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FeaturesLuxembourg

Royal Wedding Rewind: Prince Felix and Princess Claire

Seven years ago, on 17 September, Prince Felix of Luxembourg, (then 29), the third son of Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, married Claire Lademacher, (then 28), in the bride’s hometown of Frankfurt, Germany.

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Several days later, on 21 September, the two had their religious wedding in the Provençal town of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume in the Basilique of Sainte Marie-Madeleine. The wedding took place in the presence of many royals, the couple’s parents and Felix’s four siblings: Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and his wife, Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie, who had married only a year earlier in Luxembourg; Prince Louis and his wife, Princess Tessy; Princess Alexandra, and Prince Sébastien. After the religious ceremony, Princess Alexandra, dressed in a sky-blue Jenny Packham dress, walked with Claire’s brother, Felix, who also wore a sky-blue tie. The groom himself sported a blue tie, while his mother was dressed in a fuchsia coat with matching hat and shoes.

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If, for the civil ceremony, the beautiful dark-haired bride chose to wear a surprisingly modern white peplum dress with aquamarine drop earrings, for the religious wedding, she was dressed in a very ornate Elie Saab gown that accentuated her slim waist, and her head was covered with an equally busy veil embroidered with flowers. The tiara too had diamond-encrusted leaves and flowers, and she wore pearl-drop earrings. She was led into the church by her father, Hartmut Lademacher, and was accompanied by two white-dressed page boys and two bridesmaids with garlands in their hair.

Mr Lademacher, a multi-millionaire, who made his fortune by investing in the software industry, took his family to Atlanta when Claire was 11. The family returned to Germany in 1999, and a little later, Claire enrolled in the Collège Alpin International Beau Soleil in Switzerland, where she met Felix. After receiving a master’s degree in bioethics at the Pontifical Atheneum Regina Apostolorum and after working for the UNESCO Chair of Bioethics and Human Rights, Claire continued her research at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.

The newlyweds left on their honeymoon after the wedding, the destination being, according to family tradition, kept secret from the bride.

The couple, who has two children, Princess Amalia and Prince Liam, moved to Frankfurt in August 2018.

About author

Alta Ifland is a Romanian-born American writer based in Northern California. She is the author of two collections of prose poems (Voix de Glace/Voice of Ice -- Louis Guillaume Prize -- & The Snail’s Song) and two books of short stories (Elegy for a Fabulous World & Death-in-a-Box -- Subito Press Fiction Prize). She has a forthcoming novel, The Wife Who Wasn’t, and is currently working on a novel inspired by the life of Queen Marie of Romania. www.altaifland.com