We've thoroughly gone over the ladies' outfits from all the wedding festivities, so now it's time to give the gentlemen some attention. Today, a selection (just some, not all) of the men from the religious wedding.
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| Left to Right: Grand Duke Henri, Prince Félix, Prince Sébastien, Prince Louis, Grand Duke Jean, and Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg |
Luxembourg lads to start, then. Henri and the groom (
who we covered earlier) are the only ones in the immediate family in uniform, and both wore the golden orange sash of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau, the highest chivalric order in Luxembourg. (It is shared with the other Nassau branch in the Netherlands, where it is a house order and is not the highest national honor.) But all of these guys were born knights of the order (the miniature lapel pins you spot are from the order), and
we did get to see them in their ribands at the pre-wedding gala dinner.
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| L to R: King Albert, Prince Philippe, and Prince Laurent of Belgium; Prince Lorenz, Archduke of Austria-Este (husband of Princess Astrid of Belgium), and his son Prince Amedeo |
Both King Albert (who is Grand Duke Henri's uncle) and Prince Philippe have the Gold Lion sash, while Laurent has the blue Order of Civil and Military Merit of Adolph of Nassau, which is the order below the Gold Lion. As for Lorenz and Amedeo, the combination of their ties pays tribute to the orange and blue of the House of Nassau (even if it's just a coincidence, it's a handy one!).
For the gala dinner, Lorenz wore the Adolph order. |
| L to R: The Prince of Orange, Prince Henrik and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, King Harald and Crown Prince Haakon of Norway |
Normally,
the rules for orders in foreign countries are as follows: you wear the highest order you've been given of the country you're visiting, and if you have none of those, you wear the highest order you have from your own country. Most of the men followed that, except for Willem-Alexander. He chose to wear the lower of the orders he has from Luxembourg, the Order of the Oak Crown.
The lovely Luxarazzi suggested this could be a special tribute to the relationship between the Netherlands and Luxembourg because the Oak Crown was created by Willem II, who was both King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Makes sense to me! The rest of the men shown here followed the regular rules, with Harald and Henrik in the Gold Lion, and Haakon and Frederik in the Adolph.
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| L to R: Prince Daniel and Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, the Prince of Asturias, King Constantine and Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece |
Handsome Carl Philip and Felipe missed out on the gala fun from the evening before, but made up for in their dashing uniforms on the wedding day (both in the Adolph order). I don't know if it's because of his wife's style influence or just his personal panache, but Pavlos is my personal favorite of the non-uniform men. At the dinner,
Constantine wore the Gold Lion sash,
Daniel wore the Swedish Order of the Seraphim, and
Pavlos wore the Greek Order of the Redeemer.
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| L to R: The Earl of Wessex; Prince Hassan and Prince Rashid of Jordan; the Prince of Liechtenstein; Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan |
Is it just me or is there something a teensy bit sinister about a uniform with black gloves? Look out Sophie, Edward could sprout a handlebar mustache and start twirling it at any moment. Anyway, he's wearing the Order of the Garter since he has no orders from Luxembourg and the uniform of the Rifles (he's Royal Colonel of the 2nd Battalion). I spotted
Prince Hassan wearing the Order of al-Hussein bin Ali the previous evening, and the jolly-looking
Naruhito in the Japanese Order of the Chyrsanthemum.
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| L to R: King Simeon of Bulgaria, the Duke of Parma, the Duke of Braganza, the Prince of Venice and Piedmont, the Prince of Preslav |
Just a few last gentlemen to finish us out. I didn't see the Duke of Parma at the dinner, but here are links for the rest of the gentlemen in various orders:
Simeon,
Duarte Pio,
Emanuele Filiberto, and
Kyril. And as I said, this is just a selection of the royal men in attendance at the wedding.
Do you have a favorite?
Photos: Getty Images/Cour Grand Ducale/Christian Aschman/PPE/Reuters
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