Royal weddings (21 photos)

Royal weddings always attract keen interest from the public. The best designers, fashion designers, and chefs take part in creating a royal wedding. Chic gifts, luxurious tables and outfits.

1. Wedding of Prince Rainier III of Monaco and American actress Grace Kelly. The civil ceremony took place on April 18, 1956, and the Catholic mass was held the next day, April 19. The press called this event nothing less than “the wedding of the century.” The bride's dowry was $2 million; it took 6 weeks of work by 35 skilled seamstresses to sew her wedding dress. For the wedding, the entire palace in Monaco was carefully decorated, and more than 20,000 people gathered on the streets of Monaco to wish the royal couple happiness.

2. Marriage of the British Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, February 10, 1840. The ceremony was extremely magnificent and took place in compliance with all traditions, except for one - the bride walked down the aisle not in a snow-white dress, but in a colored dress.

3. Wedding of Prince Edward and American Wallis Simpson, June 3, 1937. Before becoming the prince's wife, Wallis Simpson was married twice. Such a marriage was absolutely unthinkable for King Edward VIII, therefore, in order to be able to marry the woman he loved, Edward had to renounce the British crown and retain only the title of prince, which he had by birthright. This wedding was no longer formally classified as royal, and the ceremony itself was extremely modest. Only 16 guests attended the wedding.

4. Marriage of Princess Elizabeth (who is now Queen Elizabeth II) and Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, November 20, 1947. The bride's wedding dress was created by Norman Hartnell, the official tailor of the British royal court. The newlyweds received more than 2,500 wedding gifts and almost 10,000 congratulatory telegrams from all over the world.

5. Marriage of Queen Elizabeth II's younger sister Princess Margaret to English photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, May 6, 1960. It was this royal wedding that was broadcast on television for the first time in the world. The broadcast attracted about 300 million viewers. As a wedding gift from Scottish nobleman Colin Tennant, Princess Margaret received a plot of land on the Caribbean island of Mystic.

6. The wedding of Princess Anne, the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, and Lieutenant Mark Philips took place on November 14, 1973, just on the birthday of Prince Charles (he turned 25 that day). The ceremony was broadcast on television and attracted approximately 100 million viewers. After being married for 19 years, the couple divorced on April 23, 1992. Queen Elizabeth II called that year her “unlucky year” (annus horribilis).

7. Wedding of King Hussein Ben Talal of Jordan and American Elizabeth Najib Halabi, June 15, 1978. This was the fourth and last marriage of the King of Jordan. The ceremony took place in accordance with Muslim traditions and was surprisingly modest. CNN even described this wedding as the most modest royal wedding ceremony of all time.

8. Wedding of Princess Caroline Grimaldi of Monaco and French banker Philippe Junot, June 28-29, 1978. Just two years after the wedding, the princess accused her husband of infidelity and actually divorced him. The Vatican only annulled the marriage in 1992.

9. Wedding of Prince Charles of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, July 29, 1981. The ceremony took place at St. Paul's Cathedral and was attended by 3,500 guests. The wedding was broadcast on television and was watched by approximately 750 million viewers. The press called this event the “wedding of the century” and the “fairytale wedding.” A magnificent wedding dress with an 8-meter train for the bride was created by British designers David and Elizabeth Emmanuel. The dress was made of silk taffeta, decorated with lace, embroidery, sequins and 10,000 small pearls. This fabulous outfit cost £9,000.

10. Wedding of Queen Elizabeth II's second son Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, July 23, 1986. Prince Andrew served as a helicopter pilot in the Royal Navy, so the designers decorated the 5-meter train of the bride's wedding dress with an anchor.

11. Wedding of Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan and diplomat Masako Owada, June 9, 1993. The prince courted his future wife for five whole years, and he had to propose to her twice before she gave her consent. The wedding ceremony was watched by 800 invited guests and 500 million television viewers. In 2001, the prince and princess had a daughter, Princess Aiko. Due to the inability to give birth to a son, Princess Masako has been suffering from depression for several years.

12. Wedding of Prince Abdullah of Jordan and Palestinian Rani Faisal al-Yassin, June 10, 1993. Six months after the wedding, the prince became King Abdullah II of Jordan, and his wife became the queen. Queen Rania is a very energetic woman, so in 2009 she took 76th place in the list of the 100 most influential women in the world.

13. Marriage of the daughter of the American millionaire Marie-Chantal Miller and the Crown Prince of Greece Pavlos. The ceremony took place in London and was broadcast on television in Greece. The bride's father spent $8 million on the wedding celebration. This wedding was attended by even more crowned heads than the wedding of Prince Charles himself and Lady Diana.

14. Marriage of Queen Elizabeth II's youngest son Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Sophie Rhys-Jones, June 19, 1999. The ceremony took place in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, and unlike the weddings of Prince Edward's siblings, it was quite modest. The pearl necklace that adorned the bride's neck was designed by Prince Edward himself. Since Edward stopped serving in the army back in 1987, he attended the wedding not in a military uniform, but in an ordinary suit.

15. Wedding of Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Mette-Marit, August 25, 2001. Before her wedding to the prince, Mette-Marit was always just a waitress in a cafe in Oslo, and she was also a single mother, and the father of her child was found guilty of a drug crime.

16. Wedding of Prince Felipe of Asturias and journalist Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, May 22, 2004. The ceremony took place at the Cathedral of Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena in Madrid. In the entire history of the cathedral, a royal wedding took place here for the first time. The television broadcast of the ceremony was watched by about 1.5 billion viewers around the world.

17. Wedding of Brunei Crown Prince Al-Muhtadi Bill Bolkiah and Princess Sarah on September 9, 2004. This event was called the "Asian wedding of the century." The celebrations cost $5 million. The bride and groom, dressed in traditional attire and luxurious gold jewelry, sat on golden thrones, and the flowers in the 17-year-old bride's bouquet were made of gold and adorned with diamonds.

18. Wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, April 9, 2005. The ceremony was quite modest, attended by all members of the royal family except Queen Elizabeth II herself and her husband Prince Philip. The romance between Camilla Parker Bowles and Prince Charles, which ended with a wedding, lasted almost 30 years, and is considered the longest in the history of the British royal house.

19. Wedding of Japanese princess Sayako and designer Yoshiki Kuroda, November 15, 2005. As a result of such a misalliance, the bride, in accordance with the requirements of Japanese law, lost her title and took her husband’s surname. However, all members of the imperial family were present at the ceremony. The bride's dowry amounted to 1 million 300 thousand dollars.

20. Marriage of Queen Elizabeth II's eldest grandson Peter Philips and Canadian Autumn Kelly, May 17, 2008. In order for Peter to retain his right to succession to the throne, his bride had to renounce Catholicism and convert to Anglicanism. The newlyweds sold the British magazine Hello! her wedding photos for $700,000, which caused a scandal in royal circles.

21. The wedding of Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton has not yet taken place. So far it is known that the wedding is scheduled for April 29, 2011.