Before embarking on their current visit to Germany, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima were in London on Saturday, 4 February with their daughters to attend the wedding of Greek socialite Marianna Goulandris to shipping heir Filippos Lemos. Queen Máxima is close to the bride, Mariana, and has many pieces by the talented jewellery designer who launched her first collection in 2015.
The lavish wedding was held at the Orthodox Cathedral of St Sophia near Hyde Park in west London and saw the gathering of no less than two kings, four queens, six crown princes and princesses and twelve prince and princesses.
In addition to the Dutch royal family, the other royals in attendance included Princess Beatrice of York, Queen Sofia of Spain, Empress Farah of Iran, Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie of Luxembourg and Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine of Yugoslavia.
With the Greek backgrounds of the bride and groom, it was no surprise to see a large number of the Greek royal family, many of whom are London residents. King Constantine II and Queen Anne Marie of Greece were joined by Crown Prince Pavlos and Crown Princess Marie-Chantal and their children, as were Prince and Princess Michael, Princess Maria Olympia, Princess Irene and Princess Tatiana.
Princesses Alexia and Ariane acted as flower girls in the ceremony and other royals in the bridal party included Prince Aristidis of Greece, Prince Salentin of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and Prince Pietro Moncada di Paterno as page boys.
Amalia, Princess of Orange – dressed in a coat previously worn by her mother at a New Year’s reception in 2007 – attended alongside her parents. Queen Máxima was radiant in a pink gown by Elie Saab and keen royal watchers immediately recognised it as the same dress worn by Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden to the baptism of her nephew, Prince Alexander in September 2016.
The wedding followed celebrations in the Maldives and Ibiza, Spain to mark the engagement, which was announced in January 2016.
Don’t tell me Lindsay Lowdown wasn’t there. Ahhhhh, what a bummer.