'Why now? I have prepared for this wedding for a year,' he complained.

'Of all the days, they had to choose this one.'

The bride, 30-year-old Maria-Stella Magtayo, had dressed in her room at the Manila Peninsula Hotel and entered the lobby in a white gown, bouquet in hand and a friend holding the train.

'I'm going through with this. Rock 'n' roll!' she told Reuters, as rebel soldiers with automatic rifles and journalists paced around the lobby.

Mr Montano, 31, was still in his shorts and T-shirt because he had not started to get ready. He then decided to hold the wedding at the Shangri-La Hotel across the road.

The couple and their guests got out of the hotel by a side exit when the rebel soldiers were briefly trying to prevent people from leaving.

Mr Montano, an executive at San Miguel Corp, said his guests had 50 rooms booked in the Peninsula.

Asked if he was angry at the rebel soldiers, he said: 'I have to fix so many things, I have no time to be mad.'

Guest Jun Samaniego, a Filipino-American who arrived in Manila from the US with his family only on Wednesday, took the ordeal in his stride.

'We were having lunch when the soldiers barged in,' he told AFP.

'Filipinos who have seen it all before continued eating, but we noticed the foreigners quickly left their tables. They appeared quite alarmed with what was happening.'

The rebellion was led by SenatorAntonio Trillanes and Brigadier-General Danilo Lim, who are linked to past mutinies against the government. But the rebels could not hold on for long.

After a seven-hour stand-off, two armoured personnel carriers rammed into the building and elite troops poured into the interior, which was awash in tear gas and the sound of gunfire.

'We are going out for the safety of everybody,' said Sen Trillanes.

He is a former navy lieutenant who was elected senator in May while still on trial for a failed 2003 coup against President Arroyo.

He was hauled into a prison bus along with another of the rebellion's leaders, Brigadier General Danilo Lim.

It was a quick conclusion to what had apparently been a well-orchestrated move by the two, who led about 30 troops after leaving a court hearing into a 2003 coup attempt.

As they read their demands inside the hotel, they gave out an Internet website address which had statements from the two men and a litany of complaints against President Arroyo.