Royal Wedding No. 3

Yesterday, Prince Carl Philip of Sweden married Miss Sofia Hellqvist, now Princess Sofia.

▲(Official wedding photos from www.kungahuset.se)▼

This was the third royal wedding in Sweden in a period of five years – but now we’ll have to wait a long time for the next generation of princesses (and maybe princes-to-come) to grow up. (Princess Estelle, daughter of the Crown Princess, is the smallest of the three girls to the right in the official group photo above.)

These three weddings have been a boost for the popularity of our royal family; and each one of them also unique in their own way.

▼In June 2010*, Crown Princess Victoria made a prince out of Mr Daniel Westling, former gym-owner and personal trainer (now His Royal Highness Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland).  They made their wedding a public affair – not only the wedding ceremony in the church but also the dinner party and speeches afterwards was broadcasted live.
*(Link to my blog post from that wedding.)

Source: Wikimedia

▼In June 2013, Princess Madeleine married British-American businessman Christopher O'Neill. Mr O’Neill was offered the title of prince too, but declined, as he wasn’t keen on all the fuss and trouble that comes with it (like assuming royal duties and having to change his citizenship). Princess Madeleine remains a Swedish Princess, though. Their wedding ceremony was public, but the party was kept private.

Source: Wikimedia

▼The last of the three royal siblings to tie the knot was the middle child Prince Carl Philip. Yesterday he married Miss Sofia Hellqvist, former glamour model, TV reality show participant and yoga teacher; but also philantropist and founder of a Swedish-South African organisation called Project Playground, helping poor children in Capetown to a better life. In marrying into the royal family, Sofia became Her Royal Highness Princess Sofia, Duchess of Värmland.

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Carl Philip and Sofia followed the example set by Victoria and Daniel. I think this couple actually had many of us charmed even before the wedding, with their relaxed way of handling various interviews since their engagement.

The wedding ceremony was held in the Royal Chapel within the Palace. It offered some surprises, as they had chosen rather untraditional music for a royal wedding.

(I wanted to insert a YouTube clip here of their exit from the church which was accompanied by gospel music and everyone clapping hands, but seem unable to embed the video. Hopefully you can reach it through the link.)

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The room in the Royal Palace in Stockholm that was used for the wedding dinner. – kungahuset.se

The dinner party afterwards was also broadcasted live. Cameras were off while they were eating (we then got snippets of other info instead, for example about the guests and dresses and food etc). But we got to see the various courses served, and hear the speeches – the King (father of the groom), then the father of the bride, the groom himself, and even a few words from the bride, introducing a song written especially for her husband.

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Those of us who managed to keep awake until midnight and after also got to see the wedding cake cut, and the newly-weds opening the ball with a waltz.

I had initially only planned to watch the wedding ceremony and cortege in the afternoon, and then perhaps glimpses now and then during the evening… But I actually ended up watching pretty much the whole thing – i.e. from 3 pm until 1 am = 10 hours!

I bet some of the ladies in the wedding party were wishing from time to time during the evening that they’d been able to take off their shoes, too…

The Prince cutting the wedding cake with his sword, close to midnight… (off my TV screen)

 

Another Fairytale Wedding

It is not every day that one wakes up in the morning with no particular plans for the day, and ends up at a fairytale wedding. Just now I seem to be making a Saturday habit of it, though. Last week it was our Princess Madeleine (even if I only took part via television). Today I still don’t know whose wedding it was, but I ended up enjoying (part of) it anyway. And live this time!

We had another beautiful summer day today, after rain yesterday and more rain predicted for tomorrow (actually it’s starting as I write this, Saturday evening); so I decided I’d better take advantage och spend some time outdoors this afternoon.

When I set out from home (after a salad lunch) I still hadn’t decided where to go. I knew that there were “things” going on in the town centre – a sports event, a triathlon… So there would be photo opportunities. But also a LOT of people, and I wasn’t really sure I was in the mood for that. My other alternative was our Museum Park, but that’s a longer walk… I actually postponed the decision until half-way into town (where I had to choose).

But I chose the Museum Park; and no regrets!

I took some photos on my way there too, but I’ll save those for another day and post. This is what I want to share today:

One of the buildings in the park is this old church, originally built in 1690. It was moved to its present location in the museum park in 1914. I’ve blogged about this church (and museum park) before so some of you might remember it. The church is part of the museum, but is also used for wedding ceremonies and christenings and other special occasions. When I passed it today I noticed a sign on the door which announced that a private wedding ceremony was taking place (“welcome back later”).

So I decided to hang around for a bit and maybe get to see the couple when they came out. While waiting, I had a cup of tea at the café, and a pastry which goes by the name of “mazarin” here (I don’t know what it may be called in English, if you have it at all):

(I’ve been on a “salad and strawberries” diet all week otherwise… But it was such a long walk today…)

The café. An old inn which like all of the other old buildings in the park was moved here from somewhere else in the area (instead of just being torn down).

As I sat down at a table outside, I spied with my little eye something interesting half-hiding behind the next building, so I had to go check that out before I drank my tea:

 Well, now I really had to stay and watch the rest!

Eventually, out they came:

The couple stepped onto the special flat bridal stone outside the church which has traditionally been used for the same purpose way back through generations. They stood there quite a long time while all the wedding guests came up one by one to hug them and congratulate them.

The sign says: “Bridal stone from Toarp parish, known to have been used there as late as 1820. The stone was placed just outside the wall around the churchyard, and was used by the bridal couple after the ceremony in the church. They were then supposed to show themselves to all the people while music was played and the horses were prepared for the journey back home.”

This couple today had evidently decided to follow the old ritual literally. While they were standing on the stone being greeted by all their friends, a musician was playing the accordion in the background, and the invited guests were served strawberries and champagne (or it might have been low-alcohol cider, considering that some of them must have been driving).

Finally, it was time for the bride and groom to enter the horse-drawn carriage to go wherever it was they were having the reception. Not all easy getting the dress aboard:

Goodbye, and thanks for the “show” :)
May you live happily ever after, whoever you are!

More Celebrations: Royal Wedding

Today, Sweden’s Princess Madeleine (younger sister of our Crown Princess Victoria) married American financier Chris O’Neill.

The ceremony was held in the Royal Castle church in the centre of Stockholm.

The wedding dress created by Italian designer Valentino Garavani

Crown Princess Victoria with daughter Estelle,
Queen Silvia and King Carl XVI Gustaf.

It was a perfect day for a fairy-tale wedding. After a ride in horse-drawn open carriage through town, the newly-wed couple as well as their invited guests went on by boat to… 

… Drottningholm palace (also in Stockholm, residence of our present King and Queen, and where the Princess grew up) where the private wedding party will still be going on as I write this.

You’ll no doubt be able to find more info and better quality photos by a simple Google search, if you’re interested… These, obviously, I just snapped off my TV screen!

Chris O’Neill has dual British-American citizenship but lives in New York. Princess Madeleine also works in New York, for the World Childhood Foundation. The princess will still be a princess after the wedding, but her husband will not be a prince but will remain Mr O’Neill (unlike brother-in-law Daniel who did become a prince when he married crown princess Victoria three years ago. Here are links to my blog posts about that back then:

http://islandofvoices.blogspot.se/2010/06/royal-wedding.html

http://islandofvoices.blogspot.se/2010/06/royal-wedding-2.html