The Religious Ceremony *

Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP Photo

After their civil wedding on Tuesday, it was time for Prince Félix and Princess Claire's religious wedding today. The couple had chosen the Basilique Saint Marie-Madeleine in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume as the place to be and their families and (royal) friends had heard their call and came in multitudes.

We are going to publish a list of all the wedding guests sometime later tonight or tomorrow, depending if we will get new pictures to wade through. I can assure you that all of Prince Félix's maternal and paternal aunts and uncles were in attendance and brought along some of their offspring. Also spotted were Prince Philipp, Princess Isabelle, Prince Rudolf, Princess Tılsım and Prince Wenzeslaus of Liechtenstein.

Photo: Anne-Christine
Poujoulat / AFP Photo

The wedding started at 11am this morning. The guests started to arrive about 45 minutes earlier. Naturally, the immediate family of the bridal couple were the last ones to arrive. While Prince Félix was accompanied by his mother Grand Duchess Maria Teresa on his way into church, Grand Duke Henri walked together with Gabriele Lademacher, Claire's mother. At almost exactly 11am, Claire stepped out of a 2006 Rolls Royce Phantom to reveal her stunning Elie Saab wedding gown. (For details on the dress, her tiara as well as the earrings, have a look at our earlier post.) Her make-up was done by Lisa Eldridge and her hair by Berlin-based hairdresser Shan Rahimkhan who revealed that they had planned for a totally different hairdo until a week before the wedding but upon seeing the dress changed in completely.

Unfortunately, not many details about the wedding itself are not as of yet. We know, however, that the couple said 'I do' at exactly 11:47am. Just like Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie did last year, Prince Félix and Princess Claire chose to do so bilingually. While Guillaume and Stéphanie had opted for Luxembourgish and French, Claire and Felix went with French and German.

The vows went as following...

Félix (in German): "Claire, do you want to be my wife?"

Claire (in French): "Yes, I do. And you Félix, do you want to be my husband?"

Félix (in German): "Yes, I do."

Claire (in French): "Félix, I take you as my husband and give myself to you."

Félix (in German): "Claire, I take you as my wife and give myself to you."

The mass was celebrated by Jean-Claude Hollerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg, Archbishop Nicolas Thévenin, Apostolic Nuncio of Guatemala and Monseigneur Dominique Rey, Bishop of Fréjus-Toulon. One of the songs played during today's service was composed by Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume for the occasion. After the end of the ceremony, Prince Félix and Princess Claire smilingly emerged from the basilica and made their way to the nearby Couvent Royal where a reception was hosted for their guests.

While it isn't known (yet) what designers the other members of the Grand Ducal Family sported, we can say that all the females witnesses wore the same light blue grey dress by Jenny Peckham. And no, I do not think that the dresses were chosen because the Duchess of Cambridge wore the same one a while ago. If it all, I think it has to do with Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg who sported the same design at the Luxembourgish pre-wedding gala last year. 

Or so we all thought... According to a press release by the cour, the dresses of the witnesses, including Princess Alexandra, were by Tadashi Shoji. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa wore a fuchsia Armani number while Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie opted for Stéphanie Le Grelle and Princess Tessy for Calvin Klein as well as a hat by Jane Taylor. The mother of the bride wore Dior and a hat by Fiona Benett. The outfits for the flower girls and page boys were designed by Stephanie Staub.

For more visuals check out the following links! Dutch Photo Press, Getty Images, APA, Daylife, DDP and basically any other photo agency.