One of the annual foreign royal guests at the Sultan of Brunei's big birthday bash is Princess Basma of Jordan, the younger sister of the late King Hussein and the aunt of the current king, Abdullah II.  She's the woman all the way on the left of this photo.

Basma's tiara is a really interesting diamond piece -- from a distance, it almost looks like a floral tiara,  but up close, it's more of an intricate abstract pattern of circles and swirls, with a top element that almost looks like the Prince of Wales feather emblem.  It's stunning!  (And Basma has grown her hair out a bit in recent years, which sets of the tiara really well.  Love it!)

HRH The Crown Princess of Sweden and Mr. Daniel Westling
June 19, 2010

Well, kids, yesterday we partied hardy in the wedding live posts, and today we get to have a tiara fiesta!  I've compiled all of the tiara entries for the royal guests at Crown Princess Victoria's wedding to Daniel Westling (now Prince Daniel) in this entry.

The wedding, of course, took place in Stockholm yesterday.  The couple has been together since 2002, when Daniel became Victoria's personal trainer.  Love blossomed, and on their wedding day, Daniel became royal.  During their balcony appearance, Victoria thanked the people of Sweden for giving her a prince.

And now, we'll all just have to wait to see how long it takes before the pitter-patter of little royal feet are heard in Haga Palace!

Wedding Hatters

First things first -- let me blow your mind a little bit.  This woman is almost 63 years old.  Can you believe it????

She's also new to the blog -- this is Princess Sarvath of Jordan, the Indian-born wife of Prince El-Hassan, who is the brother of the late King Hussein.  (That makes Hassan and Sarvath the uncle and aunt of King Abdullah.)

This is another Jordanian tiara I don't know much about, except that it seems to belong exclusively to Sarvath and her branch of the family.  She's worn it many times since her marriage to Hassan in the late 1960s.  Her daughter, Princess Badiya, also wore it to her wedding in 2005.  I really like the tiara -- but it's sort of turning Sarvath's hair into one of those "press-the-button" hat crowns like this, isn't it?

Another new royal!  The Jordanians were out in force today -- this is Princess Rym, the wife of Prince Ali of Jordan (he's on the right).  Ali is the son of the late King Hussein and his third wife, Alia -- which makes him the brother of our favorite Ascot visitor, Princess Haya, and a half-brother of the current king of Jordan.

Rym's a fascinating lady in her own right, though -- like Princess Letizia, she was a journalist before she married Prince Ali, working for CNN and the BBC.  She's also got degrees from the Sorbonne and Columbia University.  I do love a brainy princess!

And I quite like her tiara here, though I admittedly don't know much about it.  She's been pictured in this same one several times before, but I don't know the provenance of the piece.  Any Jordanian royal watchers reading who can help me out?

Here's a new royal I've been waiting to appear in headwear for years so she could show up on the blog: Queen Rania of Jordan!

... and I have to say, I was kind of disappointed by her first hattery outing, and not just because she was on her cell phone during the balcony appearance.  (Rania's really embraced technology over the past few years -- now, she's not only the queen of Jordan but also the queen of Twitter.  Here's the picture she posted from the balcony, courtesy my Twitter follower @HASchwarting!  Thanks, Heather!)

No, it's the tiara and, even more, the tiara hair that have let me down here.  Messy, messy, messy!  Rania is normally so polished and put together, and here she looks a little like Abdullah made her take a side trip through a tornado before walking to the cathedral.  And you all thought the York girls needed a hairbrush!

The tiara's also one of the smallest pieces in her collection -- this is the Boucheron Bracelet Tiara, made by the same jewelers who made the honeycomb tiara now worn by the Duchess of Cornwall.  It was designed in 2008 as a bracelet that could be converted into a tiara.  And if you thought the necklace tiaras were sparse, this one really is basically just half a diamond headband!

The entire outfit was also a little less than Rania's usual glam.  Click below to see a full picture...

Read the rest of this entry »

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 Prince of Orange and Miss Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti
February 2, 2002

Here's our third crown princely wedding in the run up to Crown Princess Victoria's June nuptials -- less than a month now!  The crown prince of The Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, wed Argentine investment banker Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti in 2002. 

The wedding was not without controversy; Máxima's father, Jorge Zorreguieta Stefanini, was a minister in the administration of Argentine dictator Jorge Videla.  Videla's government carried out what was called a "Dirty War," killing tens of thousands of Argentine citizens, and Zorreguieta's involvement was suspect.  However, the Dutch States-General granted permission for the couple to marry -- but neither of Máxima's parents attended the wedding.

Since their marriage, Máxima's relaxed and friendly personality has become quite popular with the Dutch people.  She and Willem-Alexander have three daughters: Catharina-Amalia, Hereditary Princess of Orange (who will likely one day be queen), Princess Alexia, and Princess Ariane.

Wedding Hatters

Yay, another hattery appearance from Queen Noor!  Of course, she's wearing the same headscarf that she sported at Alex and Máx's wedding, but no matter there.  I still like how this one has a very subtle flower print on it.  Lovely!

I think one of the reasons I like Noor so much is that she's one of our few American-born royals.  Ooh, that would be a good topic for a post over at Royalty with Ella Kay!

It's a new queen for the blog, everybody -- and a new country, too!  The lovely lady standing beside Prince Charles is HM Queen Noor of Jordan, the widow of the late King Hussein, and stepmother of the current king, Abdullah II.  She's one of the few royals in the world who was actually born an American.  Noor changed her name (from Lisa Halaby) and converted from Christianity to Islam before marrying King Hussein in 1978.

Because she is a Muslim woman, Noor frequently wears a headcovering.  I like this one quite a bit -- light, pretty, and romantic for a wedding!

Back in 1995, the lovely Queen Noor was still the queen consort of Jordan; Rania would only take over the title when King Hussein died four years later.  And Noor certainly wore a queenly hat to this wedding, didn't she?  Except I think it's really impeding her vision here.  I'd have a sore neck from leaning back all the time so I could see other people's faces!

(Also, don't you wish Sofia would experiment more with hats?  Sigh.  Me, too.)