Again, more restrained Italian hattery at the wedding.  Boo -- I wanted more theatrics from a water-skiing princess!

PHOTO CREDITS: bekia.es

HRH The Prince of Asturias and Miss Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano
May 22, 2004

Only a week after Crown Prince Frederik married Mary Donaldson in Denmark, Prince Felipe of Spain tied the knot with journalist Letizia Ortiz in Madrid.  Theirs was the first wedding of a member of the Spanish royal family to take place in Madrid since the wedding of King Alfonso XIII and Princess Ena of Battenberg in 1906.  That wedding was marred by an assassination attempt on the royal couple and the tragic deaths of several bystanders -- this one, thankfully, went more smoothly, although it was a cloudy, rainy day in the Spanish capital.

There were a few controversies, however, about Felipe's choice of bride.  Letizia, a journalist who covered the September 11th attacks in New York and the Iraq War, will be the first commoner to be queen of Spain.  She also had previously been briefly married and divorced.  However, because her first wedding was a civil rather than religious one, the Catholic Church did not recognize it, and she was free to marry Felipe.

Felipe and Letizia have become quite a working team since their wedding, frequently appearing together on royal engagements.  They have also had two daughters, Infanta Leonor (born in 2005) and Infanta Sofia (born in 2007).  Leonor is expected to become queen of Spain in her own right one day -- that is, if her parents don't provide her with a baby brother!

Wedding Hatters

HRH The Crown Prince of Denmark and Miss Mary Donaldson
May 14, 2004

Our last major tiara wedding before Crown Princess Vic's big day was the wedding of Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Tasmanian-born Mary Elizabeth Donaldson.  The two met during the Sydney Olympics in 2000, fell in love, and got hitched four years later.

Frederik and his Aussie bride have two children: Prince Christian (who will one day be king) and Princess Isabella, the first Danish princess born in a generation.  Mary has transformed from an everyday girl to a glamorous crown princess, and this wedding was definitely high on the glamour factor as well: we've got more than thirty tiaras on parade here, many of which are brand-new to the blog.  A good trial run for Victoria's wedding, no doubt!  Enjoy!

Wedding Hatters

Marina of Savoy is quickly becoming one of my very favorite royal hatters, I must admit.  I mean, let's look at the facts: she's a former champion water skier who would be queen of Italy if not for the abolition of the Italian monarchy way back in 1946.  She's also apparently a devoted fan of tanning and sunglasses.  She's like our very own royal version of Sophia Loren!  (To be clear, that's current-day Sophia, not Houseboat-era Sophia.)

And her hattery choice for the Spanish royal wedding is just in line with that character depiction.  I mean, headcoverings for women in the Catholic church (something that has generally fallen out of fashion in the US since Vatican II in the '60s) are meant to cover the head and provide the wearer with a measure of modesty.

So here, we've got the lace veil, but rather than covering her head, it's sort of just trailing back from her up-do like a fancy lace ponytail!  This just gives me the giggles -- it's one of those hattery decisions where you can almost see her thinking, "Well, I'd be the Catholic queen of Italy if there still was a queen of Italy -- I guess I should cover up.  But that would be so boring!  And we can't have that -- I am a former Cypress Groves superstar and the mother of a Dancing with the Stars contestant, after all!  I'll wear it like a wedding veil instead, even though I'm not the bride!"

Oh, Italian royals -- never change.  (This is also, of course, the royal wedding where Marina's husband, Vittorio Emanuele, got in a fistfight with Amadeo, Duke of Aosta, and landed on Queen Anne-Marie of Greece.  You've all heard that juicy bit of royal gossip, haven't you?  Classic!)

This post has three new things: a new royal (Princess Marina of Savoy, the Princess of Naples), a new tiara (Queen Margherita's Musy Tiara), and a royal wearing a tiara with sunglasses.  That last one is definitely a blog first, I think!

Princess Marina would be Queen of Italy had the Italians not booted out their monarchy a generation ago, and her tiara is one that's certainly fit for a queen.  It was made for Queen Margherita, who was queen of the newly-unified Italy from 1878 to 1900, by Musy.  It's a versatile tiara that can be worn in various configurations, and it's super intricate.

(But the tiara isn't my favorite thing named after Margherita -- that would be margherita pizza.  Yuuuuuum!)

Now I know where Marie-Chantal got the inspiration for her Spanish royal wedding hat...

Fabulous!  I know Marina used to be a competitive water skiier ... I would pay major bucks to see her do some fancy water ski tricks in this little number!  LOL!