Hereditary Princess Abducted

Photo: Liechtensteiner Vaterland / Vaterland.li

Don't worry, not really. Hereditary Princess Sophie is alive and well but the scouts of Mauren-Schaanwald performed a play entitled "On His Serene Highnesses Service" on Saturday and its content is simply too good not to share as the main protagonists are members of the Princely Family, namely Prince Hans Adam II, Hereditary Prince Alois and Hereditary Princess Sophie.

When the Hereditary Princess (played by Aline Kaiser) gets abducted, both her husband (Livio Kaiser) and her father-in-law (Benjamin Matt) are deeply worried and try to figure out who can help them. The police, the US marines and a few others are considered but in the end the job of saving the princess goes to the scouts as "the best of the best are needed". I assume that in the end the Hereditary Princess is saved and the brave scouts knighted or something along those lines. To find out why the play was written, check out Vaterland which has the answer for you. (Spoiler: To show the strong ties between the scouts and the Princely Family.)

In actual news, Prince Hans-Adam II and Princess Marie visited Schellenberg over the weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the existence of the local parish church. More information on who else was there and more visuals are located at Vaterland.

Sources: Vaterland

The Flower Girls and Page Boys

Photo: Guy Wolff / Cour grand-ducale

Prince Félix and Princess Claire chose their nephews Prince Gabriel and birthday boy Prince Noah, sons of Prince Louis and Princess Tessy, as their page boys. Twin sisters Flora and Katarina Frankopan, daughters of Don Peter Frankopan and his wife Jessica (née Sainsbury), served as their flower girls. The party of four was dressed in bespoke outfits by French designer Stephanie Staub of Little Eglantine.

For Gabriel and Noah, Princess Claire chose military jackets over a double breasted shirt with officer's collar and a pair of knickerbockers with a big cummerbund made out of a beautiful white linen-cotton fabric and a pale blue taffeta to make the pipings, the brandebourgs and the covered buttons of the shirt. Half-ball silvery buttons – traditionally used on military uniforms - completed the jackets.

Flora and Katarina wore knee length dresses made of the same white linen-cotton fabric with embellishments of pale blue taffeta piping all along their lovely boat neck. Delicate flounce sleeves completed the look. The buttons, covered with the same pale blue taffeta, matched the little princes' outfits. Each child had their name embroidered inside their garment.

"Creating the bridal party outfits for Miss Claire Lademacher has been a real pleasure; she is so sweet and kind", said Stephanie Staub, the designer who worked closely with Claire for three months on the outfits. "Claire wished for simple children outfits in soft shades." 

"I feel very honored to have had the opportunity of creating the children outfits for the royal wedding", Stephanie said. "I hope that the children enjoyed wearing their garments as much as I enjoyed making them for them."

A very special thank you to designer Stephanie Staub for giving us this information about the lovely outfits of the bridal party. The outfits are some of my personal favourites, if I may say so!

The Cousins at the Wedding Vol. 2

Seeing how continuously popular our last post presenting the cousins at the wedding is -- Nah, I don't blame you, I like looking at them, too! -- we thought we do such a post again with the cousins who attended the wedding of Prince Félix to give you some eye candy to ease into a new week...

Photos: Getty Images

First up are who we like to call the Habsburg cousins, the children of Princess Marie-Astrid and her husband Archduke Carl-Christian of Austria. It seems like their recent wedding boom did some wonders in the degree of familiarity to photographers. From left to right we have Archduchess Marie-Christine and Archduchess Kathleen - accompanied by their respective husbands', Count Rodolphe de Limburg-Stirum and Archduke Imre - reminding us just how wonderful pregnancy glow can be. Also in attendance were Archduke Christoph, his wife Archduchess Adelaide, the last bride of the family, and Princess Marie-Astrid's youngest children, Archduke Alexander and Archduchess Gabriella.

Photos: DDP / Newscom

Meanwhile, we aren't as photographicly blessed with visuals of the children of Prince Jean but we found all of them nonetheless. Prince Constantin, Prince Wenceslas and Prince Carl (as well as his awesome crazy hair that was sadly slicked back a little) of Nassau kindly posed for a picture with their maman, Hélène Vestur. In difference, big sister Princess Marie-Gabrielle made the unfortunate (for us) choice of leaving the church directly behind Pierre Casiraghi and his better half Beatrice Borromeo who soaked up all the photographers' attention so that we are left with only some blurry pictures of her.

Photos: Newscom

Sadly, Marie-Gabrielle's choice was echoed by her hunky cousin Prince Josef of Liechtenstein (who actually walked next to her) so there aren't any good pictures of him rocking some glasses either. (As a side note... Hi there half cut-off Princess Tatiana Galitzine in the blue dress and sunglasses!) Even though they did not walk behind the nephew of the Prince of Monaco, the pictures of Josef's older sisters, Princesses Marie-Astrid in a yellow Maje dress and Maria-Anunciata in some interesting golden number, aren't much better. (Actually, there is a better one of the go bold or go home-sisters right here.) 

Photo: Daylife

In fact, I have decided (My blog, my rules.) that the three Liechtenstein royals are functioning as some kind of double entries as their are both considered to be members of the Luxembourg family through their mother Princess Margaretha and the Liechtenstein family through their father Prince Nikolaus. So that together with Prince Paul-Louis, who was sadly the only of Prince Guillaume and Princess Sibilla's children to attend, we still got to see 21 grandchildren of Grand Duke Jean. (Three missing, three double entries = same number.)

Photo: Getty Images

Well, we did if my assumption was right that you already saw these guys and they are very well familiar to you?! If not -- Welcome to the blog! -- those are Prince Sébastien, Princess Tessy, Prince Louis, Princess Alexandra, Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie and Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume.

Vienna Masters

Photo: Manfred Leitgeb

Back from our little wedding craze to the regular scheduled news... For quite some time now, the LGT Group has sponsored equestrian events as "horse breeding and riding represent a cultural heritage which goes back thousands of years, yet which at the same time is modern" - The Princely Family were avid horsebreeders already in the 17th century when Prince Karl Eusebius founded the Eisgrub (Lednice) stud farm. - and so it is no surprise to see members of the family turn up at those sponsored events.

Just like earlier this month, it was once again time for Princess Marie to hand out a few prinzes at such a sponsored event. For the second year in a row, the Vienna Masters, a international 5-star tournament, and events surrounding it took place in front of the town hall of the Austrian capital and was sponsored by the LGT. The show jumping competition was won by Ben Maher of the United Kingdom on Urico Z who were handed over their trophy by the wife of Prince Constantin.

Source: LGT Group, Reitsportnews

Luxarazzi 101: Diamond Vine Leaves Tiara

Not only did a dream come true for the former Claire Lademacher yesterday when she married her hunky prince in a lovely ceremony in the south of France but also for all of us tiara lovers out there as it meant that we would get more information about one of the most lovely but also most mysterious tiaras in the Grand Ducal Collection. Unfortunately it seems that not even the Grand Ducal Family knows a whole lot about it provenance, however, we are simply going to roll with the information we have.

Princess Alix, Princess Marie-Gabrielle, Princess Elisabeth, Princess Marie-Adelaide, Princess Claire

Often simply described as the bigger one of the two floral tiaras of the Grand Ducal Family, we have come to refer to it as the 'Diamond Leaves and Berries Tiara' for the obvious reason that it features exactly that, diamonds set in a leaf motif with occasional single diamond berries set inbetween.

The cour grand-ducale decided to refer to it as the 'Vine Leaves Tiara' which is totally fine with us as, upon closer inspection, it turns out that the leaves are indeed those of vine. (How fitting as Princess Claire is the future manager of a vine estate!) While all kind of tiaras featuring different variations of leafy motives were made during the centuries, the vine leaf motif is rather uncommon sight which makes this tiara all the more special. The only stone used in this tiara are diamonds which are set in yellow gold and silver in the aforementioned vine leaf motif interspersed with more single diamonds.

Princess Claire, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie

While neither its creator nor the exact time of creation are known, the tiara seems to date to the middle of the 19th century and is owned by the family foundation which means that in difference to those pieces brought into the family by Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte, this sparkler cannot be sold or willed off to children. Parts of the tiara could either be worn as brooches or a necklace in the past though it seems that the tiara has been permanently fixed into its current setting.

Even though the tiara has been in the family for a long time, it didn't get many outings until rather recently. While Grand Duchess Charlotte never wore the tiara, her four daughters, princesses Alix, Marie-Gabrielle, Elisabeth and Marie-Adelaide, wore the tiara on their respective wedding days thus giving it the sobriquet of a wedding tiara. According to the cour, Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte only ever wore the tiara once while her daughter-in-law Grand Duchess Maria Teresa seems to have taken a liking to it as she regularly gets Diamond Vine Leaves Tiara out of the vaults for a spin at events that require some sparkle.

But not only was this tiara as wedding tiara during the 1950's, it also adorned the head of another new Luxembourg princess rather recently. The former Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy either chose or was offered this tiara to wear on the eve of her wedding to Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume as her first ever Grand Ducal tiara - a nice tie in with other brides of the family.

Photos: PPE / Guy Wolff / Cour grand-ducale / Getty Images / AFP Photos

The Guest List So Far ****

After wading and wading through tons of pictures of the wedding of Prince Félix and his now also religiously wedded wife née Claire Lademacher and possibly getting a Pierre Casiraghi overdose, we have come up with a guest list. Sadly, the cour hasn't provided one so it was up to us to spy all the royals and nobles in attendance. (A special thanks goes to those who helped by finding pictures!) Despite our best efforts, we have missed many guests though I daresay that's rather the photographers fault for not snapping pictures of the people in question. Apologies if there are any misidentifications.

It's entirely possible that more pictures will surface in the days to come. Whenever we spy a new guest, we will make sure to update this list. If you find out about the attendance of an previously unmentioned guest, please let us know, it is much appreciated!

Family of the groom

Grand Duke Henri

Grand Duchess Maria Teresa

Prince Louis, Princess Tessy,
HGD Guillaume and HGDss Stéphanie
(Photo: Getty Images)

Grand Duke Jean

Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume

Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie

Prince Louis

Princess Tessy

Prince Gabriel

Prince Noah

Princess Alexandra

Prince Sébastien

Archduke Carl-Christian of Austria

Archduchess Marie-Astrid of Austria, née Princess of Luxembourg

Count Rodolphe of Limburg-Stirum

Countess Marie-Christine of Limburg-Stirum, née Archduchess of Austria

Archduchess Marie-Christine
and Count Rodolphe
(Photo: Getty Images)

Archduke Imre of Austria

Archduchess Kathleen of Austria

Archduke Christoph of Austria

Archduchess Adélaïde of Austria

Archduke Alexander of Austria

Archduchess Gabriella of Austria

Prince Jean of Luxembourg

Countess Diane of Nassau

Princess Marie-Gabrielle of Nassau

Prince Constantin of Nassau

Prince Wenceslas of Nassau

Prince Carl of Nassau

Prince Guillaume and Princess
Sibilla with their son
Prince Paul-Louis
(Photo: Getty Images)

Prince Nikolaus von und zu Liechtenstein

Princess Margaretha von und zu Liechtenstein, née Princess of Luxembourg

Princess Maria-Anunciata von und zu Liechtenstein

Princess Marie-Astrid von und zu Liechtenstein

Prince Josef von und zu Liechtenstein

Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg

Princess Sibilla of Luxembourg

Prince Paul-Louis of Nassau

Antonio Mestre, brother of Grand Duchess Maria Teresa

Cataline Esteve, sister of Grand Duchess Maria Teresa

Katarina Esteve

The Grand Ducal Couple with
Gabriele and Hartmut Lademacher
(Photo: Getty Images)

Victoria Esteve

Natalia Esteve 

Luis Mestre, brother of Grand Duchess Maria Teresa

Nicole Mestre

Luis Mestre

Maike Mestre

Victor Batista, uncle of Grand Duchess Maria Teresa

Family of the bride

Hartmut Lademacher

Gabriele Lademacher

Felix Lademacher

Princess Alexandra
and Felix Lademacher
(Photo: Getty Images)

Volkmar Schneider, brother of Gabriele Lademacher
Neda Schneider

Joachim Schneider, brother of Gabriele Lademacher
Verena Schneider

Eberhard Czempiel
Siegrid Czempiel, sister of Hartmut Lademacher

Cousins of Princess Claire

Witnesses

Patricia Caspar

Peter Cauro

The witnesses (from left to right):
Richard, Alexandra, Sébastien, Felix,
Patricia, Lola, Xavier, Maria, Anna,
Peter, Lola and Lawrence)
(Photo: DDP)

Xavier Cauro

Don Lawrence Doimi de Frankopan

Anna-Maria Pamin

Maria Sanchez

Richard Thistlethwaite

Lola Toscani 

Other guests

Count Riprand von und zu Arco-Zinneberg
Countess Maria-Beatrice von und zu Arco-Zinneberg, née Archduchess of Austria-Este

Countess Anna von und zu Arco-Zinneberg

Archduchess Anna-Gabriele
and grandson Prince Dimitri
(Photo: Getty Images)

Countess Olympia von und zu Arco-Zinneberg

Archduke Rudolf of Austria

Archduchess Hélène of Austria, née de Villenfagne de Vogelsanck

Archduke Carl-Christian of Austria
Archduchess Estelle of Austria

Archduchess Priscilla of Austria

Archduchess Anna-Gabriele of Austria, née Princess of Wrede

Archduke Karl-Peter of Austria

Archduchess Alexandra of Austria, née Princess of Wrede

Archduke Michael of Austria

Archduchess Christiana of Austria, née Princess of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg

Prince Laurent of Belgium

Prince Amedeo of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este

Prince Amedeo and Prince
Joachim of Belgium
(Photo: Getty Images)

Princess Maria-Laura of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria-Este

Prince Joachim of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este

Donna Beatrice Borromeo

Pierre Casiraghi

Duke Rudolf of Croÿ

Duchess Alexandra of Croÿ, née Miloradovich

Don Diego Fernández de Córdova y Cerveró

Éleonore de Potesta

Don Peter Doimi de Frankopan
Donna Jessica Doimi de Frankopan
Katarina Doimi de Frankopan
Flora Doimi de Frankopan

Jean Fruchaud
Tatiana Fruchaud, née Princess Radziwiłł

The Potesta family (Photo: Getty Images)

Prince Piotr Galitzine

Princess Maria-Anna Galitzine, née Archduchess of Austria

Princess Tatiana Galitzine

Princess Alexandra Galitzine

Princess Maria Galitzine

Prince Dimitri Galitzine

Prince Ioann Galitzine

Laurent Mosar, president of the Chamber of Deputies

Prince Philipp von und zu Liechtenstein

Princess Isabelle von und zu Liechtenstein

Prince Wenzeslaus von und zu Liechtenstein

Princess Isabelle and
Prince Wenzeslaus
(Photo: Getty Images)

Prince Rudolf von und zu Liechtenstein
Princess Tılsım von und zu Liechtenstein

Prince Michel de Ligne

Princess Eleonora de Ligne, née Princess de Orléans e Bragança

Princess Alix de Ligne

Prince Henri de Ligne

Prince Peter of Lobkowicz

Princess Anna of Lobkowicz

Luna de Medina y Orléans e Bragança

Prince Charles-Adrien de Mérode

Princess Marguerite de Mérode

Prince Lelio Orsini d'Aragona

The Prince and Princess of Ligne
and their children (Photo: DDP)

Princess Luisa Orsini d'Aragona

Princess Dorothea Orsini d'Aragona

Count Philippe d'Oultremont

Baron Jean-Louis de Potesta

Baroness Sophie de Potesta, née Princess of Hohenberg

Charles-Louis de Potesta

Elisabeth de Potesta

Olivier de Quelen (?)
Hedwig de Quelen, née Princess von und zu Liechtenstein

Nicolò San Martino d’Agliè, Marquess di San Germano
Anna Maria San Martino d' Aglie, Marchesa di San Germano

Raimondo San Martino d’Agliè di San Germano

Maria Alberica San Martino d’Agliè di San Germano

Prince Alexander zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn

Hélène Vestur with her sons Constantin,
Wenceslas and Carl (Photo: DDP)

Princess Gabriela zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, née Countess of Schönborn-Wiesentheid

Princess Alia al-Senussi

Eduardo Verástegui, Mexican actor and friend of the couple

Jaime Hernández
Daniela Verástegui

Hélène Vestur, former wife of Prince Jean

Lord Nicholas Windsor
Lady Nicholas Windsor, née Donna Paola Doimi de Frankopan

The Religious Wedding in Videos ***

Photo: Guy Wolff / Cour grand-ducale

As it was hardly to miss on this blog, Prince Félix and Princess Claire got religiously hitched today. While we could only provide pictures thus far, videos have now become available. This post is going to be updated in the hours and days to come with more moving pictures.

RTL has a report about the wedding from their evening news. In addition, they also offer a montage the most important moments of today as well as an interview with the bridal couple and a little portrait about Prince Félix. They have more during one of their programmes on Monday. (Update: Here you go!)

Wort also has a short video report about the nuptials including videos with curious onlookers.

A longer report by Dutch royalty magazine Blauw Bloed can be found here. It starts in the beginning but if you do not wish to watch the reports inbetween, just skip ahead to 22:00 and 32:18 respectively.

Royalty show Place Royale by Belgian Channel RTL TVI also has a lengthy report about the wedding.

Two short videos of the religious ceremony and Prince Félix and Princess Claire leaving the church are available via Var Matin.

Ch-ch-check this out for the entire wedding ceremony"

Official Wedding Pictures

After the semi-official ones, here are the official official wedding pictures of Prince Félix, Princess Claire and their families. All pictures were taken by Guy Wolff for the Cour grand-ducale, click on them to enlarge.

(Semi-) Official Pictures

Don't ask me whether these are actual official wedding pictures or just screencaps from videos but they were posted by the lovely peeps of Place Royale on their Twitter. As we are happy with everything we get today -- Almost at least, Anunciata, Astrid, Josef and Marie-Gabrielle, where art thou? -- here they are the shots showing Princess Claire's gown in all its glory and also Grand Duke Jean, always nice to see you out and about, Sir!

Photo: Place Royale

Photo: Place Royale

Photo: Place Royale

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.