Royal watchers rejoiced when the news of Princess Iman’s engagement broke on July 7, 2022. Not only is it another royal wedding to look forward to, but there hasn’t been such a celebration in Jordan since 2004.
With nearly 20 years since the last big royal wedding in Jordan, fans might not be familiar with the potential locations for Princess Iman’s big day.
Zahran Palace, where her parents, King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, married back in 1993, is a likely venue for the Princess’s wedding. The palace, built in 1957, also played host to the King’s parents’ wedding; King Hussein and his first wife, Antoinette Gardiner (who changed her name to Princess Muna al-Hussein), wed at the palace in 1961.
The palace, which features an entrance flanked by two imposing columns, served as a royal residence for the late Queen Zein al-Sharafuntil 1994 and today hosts official royal functions.
Other possible locations include Al Baraka Palace in Amman, where the then Crown Prince Hamzah of Jordan wed Princess Noor bint Asem in 2003, or Amman’s Raghdan Palace, where the now-divorced couple held a celebration the next year.
Since then, we haven’t seen a big Jordanian royal wedding; when Queen Noor and King Hussein’s daughter, Princess Raiyah Bint Al Hussein, married British journalist Ned Donovan in 2020, her small, socially distanced ceremony took place in England.
“Thank you all for your kind messages on our wedding! While it was originally planned for April in Jordan, the pandemic derailed those plans, and it was safer for my husband’s family to hold it in the UK,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “God willing we look forward to celebrating in Jordan once the situation allows.”
Whether Princess Iman chooses to follow in her parents’ footsteps at Zahran Palace or choose a completely different location, one thing royal fans can count on is a wedding to remember.
