Saturday, October 20, 2012

The Religious Wedding in Detail

The much anticipated day has arrived and it was even better than expected as not only the dream of marrying a prince came true, but also seeing the girl that just became the Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy, had decided to wear the most stunning wedding dress. But let's start at the beginning...

© Cour Grand Ducale / Vic Fischbach
Shortly before 11am this morning, Grand Duke Henri arrived at the Cathedrale de Notre-Dame in Luxembourg City. He was accompanied by Lydia de Schaetzen, the sister of the bride's late mother Countess Alix de Lannoy. Madame de Schaetzen opted for an outift designed by Natan, as many other wedding guests did.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Vic Fischbach
Just a few moments later the Hereditary Grand Duke arrived together with his mother, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa. The Grand Duchess wore a creation by Natan and a hat by Fabienne Delvigne. Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume wore the Grande Tenue, a dark blue uniform from the Maison grand-ducale with the following decorations: the grand cross of the Ordre du Lion d’Or de la Maison de Nassau and the Ordre de la Couronne de chaîne. As soon as they had made their way into the cathedral, the big waiting started...

© Cour Grand Ducale / Vic Fischbach
And then happened what so many of us had hoped for. Countess Stéphanie got out of the car and she wore the most amazing wedding dress, created by no other than Elie Saab, one of her new mother-in-law's favourite designer. (And mine.) The bridal party was dress in the traditional colours of the House of Nassau: Orange and blue. A nice touch. No matter what you think about it, they all look incredibly cute and were very well behaved.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Vic Fischbach
At the entrance of the cathedral Stéphanie, who was walked down the aisle by her oldest brother Count Jehan de Lannoy, was greated by the archbishop of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Hollerich. Her bridesmaids, Princess Alexandra and Antonia Hamilton, a niece of Stéphanie, were also dressed by Natan. Not the most flattering cuts I must add.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Vic Fischbach
And then Countess Stéphanie made her much anticipated way down the aisle. The demure but stylish ivory dress and train, using the finest of lace and silver thread with its three-quarter length sleeves in lace and veil in silk tulle and a 4.5 metre train, was certainly fitting for a future Grand Duchess.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Guy Wolff
The dress itself was the result of 3,200 hours of embroidery work by 15 people and 700 hours by ten seamstresses. Among the fabrics used, the dress was made from 50 metres of Chantilly lace, 40 metres of Calais lace, 30 metres or satin organza, 70 metres of tulle and silk crepe for the lining and 15 metres of silk tulle for the veil. It was decorated with 200 pieces of transparent glitter, 80.000 transparent crystals, 50.000 beads and 10.000 metres of silver embroidery thread.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Vic Fischbach
She anchored her veil with the tradtional Lannoy family tiara, that had already adorned her sisters and sister-in-laws on their wedding days.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Vic Fischbach
Stéphanie walking down the aisle led by her oldest brother. I am sure that you can spot many familiar faces among the guests.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Raoul Somers
Her soon to be husband, the Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume, smilingly awaited his bride at the altar.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Guy Wolff
But before Stéphanie actually greeted Guillaume, she walked over to her father, who got up from his wheelchair to give his daughter his blessing. A wonderful moment as he proudly gave the hand of his youngest daughter to the Hereditary Grand Duke.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Guy Wolff
The Grand Ducal Family was seated to the left of the couple. Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa were in the first row. Prince Sebastien, Princess Tessy, Prince Louis, Prince Felix and Princess Alexandra were seated in the second row. Behind them were the groom's paternal aunts and uncles: Princess Margaretha and her husband Prince Nikolaus of Liechtenstein, Princess Marie-Astrid and her husband Archduke Carl-Christian of Austria, Prince Guillaume and Princess Sibilla as well as Prince Jean and his wife Diane. Grand Duke Jean was seated to the right of the group together with Queen Fabiola of Belgium and The Dowager Princess of Ligne, who is his sister Alix.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Vic Fischbach
On the other side the Count de Lannoy and his family was seated. In the first row next to the Count are his sons Jehan and Christian as well as his daughters Nathalie and Gaelle. In the second row from left to right bridemaid Antonia Hamilton, Count Amaury, Count Olivier, Isabelle de le Court (Stepahnie's sister) and Lydia de Schaetzen.In the third row you can found Countess Luisa (wife of Christian), John Hamilton, Countess Alice (wife of Olivier) and Jean-Charles de le Court.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Vic Fischbach
The mass started with a minute of silence for the late Countess Alix de Lannoy. In honour of her mother Stéphanie also wore her engagement ring in addition to her own.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Vic Fischbach
The reading was given by Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume's godson Prince Paul-Louis, who is the son of Grand Duke Henri's brother Guillaume.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Vic Fischbach

After a few more songs and speechs by the archbishop, we finally arrived at the most important point of the day: the wedding vows. At the beginning of the service I noticed that Stéphanie was very nervous and would barely smile or look at her husband, thankfully that changed after they actually said "I do"

© Cour Grand Ducale / Vic Fischbach
In fact they didn't say "I do" but they read the wedding vows to each other, something I found to be much more personal than just answering the priest question.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Raoul Somers
Afterwards, intercessions were read by Prince Louis in Luxembourgish, Count Amaury de Lannoy in French, Princess Louise zu Stolberg-Stolberg in German, the Duchess of Braganza in Portuguese, Countess Alice de Lannoy (née van Havre) in Dutch and Prince Félix in English.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Vic Fischbach
After the wedding ceremony an actual Catholic mass was celebrated. At the end, the Nuncio to Luxembourg read a message by Pope Benedict XVI and after rougly one and a half hours, the whole thing was over. To the cheers of the wedding guests, the Hereditary Grand Duke and his new wife the Hereditary Grand Duchess left the cathedral.

© Cour Grand Ducale / Vic Fischbach

3 comments:

  1. A very moving ceremony. May I ask why there was a reading in Portuguese? Is there a link between Luxembourg and Portugal?
    BTW - I was eating my breakfast ( I am in North America) off a Villeroy & Boch Vieux Luxembourg plate while watching. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Persons of Portuguese ancestry are the largest immigrant group and significant portion of the population of Luxembourg. Guillaume also has many lines of Portuguese royal ancestry. Grand Duchess Marie-Anne his great great grand mother was a daughter of King Miguel of Portugal. His great grandfather Prince Felix' mother was another daughter of King Miguel and Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte's grand mother was yet another daughter of King Miguel.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for that explanation. How fitting that recent immigrants share a heritage with the Grand Ducal family.

    ReplyDelete