The Hereditary Grand Ducal Couple of Luxembourg celebrated five years of marriage on 20 October.
Prince Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg married Belgian-born Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy. Their civil marriage took place on 19 October 2012, and their Roman Catholic wedding ceremony took place the next day at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Luxembourg City. Just a few months before the wedding, Stéphanie’s mother Alix de Lannoy died of a stroke.
The Grand Ducal wedding is estimated to have cost approximately 500,000 euro and was paid with Luxembourgish taxes. Stéphanie’s citizenship was expedited before the wedding, which caused some controversy. She became a naturalized Luxembourger 19 October 2012.
After the civil wedding
By Denis Probst – CC BY-SA 3.0 lu via Wikimedia Commons
The civil ceremony was small and was conducted by the Luxembourg Mayor Xavier Bettel. The religious ceremony was more elaborate. It began shortly after 11:00 a.m. and was officiated by Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Luxembourg. The weather was surprisingly warm that day. Stéphanie was escorted into the Cathedral by her eldest brother, Count Jehan, while Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume arrived at the ceremony with his mother, the Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg. Their wedding rings were made entirely from fair trade gold. After the ceremony, the couple went onto the balcony of the Grand Ducal Palace and exchanged a kiss.
Stéphanie’s wedding dress was designed by Elie Saab. It was an ivory lace gown embroidered with silver filigree, and it had three-quarter length sleeves. She also wore a silk tulle veil thirteen feet long, and she wore the Lannoy family tiara. Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume wore the Luxembourgish military uniform.
The wedding was attended by many foreign royals, such as the Crown Prince of Japan, the Prince and Princess of Liechtenstein, the King and Queen of Norway, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Norway, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia (then Prince and Princess of Asturias) and the Earl and Countess of Wessex.
By Denis Probst – CC BY-SA 3.0 lu via Wikimedia Commons
Lovely couple