Beyond Prince Charles and Diana: Scenes from Europe’s Other Royal Weddings

Prince Albert's complicated personal life is a tabloid editor's dream: he fathered one child with California barmaid, and another with a flight attendant from Togo. His $70 million wedding to Charlene Wittstock, a former Olympic swimmer from South Africa, proved just as juicy. Despite repeated denials from the prince, ... newspapers reported that Wittstock had attempted to flee the country days before her nuptials but had been stopped by police. Whether that's true or not, she put on a brave face on July 1 and left her wedding as a princess.

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In November 2010, after an eight-year courtship that endured constant speculation, relentless pursuit by paparazzi, a high-profile breakup and an even higher-profile reconciliation, Prince William finally popped the question to commoner Kate. Their April 29 wedding became the largest security event ever staged in Britain, ... turned Kate into a global fashion icon and inspired a plethora of tacky royal wedding souvenirs. Long live the Queen!

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The eldest daughter of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, Victoria married her former personal trainer Daniel Westling in a blockbuster royal wedding in June 2010. The Swedish media frequently credit Daniel with helping the princess overcome her prolonged struggle with anorexia.

Prince Nikolaos—whose aunt is the Queen of Denmark—married Tatiana in August 2010. Born in Venezuela and raised in Switzerland, she graduated from Georgetown University in 2003 and went on to work as an event planner for Diane von Furstenberg. This photo shows the two leaving in a horse drawn carriage after their wedding ... ceremony on the island of Spetses.

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Born in France and raised in Switzerland, Marie studied international business at Babson College in Massachusetts. Known for taking her Bichon Frise (named Apple) to work and on holidays, she was spotted vacationing with Joachim in August 2005, shortly after he divorced the Countess of Frederiksborg. Among the guests at their ... 2008 wedding were his two sons from his previous marriage.

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Born and raised in Tasmania, Mary Donaldson moved to Melbourne after finishing university to pursue a career in advertising. In 2000, while visiting Sydney during the Summer Olympics, she bumped into Frederik at a pub. The two carried on a long-distance relationship for a year before she moved to Paris to work as an English ... tutor. He proposed in 2003.

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Prince Felipe announced his engagement to Letizia Oritz, an award-winning journalist who once worked for the now defunct CNN Plus network in Spain, in 2003. Despite the fact she was a divorcee, the public embraced her for embodying notions of modern womanhood. More than 25 million Spaniards watched their wedding. In this photo, ... she poses alongside her husband, his mother Queen Sofia, and a niece and nephew after their wedding.

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In 2001, Crown Prince Haakon proposed to commoner Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby. A number of Norwegians disapproved, as Mette-Marit was a single mother who had been involved in Oslo’s rave scene, and the father of her child had previously been arrested on drug charges. But after the couple gave a heartfelt press conference ahead ... of their wedding, the public got over it—and the prince married the woman he loved. Her son Marius, four years old at the time of her wedding, does not hold any royal titles.



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Prince Willem-Alexander, Holland's heir apparent, met Maxima at a fair in Sevilla, Spain in 1999. Maxima, an Argentinian, was working as an investment banker in New York City at the time. Their 2002 wedding caused a stir in the Netherlands after it emerged that Maxima's father had served as a cabinet minister under former ... Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla. Given public reaction to that revelation, her parents chose not to attend the wedding.

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Edward, the Queen's youngest son, met Sophie, the daughter of a tire salesman and a secretary, at a charity event in 1993. Rather than throwing a lavish wedding like his brothers Charles (who wed at St. Paul's Cathedral) and Andrew (who wed at Westminster Abbey), Edward married Sophie in the more intimate St. George's Chapel at ... Windsor Castle. In this photo, the newlyweds ride through Windsor following the ceremony.

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Sibilla—a distant relative of both Brooke Shields and Queen Victoria of England—married the Oxford-educated prince in 1994 at a lavish ceremony held at the Palace of Versailles in France. They're fifth cousins.