Royal Wedding Revisited: Diana Fans Remember the Day She Married Charles

April 20, 2011 — -- So many Americans remember that morning.

Julie Strande: "I woke up at 4 in the morning."

Mary Beth Boyle: "Crawled out of bed in my pajamas."

Martha Wilkie: "... and I turned on the television."

On July 29, 1981, a shy teenager named Diana Spencer married Prince Charles, the heir to the English throne. All of England -- and it seemed the world -- wanted to watch.

"Birds might have started to chirp," Boyle said. "It was a warm day. I had recently gotten married, so it was really exciting for me to watch the wedding."

Across the pond in America, millions of miles away from England, televisions flickered in darkened, early morning living rooms as young women watched, enchanted by a real-life princess.

"I crawled under the covers and watched the whole thing," Nancy Mosser Bailey said, "for hours and hours and hours."

Still in their pajamas, many said they remembered enjoying a spot of tea and scones while taking it all in with their mothers or chatting on the phone with their best friends.

"I remember the night before my mom said, 'You know tomorrow's going to be a big day. There's a princess getting married,'" said Tracy DePascale. "So, of course, you're a 5-year-old girl [so] that's like the greatest thing you've ever heard of."

"My mom sat on the couch," Strande said, "my sister on the rocking chair and I laid on the floor on my stomach with my hands under my chin as a child just in awe, staring at the TV."

And it wasn't just little girls either. There were little boys glued to the family TV set as well.

"My mom came and got us up at around 5 in the morning," Dean Peterson said. "And she told us this was a rare event that we might only see once or twice in our lifetimes."

"The windows of her carriage, her little head looking at all the people that were waving and cheering -- that's what I remember the most, is her peeking through the window," Boyle said.