From pubgoers in pyjamas to merrymakers in finery at a posh hotel, Americans cheered and teared up Saturday as they watched Meghan Markle marry Prince Harry in a royal wedding with trans-Atlantic resonance.
People gathered at wedding watch parties - some before dawn - at a Hollywood pub and New York's swanky Plaza hotel, in oceanfront towns in Florida and spots in the Rocky Mountains, to see an American of mixed race heritage become part of Britain's royal family.
If the UK and the US have long enjoyed a "special relationship," this gave it a whole new meaning.
"It's all my family can talk about," said 15-year-old Daniella Bueno, who got up at 3am to watch the wedding from Los Angeles' Immaculate Heart High School, Markle's alma mater.
"She's representing our school in such a beautiful way," said Bueno.
Across the country at a house in Burlington, New Jersey, a Philadelphia suburb, partygoers erupted in applause upon sight of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, but also for Doria Ragland, Markle's mother.
Guest Paula Jackson gasped when Markle emerged from the Rolls Royce that brought her to St. George's Chapel in Windsor, the British royals' longtime home.
"I'm just so happy for her," said Jackson, dressed in a jewelled blazer and tiara. "She will be an example for our young, African-American women."
At gatherings around the US, viewers admitted Markle's beauty and naturalness.
But they also marveled at the boundary-breaking, even-more-than-fairytale union between the prince who lost his mother, Diana, when he was 12 and the American actress who has spoken out about coming to terms with her biracial identity as the daughter of a black mother and white father.
Varinda Missett and Ellen Polkes donned hats, gloves and bejewelled high heels and went to the Plaza early in the morning because they "wanted to see a California girl become a princess," Missett said.
A crowd in fascinators and tiaras gathered for the storied hotel's first royal wedding viewing party, which came complete with deviled eggs, black pudding, Earl Grey tea butter biscuits and cake pops with champagne and flower liqueur.
"We love a great love story," said Maureen Farley, the hotel's director of hospitality. "This surely is one of the best."
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