A wedding with all the trimmings

It was the Hollywood wedding of the year. Heartthrob Tom Cruise married his young bride Katie Holmes in afairytalecastle in Odescalchi near the Italian capital, Rome.

About 150 relatives and friends gathered for the ceremony which wasshrouded in secrecy. The guest list included many of the rich and famous fromboth sides of the Atlantic. Actors Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith were there along with thecomedianJim Carrey and model Brooke Shields. One of Britain's topcelebrity couplesDavid and Victoria Beckham were invited but only Victoria managed to attend the wedding ceremony because her husband David wasordered backto Spain to play a Real Madrid football match.

The groom is a member of one of the world's most recent religions, Scientology, which was founded in 1955 by thescience fiction writerL Ron Hubbard. It's acontroversialreligion because some people think it triesto recruitnew members by usingcoercivemethods.

The wedding was a Scientologist service and although it had many elements familiar to traditional marriage ceremonies, including rings andwedding vows, it also included certain aspects which arefundamentalto Scientology, such as vowing never to go to sleep at night without talking about any differences or disagreements first.

A spokesman for the Church of Scientology said its wedding ceremonies arenot legally recognisedin Italy so Katie and Tom will also have to havea civil unionto make their marriage legal in the eyes of the law.

Fans who waited fora glimpseof the bride, groom and their famous wedding party were disappointed. They had to wait under overcast Italian skies to catch eventhe most fleeting sight ofthe celebrities as they rushed by inlimousinesor under umbrellas.

But despite the rain, there's an old Italianproverbthat Katie cantake heart fromfor the rest of her married life – a wet bride is a lucky bride. That means that if it rains on your wedding day, it's a sign you'll have a happy marriage.