraerá matrimonio con el heredero de la Corona española.
Entonando el himno republicano y al ritmo de los tambores, los manifestantes criticaron el gasto excesivo que generó esta boda. “Es dinero tirado”, clamaban haciendo ondear banderas rojas, amarillas y malvas, colores de la República española.
El “Movimiento Popular contra la Boda Real”, organizador de esta protesta, convocó para el mediodía de hoy, coincidiendo con la ceremonia religiosa en la catedral de la Almudena, un evento de las mismas características en la plaza del Dos de Mayo, en el centro de la capital.
xicamaluca
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They are on their way to teh Atocha Basilica. The balcony appearence is programmed to happen after this (if the rain give a break 
)
)wyldseraph
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Spanish prince weds
May 22, 2004 - 8:06PM
Spain's Crown Prince Felipe and former journalist Letizia Ortiz exchanged marriage vows today at Madrid's Almudena Cathedral before some 1,600 guests at the biggest gathering of royalty in two decades.
Looking each other intently in the eye, both promised "to love each other in sickness in health, all the days of our lives".
The ceremony began about 15 minutes after its scheduled 0900 GMT (1900 AEST) start when Ortiz, 31, smiling but showing clear signs of nerves, arrived in driving rain.
Spanish authorities laid on stringent security for the occasion, two months on from devastating train bombings in the capital, with some 18,000 police and 200 rooftop snipers monitoring proceedings.
Despite the inclement weather, thousands of Spaniards and tourists lined the streets to cheer the royal procession as they witnessed the biggest royal get-together since Britain's Prince Charles wed Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, the whole country gripped by a fairytale romance.
Spanish television's Symphonic Orchestra struck up Handel's Organ Concerto Opus Seven Number Three as Ortiz, looking radiant in an ivory white dress with a wide pearl collar and veil, entered the cathedral.
She lightly kissed Felipe, drawing a broad grin from the 36-year-old heir to the throne.
The sadness, which has lingered in the city since the March 11 train atrocity, finally dispersed in a capital transformed for the country's first royal wedding in 98 years. Municipal authorities have decked out the city in a swathe of red and yellow roses, geraniums and petunias.
In all, some 1,600 VIP guests have been invited to Madrid's Almudena Cathedral, while an estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide were expected to tune in to watch live television coverage.
The royal guests, including the divorced Prince Charles, whose wife died in a Paris car crash in 1997, arrived yesterday evening for a sumptuous banquet at the Pardo Royal Palace.
Other VIPs include Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito, former South African president Nelson Mandela and Queen Rania and Queen Noor of Jordan.
More than two months after the Madrid train bombings which killed 191 people in the country's worst-ever terror attack, the marriage has given Madrilenos and tourists alike the chance to party, the feel-good factor heightened by the city's shortlisting this week for the 2012 Olympic Games.
For Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon the marriage is "just what Madrid needs following the worst suffering Madrid has experienced in decades", a reference to the bombings blamed on Islamic extremists.
The couple were to travel back from the ceremony in an armour-plated, glass-topped Rolls Royce, passing close to Atocha station, which bore the brunt of the March 11 attack and where a "forest of the absent" has been planted to remember the dead.
The security bill alone is set to top around E8 million euro ($A13.76 million) with around one fifth of the entire country's law enforcement staff on duty in the city.
Overall, including television transmission rights, the event is set to cost up to 21 million euro ($A36.12 million), prompting complaints by anti-monarchists who believe the money could be better spent.
Around one in five Spaniards profess republican sympathies and two anti-royal demonstrations had been planned for today, following one last night.
After the ceremony, guests were to head off for a reception where they will be invited to feast on, among other things, a two-metre high wedding cake weighing a reported 170kg, as well as more than a 1,000 bottles of champagne.
With the bride a commoner and divorcee - she married former literature teacher Alonso Guerrero in her mid-20s but the pair split up within months - his decision shocked some, including the influential Roman Catholic Church, which was relieved to find Ortiz previously only had a civil ceremony.
A key factor in the bride's favour is that she will eventually become her nation's first Spanish-born queen since Maria de las Mercedes de Orleans y Bourbon, first wife of Felipe's great-great-grandfather Alfonso XIII, died in 1904.
- AFP
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/...5176040539.html
Some pics:
May 22, 2004 - 8:06PM
Spain's Crown Prince Felipe and former journalist Letizia Ortiz exchanged marriage vows today at Madrid's Almudena Cathedral before some 1,600 guests at the biggest gathering of royalty in two decades.
Looking each other intently in the eye, both promised "to love each other in sickness in health, all the days of our lives".
The ceremony began about 15 minutes after its scheduled 0900 GMT (1900 AEST) start when Ortiz, 31, smiling but showing clear signs of nerves, arrived in driving rain.
Spanish authorities laid on stringent security for the occasion, two months on from devastating train bombings in the capital, with some 18,000 police and 200 rooftop snipers monitoring proceedings.
Despite the inclement weather, thousands of Spaniards and tourists lined the streets to cheer the royal procession as they witnessed the biggest royal get-together since Britain's Prince Charles wed Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, the whole country gripped by a fairytale romance.
Spanish television's Symphonic Orchestra struck up Handel's Organ Concerto Opus Seven Number Three as Ortiz, looking radiant in an ivory white dress with a wide pearl collar and veil, entered the cathedral.
She lightly kissed Felipe, drawing a broad grin from the 36-year-old heir to the throne.
The sadness, which has lingered in the city since the March 11 train atrocity, finally dispersed in a capital transformed for the country's first royal wedding in 98 years. Municipal authorities have decked out the city in a swathe of red and yellow roses, geraniums and petunias.
In all, some 1,600 VIP guests have been invited to Madrid's Almudena Cathedral, while an estimated 1.2 billion people worldwide were expected to tune in to watch live television coverage.
The royal guests, including the divorced Prince Charles, whose wife died in a Paris car crash in 1997, arrived yesterday evening for a sumptuous banquet at the Pardo Royal Palace.
Other VIPs include Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito, former South African president Nelson Mandela and Queen Rania and Queen Noor of Jordan.
More than two months after the Madrid train bombings which killed 191 people in the country's worst-ever terror attack, the marriage has given Madrilenos and tourists alike the chance to party, the feel-good factor heightened by the city's shortlisting this week for the 2012 Olympic Games.
For Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon the marriage is "just what Madrid needs following the worst suffering Madrid has experienced in decades", a reference to the bombings blamed on Islamic extremists.
The couple were to travel back from the ceremony in an armour-plated, glass-topped Rolls Royce, passing close to Atocha station, which bore the brunt of the March 11 attack and where a "forest of the absent" has been planted to remember the dead.
The security bill alone is set to top around E8 million euro ($A13.76 million) with around one fifth of the entire country's law enforcement staff on duty in the city.
Overall, including television transmission rights, the event is set to cost up to 21 million euro ($A36.12 million), prompting complaints by anti-monarchists who believe the money could be better spent.
Around one in five Spaniards profess republican sympathies and two anti-royal demonstrations had been planned for today, following one last night.
After the ceremony, guests were to head off for a reception where they will be invited to feast on, among other things, a two-metre high wedding cake weighing a reported 170kg, as well as more than a 1,000 bottles of champagne.
With the bride a commoner and divorcee - she married former literature teacher Alonso Guerrero in her mid-20s but the pair split up within months - his decision shocked some, including the influential Roman Catholic Church, which was relieved to find Ortiz previously only had a civil ceremony.
A key factor in the bride's favour is that she will eventually become her nation's first Spanish-born queen since Maria de las Mercedes de Orleans y Bourbon, first wife of Felipe's great-great-grandfather Alfonso XIII, died in 1904.
- AFP
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/...5176040539.html
Some pics:
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xicamaluca
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Diferents types of music is being played in differents points of the route to Atocha (jazz, rap, flamengo, ect)
carlota
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sweet letizia
letizia and father jesus ortiz
pages
sofia and felipe.
the king and infanta pilar
elena and jaime
cristina and iñaki
infanta margarita and carlos zurita
duke and duchess of calabria
letizia and father jesus ortiz
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sofia and felipe.
the king and infanta pilar
elena and jaime
cristina and iñaki
infanta margarita and carlos zurita
duke and duchess of calabria
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xicamaluca
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Alexandria
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samitude
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She probably was
- embarrassed by her son's behavior.
- thinking of her own wedding and wishing her marriage would have turned out happier.
- wishing the rain would stop.
Chatleen
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She probably was
- embarrassed by her son's behavior.
- thinking of her own wedding and wishing her marriage would have turned out happier.
- wishing the rain would stop.
Are you joking - or is Infanta Elena experiencing problems in her marriage?
ally_cooper
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I think is because he is her only brother and she loves him very much. Did you remember when Elena cry in the Olympic Games of Barcelona '92 when Felipe took the flag. It's the same.
Alexandria
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Source: Getty Images
Felipe on the big screen
Grand walk
Mother and son
Side profile of mother and son
Waving mom
View of Sofia's mantilla
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero and his wife Sonsoles Espinosa
Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and his wife Ana Botella
Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel
Felipe on the big screen
Grand walk
Mother and son
Side profile of mother and son
Waving mom
View of Sofia's mantilla
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero and his wife Sonsoles Espinosa
Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and his wife Ana Botella
Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel
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