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The wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton took place on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey in London, with the couple having been in a relationship since 2003. The ceremony was conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and featured Prince Harry as best man and Pippa Middleton as maid of honour, followed by the traditional balcony appearance at Buckingham Palace. Since William was not yet the heir apparent, the event was not a full state occasion, but it was still a massive public spectacle, declared a public holiday in the UK with over 5,000 street parties and roughly a million people lining the procession route. The wedding drew a global audience of tens of millions, including 72 million live streams on YouTube and a UK television peak of 26.3 million viewers. The couple's engagement, announced on 16 November 2010, was marked by William giving Catherine the iconic sapphire engagement ring previously owned by his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. The build-up was widely compared to the 1981 wedding of William's parents, and the Queen gave her formal consent to the marriage as required by the Royal Marriages Act 1772.