Bells rang out and waiting crowds cheered with delight as the bride stepped out of the car, allowing the world to see her much-anticipated dress.
Designed by Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen, it features lace applique full-length sleeves and floral detail.
Kate Middleton’s bridal flowers contain a touching tribute to her husband to-be.
Her shield-shaped wired bouquet includes sweet William, as well as myrtle, lily-of-the-valley and hyacinth.
As tradition dictates for royal weddings, the bride’s bouquet contains a sprig of myrtle from the original myrtle bush planted by Queen Victoria at Osborne
House, Isle of Wight in 1845.
But it also poignantly contains a sprig from a plant grown from the myrtle used in The Queen’s wedding bouquet of 1947.
Will their union endure like that of William's grandparents - Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, now in its 64th year - or crumble in a spectacular and mortifying fashion like that of his own parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana?
Recent history augurs badly: The first marriages of three of the queen's four children ended in divorce. But William and Kate seem to glow with happiness in each other's company, and unlike Charles and Diana they've had eight years to figure out that they want to be together.
The Royal Wedding is the culmination of a romance that began more than eight years ago when William and Kate met as students at St Andrews University in Fife, Scotland.
Their story has captured the hearts of people across the planet and thousands of foreign journalists, photographers and TV crews have descended on London to cover the event.
Millions of British workers are enjoying an extra public holiday to celebrate and many will attend one of the 5,500 street parties being organised across the country, including one in Downing Street.
