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@pip
My advice is to get married in the states and then apply at your nearest UK embassy/console for your residency/working visa for the UK. You'll get a provisional working visa that entitles you to reside in the UK but without access to public funds - after behaving yourself for two years you can then change it to a permanent resident visa.
Its pretty straightforward. My wife had hers processed in Chicago the next day (after we hit a snafu applying in the UK).
If you want to get married in the UK, you'll need to apply for a fiance visa to legally enter the country and get married (you cannot work on this visa). You can then apply to the Home Office to convert it to a working visa. The conversion can be done in person at the Home Office if your case is straightforward or by mail if they need more supporting info (can take up to 11 weeks). However, from friends and family we spoke to, applying in your home country esp if you're american is always much faster.
If you were already resident in the UK, you'd have to apply for permission to marry from the Home Office which strips all the fun out of it (as well as taking up to three months).
If you need any help/or have questions I'm happy to help as we went through this two years ago (my wife is American).
There are many sites that have useful information out there but I remember seeing some helpful replies here:
http://www.easyexpat.com/forums/forum_47.htm
And this has all the info you could want:
http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1018721067257