By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CITY HALL — Big Ben's got nothing on the Big Apple.
Couples in New York made a royal splash of their own, tying the knot Friday just hours after the Royal Wedding betweeen Prince William and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey.
"I am a prince today, too," quipped Havier Molena, 35, of Spain, as he waited in line at City Hall with his fiancee, Marta Tormalba. "I am a duke, the Duke of Barcelona."
Tormalba, 35, hadn't considered the royal nuptials when she chose the date.
"Our family is very upset," she said, laughing. "But we just love New York. It's a wonderful city."
Giggling New York sweethearts Candy Kugel and Chuck Hunnewell, 63, who were getting hitched after nine years together, joked that watching Royal Wedding was a great way to remember the date.
"Yeah, 65 days ago I saw the date announced on the 'Today Show' and I've been reminded of the countdown until my wedding every day since," Kugel said as she posed for pictures with her Boston-born beau.
"Prince William told Catherine Middleton's father that he wished they had more of a private affair," she said. "We get to have a private affair. We're lucky."
Most of the blushing brides said their choice of date was sheer coincidence.
"We made the date first, and then we found out it was on the date of the Royal Wedding," Synovee Blanco, 19, of Brooklyn, said as she prepared to make it official with her soldier boyfriend, Jason Mendez, 24.
"I said, 'Oh, no, now I'll have to compete with the Royal Wedding," she joked.
"I actually kinda wanted to watch the wedding, but it was too early and we had to come here."
But in Times Square, where three couples tied the knot as part of a televised Royal Wedding celebration, the story was a little different.
"We were the next show," Marc Laundry, 29, of Connecticut, said after he married his fiancee, Lindsay, 29. "How can you pass that up?"
