In a fairy-tale wedding befitting Hollywood royalty, Tom Cruise, 44, and Katie Holmes, 27, were married Saturday in a 15th-century castle with a guest list that featured the biggest names in entertainment.

The couple read personal vows in a ceremony conducted according to the rules of the Church of Scientology, then partied into the night and watched fireworks over Lake Bracciano. They were married in the Hall of Arms in the Castle Odescalchi, flanked by pages wearing the eagle-and-lion livery of the Orsini-Odescalchi family.

The ceremony had started late in the evening, partly because Victoria Beckham, who took advantage of the afternoon schedule to fit in a morning of shopping at Gucci in Rome, was delayed.

The cost of the event is estimated at over 2 million euros (2.5 million U.S. dollars). The pair's outfits were designed by Giorgio Armani, who also created the bride's bouquet. Armani's niece was among the first guests to arrive at the wedding.

Bracciano was closed to traffic early overnight.

Details of the ceremony had been kept mostly secret.

News crews were charged 300 Euros (384 dollars) to park satellite trucks on the town's main square, and 1,000 Euros (1,280 dollars) for permission to set up positions atop the town hall, which offered the best views of the castle.

Cruise's amorous entanglements can be plotted along a steeply descending age curve. His first wife, Mimi Rogers, a voluptuous actress who sparked his interest in scientology, is now 50. Nicole Kidman, to whom he was married for 11 years, is 39 and Penelope Cruz, the Spanish beauty with whom he had a highly publicised dalliance, is 32. Holmes is 27.

Holmes and Cruise became engaged in June 2005. Their daughter, Suri, was born April 18.

Cruise and Holmes were first photographed together in Rome in April 2005. Two months later, Cruise announced he had proposed to Holmes atop the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

He has two children, 13-year-old Isabella and 11-year-old Connor, from his former marriage to Nicole Kidman.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanews