A year of double Dutch royal wedding fun began in February of 2005, as Princess Margriet of the Netherlands (then-Queen Beatrix's sister) and her husband Pieter van Vollenhoven announced the engagements of their two youngest sons, Prince Pieter-Christiaan and Prince Floris. The family also announced that neither couple would be asking the government for permission to marry, thus placing them out of the line of succession to the throne. (They would be excluded by now anyway - Dutch law limits the line based on degree of relation to the monarch, and they aren't close enough now that their cousin Willem-Alexander is king.) We have previously covered the weddings of the eldest two van Vollenhoven sons (
Prince Bernhard and
Prince Maurits) and between this week and next we'll complete the set.
HH Prince Pieter-Christiaan of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven and Anita van Eijk
August 25 & 27, 2005
Apeldoorn & Noordwijk, Netherlands
First to marry that year was Pieter-Christiaan, who met his fiancée Anita while they were both working in London. They married first in a civil ceremony at Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn, where the bride opted for a patterned outfit from Andrew Gn (Gn works out of Paris but is Singapore-born; Anita lived in Singapore for a time).
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| The couple at their civil wedding, and the coat on the runway |
The three-quarter length jacket tops a matching skirt underneath, all done in silk with a vivid coral print in colors of green, turquoise, and yellow. The sleeves, neckline, and pockets feature stone embellishment. She accessorized with matching shoes, a yellow flower hairpiece at the back of her head, and a coordinating bouquet. The print and the heavy embellishment make for one bold look, despite the classic and demure shape (it's actually one of my least favorite civil wedding looks, to tell you the truth). But any thought that such a loud ensemble would foretell a drastic gown for the religious wedding proved to be quite wrong...
...as the wedding gown proper is completely classic bridal. For the church ceremony, Princess Anita turned to Dutch designer Frans Hoogendoorn. The result is a dress made of cream duchess satin with a boat neck three-quarter sleeve top of lace. A separate train stretches back three meters and is covered by a tulle veil with lace appliqué.
Like other Dutch brides, she wore the diamond Ears of Wheat Tiara on top of her soft updo.
I hate to say it again, but
classic is really the ultimate word here - it's not a particularly unique design, you can draw comparisons between this and many other royal wedding gowns, but it's one that manages to look lovely in all forms. Today, we see this couple at extended Dutch royal family events and they now have two children together, Emma and Pieter.
What do you say: classic or no?
Photos: ANP/AFP/Seeger Press/Het Koninklijk Huis
