LONDON, United Kingdom (UPDATE 2) - Prince William married Kate Middleton in regal splendour at Westminster Abbey Friday as huge crowds and a global TV audience watched Britain's monarchy pin its hopes on a new generation.In the biggest royal celebration for three decades, Kate, wearing an ivory and white satin wedding dress with long lace sleeves, a veil and a flowing train, exchanged vows with William, who wore a scarlet military tunic.
"I will," the future king and queen each pronounced solemnly, before William put a ring fashioned from a nugget of Welsh gold on her finger and the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams pronounced them man and wife.
William, 28, mouthed "You look beautiful" to his bride after she walked up the aisle to the soaring strains of a choral piece that was used at the wedding of William's late mother Diana to Prince Charles in 1981.
The absence of Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, was keenly felt despite the joyful atmosphere of Friday's service, which also featured a hymn used at her funeral in the same abbey.
A sea of hundreds of thousands of people waved Union Jack flags in the streets outside while 1,900 guests including footballer David Beckham and singer Elton John were invited to the service in the abbey.
Two billion people -- a third of the world's population -- are expected to have watched Diana's eldest son wed the commoner he began dating at St Andrews university in Scotland eight years ago.
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