Spain's royal wedding sparkles in the rain

MADRID - Spain's Crown Prince Felipe has married former television presenter Letizia Ortiz in a glittering ceremony symbolising a new dawn for Spain more than two months after the deadly Madrid train bombings.

A torrential downpour began as Letizia entered Madrid's Almudena Cathedral for the capital's first royal wedding in nearly a century.

But the rain did not dampen the spirits of tens of thousands of well-wishers straining for a view of the couple or watching the ceremony on huge screens in central Madrid.

"Letizia, take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity to you...," the prince said, at one point forgetting his lines, during a televised ceremony beamed to a billion people worldwide.

But crowds of well-wishers urging the couple to seal the marriage with a passionate kiss were disappointed. Felipe gave his bride a peck on the cheek when they came out on the palace balcony to greet the crowd after the wedding.

"With good weather, without umbrellas, it would have been something else, but I am thrilled anyway. We saw the prince from five metres away," nurse Marta Blanco said, jumping up and down with excitement.

Long one of Europe's most eligible royals, Felipe chose to marry a 31-year-old divorcee who was a rising star for Spain's most popular news broadcaster before saying yes to a proposal that will make her queen of Spain one day.

Felipe told guests at a wedding lunch he could not hide his happiness. "I'm sure that's because I've fulfilled a wish. I've married the woman I love," he said.

The 1,400 guests included former South African President Nelson Mandela, Prince Charles, and other royalty from across Europe, the Middle East and Japan.

Letizia, snatching an occasional nervous smile, wore a fitted wedding gown with a 4.5-metre train, a V-shaped neckline and a high collar. The tiara had been worn by Felipe's mother Queen Sofia at her wedding.

The 36-year-old heir to the throne, the prince of Asturias, wore military dress uniform.

The memory of the March 11 bombings of Madrid commuter trains that killed 191 people hung heavy over the wedding, held in the same cathedral where a state funeral for the victims took place on March 24.

Originally planned festivities were cut back out of respect for bombing victims. Felipe cancelled his stag night and asked Madrid council to cancel a show planned for this week, saying the funds should go instead to a memorial for bomb victims.

NATO lent an AWACs surveillance plane to patrol the skies, F-18 fighters were ready to scramble at a moment's notice and thousands of police officers were on duty.

"This is a breath of fresh air after the attacks we suffered. We need to get past this," said Rosa Coral, 40, who came from Barcelona with all her office friends.

As the weather brightened, thousands lined central Madrid streets to see the newlyweds drive from the cathedral in an armoured Rolls-Royce to another church, the Atocha Basilica, to offer the bridal bouquet to the Virgin of Atocha, particularly revered by the royal family.

The church lies near Atocha railway station, where two of the commuter trains were bombed.

The last royal wedding in Madrid was in 1906, when Felipe's great-grandfather, Alfonso XIII, married Briton Victoria Eugenia. Both survived an anarchist bomb thrown at the wedding procession that killed about 20 people.

Felipe's grandfather Juan, driven into exile after a Republic was declared in Spain, married in Rome in 1935, while his parents, Juan Carlos and Sofia, married in Athens.

Juan Carlos, 66, is revered in Spain for helping steer the country to democracy after dictator Francisco Franco died in 1975, when the monarchy was restored.

- RUETERS