Church bells chimed over Monaco after Prince Albert, the ruler, married Charlene Wittstock, a South African swimming champion, in a solemn religious ceremony under the gaze of 40 heads of state and an assortment of celebrities and royals.
Wearing a white Armani dress with a long train, the 33-year-old bride was escorted up the aisle by Michael, her father, as her mother Lynette watched from the front row.
Exchanging vows with Albert, 53, Princess Charlene, as she has been known since a civil ceremony on Friday, said “Oui” without hesitation.
Albert, in a white ceremonial uniform, winked at his bride from time to time at the altar and she smiled back at him.
Stéphane Bern, unofficial spokesman for Monaco’s ruling family, described as “ridiculous” rumours that Ms Wittstock had tried to flee Monaco days before the wedding after discovering that Albert had fathered a third illegitimate child.
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Representing Britain’s Royal Family were the Earl and Countess of Wessex and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. They joined a colourful parade of some 800 guests in designer outfits, strangely shaped hats and military uniforms filing along a red carpet into Albert’s pink hilltop palace for the wedding.
Another several hundred guests sat outside the palace watching the proceedings on giant screens in the square.
No expense was spared for the event: among soloist performers were Andrea Bocelli, the “blind tenor” who sang Ave Maria, Renée Fleming, the American soprano, and Antonio Flores, the Spanish tenor.
“It was marvelous, absolutely extraordinary,” said Sir Roger Moore, the actor, coming out of the palace later. He is a resident of the principality, famous as a billionaires’ playground and tax haven. Also present was Naomi Campbell, a former girlfriend of Albert, who said of the ceremony: “Beautiful, very emotional.”
President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived just before the groom and was also the first guest to leave, apparently eager to get home to Carla, his pregnant wife, who was expecting him for dinner at her family’s villa in the South of France at Cap Nègre.
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Albert and Charlene waved at their subjects lining the streets from an open-top hybrid Lexus — the Prince prides himself as an environmentalist. Their destination was a chapel where, according to local tradition, brides must deposit their bouquets on the altar. Charlene was seen wiping away tears as a woman and young girl, accompanied by a guitarist, sang a melancholic-sounding ballad.
After a session of photographs, 540 of the guests were to reconvene on a terrace overlooking the port for a dinner prepared by Alain Ducasse, the celebrity chef, who has a three-star restaurant in Monaco where he is also a resident.
On the menu was a pudding made with milk from cows Albert keeps in the grounds of his private residence. The wines included an extremely expensive Chateau d’Yquem. After dinner, guests were invited to dance the night away under a shower of fireworks.
Monaco hopes that the wedding will bring a new dawn for the principality that has long lost its lustre and suffered three decades of family misfortunes since the car crash that killed Princess Grace. “I want this day to mark a new starting point,” Albert told his subjects after receiving two works of art as wedding gifts.
Some of the older subjects of his Serene Highness — there are only 7,500 in all — lament the days when Rainier III ruled with a firm hand, fighting off pressure from the French hauts fonctionnaires who administer the state and expanding his possession into the Mediterranean.
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In contrast, the shy Albert has suspended his €8 billion (£7 billion) europroject for land reclamation as he focuses on turning Monaco into a 21st century model of environmental protection and home to a European Silicon Valley.