Denmark celebrates royal wedding

Thousands of people waving Danish and Australian flags lined the streets up to 10-people deep to celebrate the wedding of Crown Prince Frederik and his wife, Crown Princess Mary, as the couple rode in a nearly 100-year-old horse-drawn carriage.

Accompanied by body guards strolling on each side, and uniformed police, the couple made their way down Copenhagen’s famed pedestrian walkway, past throngs of cheering children and adults who had taken the day off to watch the wedding.

Police said one person was arrested after he was found carrying 16 military flares and several smoke bombs in a satchel.

Police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch said the man, who was not identified, was arrested about 100 yards away from the cathedral before the wedding ceremony.

Security surrounding the wedding was unprecedented in Denmark, with nearly a third of the Scandinavian country’s 10,000-strong police force in the city.

Visibly moved, the couple exchanged their vows inside Our Lady’s Church in Copenhagen before hundreds of family members, European and Asian royals and other invited guests, including The Earl of Wessex and his wife Sophie.

As the couple left the church, Frederik kissed his wife on the lips, the first time they have done so in public.

Outside, a roar of approval erupted from the tens of thousands who lined the streets to watch the ceremony on dozens of outdoor video screens.

Across Denmark, Europe’s oldest monarchy, thousands more watched the lavish spectacle on live television and heard it on national radio.

Much of the city was closed to cars – except for the fleet of nearly 100 Volvo limousines and dark buses ferried the guests to and from Our Lady’s Church and to the Fredensborg Palace, where the evening party was held.

Denmark has been celebrating the wedding for more than a week with a military parade, a banquet for Danish dignitaries on Tuesday and receptions at Copenhagen’s City Hall and at Parliament.

A keen yachtsman, horseman and marathon-runner, Frederik met Donaldson during the 2000 Olympics in Sydney when he and Felipe stopped in at the Slip Inn bar.

The first year of their relationship was kept secret, Donaldson, a 32-year-old law graduate, later said.

After 14 months of secret visits by Frederik to Australia, scores of telephone calls, e-mails and love letters, the couple agreed near the end of 2001 that she should move to Paris so the two could be closer. In early 2003, Donaldson moved to Copenhagen.