Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands & Máxima Zorreguieta: Feb 2, 2002


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Just seeing all of this for the first time...thanks so much for the video clips!

I *LOVE* seeing this kisses on the balcony and how they REALLY kissed. Not just a quick smooch, but a KISS (or two or three!). Lovely, lovely...all of it.
 
Maxima looked regal and elegant; her dress suited her perfectly.
 
They Look Great Both Really amazing Couple CP William Alexander & Princess Maxima " Happy Anniversary Happy 10th " :flowers:
 
This has to be one of the most touching, romantic royal weddings in modern times- the love just pours from the Crown Princely Couple!
 
cuckoo said:
I found some HQ pictures of their wedding, enjoy it!
from:Princess Maxima & Prince Willem-Alexander's Wedding: A Look Back (PHOTOS)

http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/12489/slide_12489_166914_huge.jpg
http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/12489/slide_12489_166926_huge.jpg
http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/12489/slide_12489_166927_huge.jpg
http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/12489/slide_12489_166903_huge.jpg
http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/12489/slide_12489_166894_huge.jpg

still some more...
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Thanks for the photos. Maxima made the beautiful bride.

IloveCP said:
Here's a replica:

http://www.billedbladet.dk/Kongelig...er/Billeder/Kongelige/2009/BRUDEKJOLER/4.ashx

I hate this one!The sleeves are see through and it makes it look cheap.
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This has got to be one of the worst replica's I have ever seen!

IloveCP said:
The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor: Wedding Wednesday: Willem-Alexander and Máxima's Wedding Guests

My best dressed was Caroline.The worst dressed was Mette Marit.Way too casual! My other favorites were,Madeleine,Beatrix, and Marilene.Victoria was way boring in that brown outfit.And the worst hat goes to Astrid.Other bad outfits were,Maria Theresa,Marie Chantal,QMII,Sonja,Margriet,Martha Louise,Cristina,Laurentien and Pincess Christina.

All in all,this was a very boring event for fashion.
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I agree, my best dressed was Caroline. I also thought Victoria's outfit was boring.

Reinosa said:
This is my first post here. I want to thank you all. I really enjoy sharing this forum.

Just about "Adiós Nonino": Astor Piazzolla wrote this tango the night his father died. He was abroad in a tour, he cried when he knew and, being the great musician he was, wrote the music. Nonino was his father's nickname. The music has two parts, one faster and an adagio. It is said that the adagio represents the crying for the father's absence.
Piazzolla is one of the favourite composers of Maxima's father. And "Adios Nonino" is about a father's absence. It's easy to understand why she, and everybody around the world, was so moved.

The tango was composed with no lyrics, as most of the Piazzolla music. There were one or two versions with lyrics, but not very satisfying IMO. It's better to listen to the music alone because it expresses everything without words.

I hope you understand my English and thanks again for your kindness.
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Adios Nonino was amazing. That was one of the best and most emotional parts of the wedding.

sgl said:
This was one of my favorite royal weddings! I think that Maxima was so beautiful on her wedding day.
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gamali said:
In my opinion, the most beautiful of all recent royal weddings. She looked wonderful; her dress was so beautiful as was her hairdo, the tiara, the few jewels she wore. She looked perfect, the ceremony was very emotional, very elegant, the music, their gestures, there was absolutely love in the air!! when she listened to the tunes of the Argentinian tango, she cried as so did the rest of the guests. An unforgettable event!!!
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I agree, this was one of the best royal weddings I have ever seen! Maxima's gown was definitely the perfect gown for a future queen.
 
Maxima is by far my favorite royal bride! She looked like a dream! What a dress! I have yet to see anything like it!
 
Henri M. said:
When a bridal couple enters the church in the Netherlands (and Belgium, and Luxembourg, and France, and Germany, and Italy, etc.) they already are husband and wife.

In most European countries the only legal binding wedding is the one before the municipal registrar. The religious wedding has no any relevance for the law. The bride going down to the aisle and 'given away' by the father is really an anglosaxon phenomenon.

Many European ladies even find it insulting because they are adult, independent and well-educated ladies who have made the choice of their heart for their partner. The father has nothing to do in that. They do not need his permission and for sure not to be 'given away'.

But it is romantic and sometimes you see a father 'giving away' his daughter in church in the Netherlands, which is really nonsense because they already are married.

The most used custom is:

the groom arrives with a special car at the bride's parental home

the brides' parents greet the groom and he asks to see their daughter

the bride walks out of her parental home, the whole street gasps an applauds

the bride and groom together go to the municipal hall

they go to the church (if they want a church wedding)

they go to the reception

:flowers:
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Henri M., This is very interesting information about when the bride and groom enters the church in The Netherlands.
Thank you for explaining about the most used custom.
​
 
Has someone the guestlist? I can not open Most of the photos:( she was a wonderful bride
 
Crown Prince Willem-Alexander & Máxima Zorreguieta: 2-2-2002

CyrilVladisla said:


Henri M., This is very interesting information about when the bride and groom enters the church in The Netherlands.
Thank you for explaining about the most used custom.
​
Click to expand...

My babysitter when I was growing up was of Dutch origin; my parents went to her and all three of her siblings' weddings. Their family lived out in the country, and all four receptions were at the local community centre just up the road, after the ceremony at their Christian Reformed church. The bride is escorted down the aisle by her father, and at the reception after a sit-down dinner; instead of dancing they do skits, and everything is over by 10 p.m. The Dutch also don't serve alcohol at their weddings. We still get a Christmas card from them (the parents) every year; they have something like 13 grandchildren! (I'll have to ask my mom for the exact number, but it's somewhere around there.) When my babysitter got married, she married a man who already had two boys from his previous marriage, and they had 3 or 4 children together.
 
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With the Dutch tradition of two different ceremonies, how did they handle the guest list? Was everyone invited to both ceremonies? Or was one ceremony family/close friends and the other open to the entire guest list?
 
sarahedwards2 said:
The bride is escorted down the aisle by her father, and at the reception after a sit-down dinner; instead of dancing they do skits, and everything is over by 10 p.m. The Dutch also don't serve alcohol at their weddings.
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Please understand that while this maybe true for various dutch families, it certainly isn't the case in general.
Most weddings i know of contain loads of dancing and ditto alcohol :lol:
 
Kaatje said:
With the Dutch tradition of two different ceremonies, how did they handle the guest list? Was everyone invited to both ceremonies? Or was one ceremony family/close friends and the other open to the entire guest list?
Click to expand...


By far most Dutch weddings are civil only, without a religious service. When there is a religious service indeed, by far the most couples have these directly after the civil ceremony. When there are two separate ceremonies, then usually the civil one is en petite famille and the other one is the big one ith all guests. Think at the wedding of Charles and Camilla: the most close circle in the Windor Guildhall, the grand service with all guests later in the St George's Chapel.

When the Prince of Orange married at the civil wedding, the only foreign royal was Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, his godmother. The religious service after the wedding saw all royal guests from all over the world assembled in the Nieuwe Kerk. The civil ceremony was in the presence of all authorities, because that is the one which counts. The religious service was more family, royals and friends because that one has no legal binding in the Netherlands.

The civil ceremony: http://en.academic.ru/pictures/enwiki/66/Beurs_van_Berlage_Koninklijk_Huwelijk.jpg

The wedding service: http://theworldofroyals.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/6/9/13692193/1407528914.jpg

:flowers:
 
The Dukes of Bragança were invited to this wedding?
 
wow! 15 years ago - how time flies...

and look at them now! king and queen, joyous in their roles, having built a lovely family and working on educating the new generation on the strong ethics they represent.
 
Just watched the civil ceremony (I always thought I have watched it before but actually I have not!):

Laugh when I saw the staff transform the table for W-A & Maxima to sign the document :lol: So thoughtful for Maxima!
It's like Constantijn and Maxima's two brothers (I guess?) are teasing their sibling while they come to sign the document, yes that's exactly how the siblings treat each other ?
 
MsLeonie said:
Since I've been locked down for the past three months, I've been watching a lot of TV, mostly cable. Yesterday, I was watching YouTube and I found a video of Willem and Maxima's wedding day. Of course, since I live in the U.S., there was next to nothing about it at the time. Anyway, I was confused about the ceremonies (there appeared to be two or three).

When the film began, the Queen, her husband and what I took to be Maxima's family were walking out of a building and got into cars. Then, Willem and Maxima walked out together and got into a car. The narration was in Dutch so I understood nothing. I thought the wedding had ended and they were off to where ever. But, the cars went to what looked like an office building. When the bride and groom arrived inside the building, the people there clapped and cheered. Then there were words and signing of papers. THEN, everybody got into cars again and went to a church. That's where I saw the heads of state and other royalty enter, along with the tiny bridal attendants. Then there was a VERY LONG wedding ceremony where the bride and groom walked down the aisle together.

My question: What were the previous ceremonies and is this normal for all of this to take place on the same day? The entire thing lasted over three hours. That's long and I can imagine everyone would be exhausted. Prince Claus(?? the Queen's husband??) did not look the picture of health so this must have been really hard for him.

Don't mean to be a dummy but truly I've never seen a wedding like this. It was interesting to watch, like all royal weddings, but "different." If someone could explain, please. Thanks.
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As in all Dutch weddings that opt for a blessing ceremony in church, they had a civil wedding and a 'religious wedding' (formally, the only wedding that has any legal status is the civil wedding). And yes, it is common to do both on the same day - although some spread it out over two days (back to back or within the same week). The civil wedding is always first and typically attended by only the closest family members and friends (as you witnessed here as well) and the 'church wedding' is the one that is attended by a larger group of people (anyone you would want to invite for your wedding).

It is against the law to have a religious wedding ceremony if you are not legally married; so, you have to have a civil wedding before you can proceed to the religious ceremony (because of the separation between state and church I assume - so the church cannot take the civil role of marrying people). The religious ceremony is a blessing ceremony (even though vows are exchanged) and has no legal effect. There are several other countries (most Continental & Scandinavian European countries it seems) that also require a civil marriage before a religious ceremony can take place; it seems an Anglo-Saxon tradition to combine the two.

The first part is where they left the Royal Palace of Amsterdam (Het Paleis op de Dam) - which was the first time the public saw the bridal couple. They probably stayed their overnight (as the wedding was in Amsterdam not in The Hague where both of them lived) and at least where they changed into their wedding attire. The balcony ceremony at the end of the day was also at the Royal Palace. So, it's comparable to other royal weddings where the ride to the wedding/marriage ceremony is broadcast.

I guess the 'Beurs van Berlage' (where the civil wedding to place) won't be too happy about your characterization of it being an 'office building' ;)
 
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The bride and groom on the balcony of the Royal Palace.
 
Somebody said:
As in all Dutch weddings that opt for a blessing ceremony in church, they had a civil wedding and a 'religious wedding' (formally, the only wedding that has any legal status is the civil wedding). And yes, it is common to do both on the same day - although some spread it out over two days (back to back or within the same week). The civil wedding is always first and typically attended by only the closest family members and friends (as you witnessed here as well) and the 'church wedding' is the one that is attended by a larger group of people (anyone you would want to invite for your wedding).

It is against the law to have a religious wedding ceremony if you are not legally married; so, you have to have a civil wedding before you can proceed to the religious ceremony (because of the separation between state and church I assume - so the church cannot take the civil role of marrying people). The religious ceremony is a blessing ceremony (even though vows are exchanged) and has no legal effect. There are several other countries (most Continental & Scandinavian European countries it seems) that also require a civil marriage before a religious ceremony can take place; it seems an Anglo-Saxon tradition to combine the two.

The first part is where they left the Palace - which was the first time the public saw the bridal couple. They probably stayed their overnight (as the wedding was in Amsterdam not in The Hague where both of them lived) and at least where they changed into their wedding attire.
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Thanks tons for the info. Is it only the Dutch who do this because I've been watching a lot of royal wedding ceremonies these past couple of months and I've never seen one like theirs, with the civil on the same day and then a two hour wedding ceremony. It just sounds exhausting. I was tired just watching.

At the beginning of the video, Maxima and Willem were walking out of the building together and walked down both aisles together. Very strange to me. In the U.S. we don't do the "civil" thing. However, I've read/seen/heard about civil ceremonies but they all seemed to happen the day or week (or even months) before the wedding ceremony. I had never seen it done on the same day. Poor Maxima had to get in and out of the cars (and a coach at the end) so often with that enormous dress. Thankfully, her four attendants did a stellar job in helping. Just seemed unnecessary to me.

I can't send you a link to the YouTube show I was watching because (1) I have no clue how to do that; and (2) it wasn't on my computer YouTube but on my TV via ROKU so that would be a problem.

Again, thanks for taking the time to explain it all to me. If this lockdown continues, I will have watched just about every royal wedding ceremony there ever was.
 
MsLeonie said:
Thanks tons for the info. Is it only the Dutch who do this because I've been watching a lot of royal wedding ceremonies these past couple of months and I've never seen one like theirs, with the civil on the same day and then a two hour wedding ceremony. It just sounds exhausting. I was tired just watching.

At the beginning of the video, Maxima and Willem were walking out of the building together and walked down both aisles together. Very strange to me. In the U.S. we don't do the "civil" thing. However, I've read/seen/heard about civil ceremonies but they all seemed to happen the day or week (or even months) before the wedding ceremony. I had never seen it done on the same day. Poor Maxima had to get in and out of the cars (and a coach at the end) so often with that enormous dress. Thankfully, her four attendants did a stellar job in helping. Just seemed unnecessary to me.

I can't send you a link to the YouTube show I was watching because (1) I have no clue how to do that; and (2) it wasn't on my computer YouTube but on my TV via ROKU so that would be a problem.

Again, thanks for taking the time to explain it all to me. If this lockdown continues, I will have watched just about every royal wedding ceremony there ever was.
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I most likely found the coverage that you watched; and can confirm they indeed left the Royal Palace.

And as I said; it's the common thing to do in the Netherlands. Most weddings I've attended, the civil ceremony is during the day; after that there is several hours of 'down time' with the smaller group that attended the civil ceremony - the church ceremony could very well be in the evening (7 pm or so), so people can attend more easily and may even work during the day. Another Dutch royal wedding in which they had both ceremonies back to back was the one between prince Friso and Mabel Wisse Smit. Three of the Van Vollenhoven cousins and their brides; and brother prince Constantijn & Laurentien Brinkhorst had their church wedding two days after the civil wedding. Prince Maurits and Marilene van den Broek had it on back-to-back days.

In the circumstances in which Máxima's father was not allowed to attend the wedding, it made a lot of sense for Willem-Alexander and Máxima to walk down the aisle together. Moreover, it is not uncommon in Netherlands, although many have started to pick up the Anglo-Saxon tradition of having the father 'give away' the bride. In Sweden, it caused a little uproar when Victoria asked her father to do so, so they had Daniel wait for her mid-way. In my personal opinion, it is rather weird to have the father to walk the bride down the aisle in the church (which seems more common than at the civil ceremony) if the couple already married a few hours earlier.
 
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In the protestant church it is -or at least was- normal for the bride and groom to arrive together. The father handing over the daughter to the husband was used in the catholic church.

Under the influence of American television and films more and more brides now want to be 'given away' by the father. Even in civil weddings or in orthodox protestant churches this habit slowly has creeped in.

I am not sure if any of the main Dutch royals married in the catholic way. Beatrix, Friso, Constantijn, Margriet and Juliana all walked down the aisle with their future spouse.

I can not remember all the Van Vollenhoven weddings but Hans van den Broek did walk his -catholic- daughter Marilène to the altar. The protestant Annemarie Gualtérie van Weezel was escorted to the altar by her protestant father while marrying her catholic husband prince Carlos.

For the daughters of the King I would not be surprised if they will go with the catholic tradition or chose a compromise as in Sweden.

As for the length of the religious ceremony: this is absolutely normal for a Dutch reformed service. I suppose a proper mass will even take longer. I am always surprised with the great speed the Scandinavian royal church services have.
 
Marengo said:
In the protestant church it is -or at least was- normal for the bride and groom to arrive together. The father handing over the daughter to the husband was used in the catholic church.

I am not sure if any of the main Dutch royals married in the catholic way. Beatrix, Friso, Constantijn, Margriet and Juliana all walked down the aisle with their future spouse.

I can not remember all the Van Vollenhoven weddings but Hans van den Broek did walk his -catholic- daughter Marilène to the altar. The protestant Annemarie Gualtérie van Weezel was escorted to the altar by her protestant father while marrying her catholic husband prince Carlos.
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I looked up the wedding of Floris and Aimée: they walked in together (the religious wedding starts at 2 min).see here

But two months earlier Anita was walked down by her father when she married Floris' brother Pieter-Christiaan:
see here

As was Annette when she married prince Bernhard (around 3 min):
see video

And as Marengo already said; Constantijn and Laurentien walked in together.
see this video

And yes, I fully agree that the custom was to walk in together (at least for the protestants; haven't been to Catholic weddings in the Netherlands - only abroad). I never really considered asking my father to walk me down the aisle; my brother and his bride didn't do that either but my (younger) sister did. My take on the difference between protestants and Catholics is the difference in perception of the religious wedding; while for the Catholic church it is considered a sacrament and a marriage isn't really acknowledged when it wasn't followed by the church ceremony (for example, for the Roman Catholic church is was not a problem for Letizia to marry Felipe as her first marriage was only a civil one); while the protestant churches see the civil wedding as the moment the marriage takes place and the religious wedding as the blessing of that union (the word 'huwelijksinzegening' ('blessing in' of the marriage) is used instead of 'huwelijkszegening' (blessing of the marriage); however, a marriage is just as valid whether they had the church ceremony or not.
 
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Marengo said:
In the protestant church it is -or at least was- normal for the bride and groom to arrive together. The father handing over the daughter to the husband was used in the catholic church.

Under the influence of American television and films more and more brides now want to be 'given away' by the father. Even in civil weddings or in orthodox protestant churches this habit slowly has creeped in.

I am not sure if any of the main Dutch royals married in the catholic way. Beatrix, Friso, Constantijn, Margriet and Juliana all walked down the aisle with their future spouse.

I can not remember all the Van Vollenhoven weddings but Hans van den Broek did walk his -catholic- daughter Marilène to the altar. The protestant Annemarie Gualtérie van Weezel was escorted to the altar by her protestant father while marrying her catholic husband prince Carlos.

For the daughters of the King I would not be surprised if they will go with the catholic tradition or chose a compromise as in Sweden.

As for the length of the religious ceremony: this is absolutely normal for a Dutch reformed service. I suppose a proper mass will even take longer. I am always surprised with the great speed the Scandinavian royal church services have.
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Thank you for this information. I am a 75 year old American and a Baptist and I had never seen the bride and groom walk down the aisle together in any religious ceremony. Since I began life well before we had a TV, I don't see how brides could have been influenced by it. As I had mentioned before, I've been watching a lot of weddings while in lockdown on YouTube, including the weddings of the Queen Mother and Princess Marina back in the 20s and 30s, Grace Kelly to Rainier in the 50s and Felipe and Letitia, along with both sisters. I had never seen a Dutch wedding before Saturday. It was interesting, very, very long but interesting. Also, didn't the King of Sweden walk Victoria down the aisle, as well as the other daughter.

I appreciate the differences from one culture to the other so, again, thanks for the information. I just thought it looked "strange" to see a bride and groom walking DOWN the aisle without the father being involved. And the "giving away" is a very old part of the marriage ceremony. It didn't just happen because of television. I'm going to search for some more royal weddings that are not British and just enjoy them. And you're right, that Dutch wedding was very long. I was amazed that everyone still looked happy at the end. And they still had photos to be taken!!
 
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