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

Remember how we just debated whether or not we'd tiaras that our ex-mothers-in-law had given us after a divorce?  Well, Elena's answered that question today by wearing the Marichalar Meander Tiara -- the very one given to her by her former mother-in-law, to the big wedding.  Granted, I don't know that Elena has any other tiaras in her arsenal, and the Spanish ladies wore most of the other family tiaras today -- but the Prussian Diamond Tiara didn't make an appearance, so she could have worn that one.

More puzzling than her decision to wear this particular tiara, though, was the pairing of the tiara with a ... snood?

... okay, then.  Anyway, check out the rest of this crazy outfit by clicking below...

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 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

If any royal woman deserves a holiday this winter, it's surely Infanta Elena, the eldest daughter of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain.  Elena and her husband, Don Jaime de Marichalar, are in the midst of finalizing their divorce after a two-year-long separation.  Hopefully her trip to the Pyrenees with her children and her sister's family helped to take her mind off of all of that business!

Elena's wearing dark colors here, but where she's concerned, they're more likely to be a fashion statement than a reflection of her mood, I think.  Elena is frequently spotted out at Spain's Fashion Week, and her clothes tend to be elegant and chic -- just like an all-black skiing outfit and matching helmet.

It does look like it might be a bit warm, though, doesn't it?

Ohhhhh yeah, hatters: here's some headgear you really only see in Spain!  It's Mantilla Time!

Mantillas were worn by Spanish women on a more regular, everyday basis way back centuries ago, but these days, you really only see them for ceremonial reasons: special religious feasts, mourning wear, weddings, and in true Spanish fashion, even at bullfights.  (See most productions of the opera Carmen for examples of that last one.)  Also, not all mantillas are worn over tall combs like this one -- some lace veils worn over the head and shoulders are also called mantillas.

But Elena's wearing it in its traditional form, over a towering comb called a peineta.  Even though wearing a mantilla is by no means restricted to upper-class women, there's something so regal about it, isn't there?

Here's a tiara that I doubt we'll be seeing again at royal events: the Marichalar Meander Tiara, which was apparently given to Infanta Elena by the family of her ex-husband, Jaime de Marichalar, as an engagement present.  Elena wore this tiara to her wedding, and she used it almost exclusively during her marriage.  It's a lovely tiara -- though it's hard to see that here -- but I can't imagine she'll want to continue wearing it now that they're divorced.

What do all of you think: would you wear jewelry given to you by your ex-spouse's family after a divorce?

I don't know about all of you, but I think this may be the very most flattering outfit/hat combo I've ever seen on Infanta Elena (save those imposing mantillas she rocks every now and again).  The hat might be a bit more dramatic if the brim were a little wider, but overall, quite nice!