Prince Willem-Alexander's 40th Birthday Celebrations: August 31-September 2, 2007


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Wow! Mette Marit looks amazing!!!! Love the dress :flowers: Victoria's dress has a nice style. ;) And little Alexia is getting cuter and cuter! She'll definitely be the beauty of the family :wub:
 
Fireworks / Princess Laurentien's gel hairdo

Fireworks on Het Loo note that in the park thousands of waxine candles have been placed, for an example alongside the waterbassins and that torches were enlit (in the back, near the colonnades). Exactly like in the days of William III and Mary II !

Princess Laurentien loves to experiment with her hairdo. Tonight she had a lot of wetgel. Earlier she once appeared on a Banquet, dazzling bejewelled with a 200 years old Orange-Nassau diamond diademe, also with her hair 'treated' with gel: see picture.
 
All the women looked exceptional tonight, except for Queen Beatrix (what was that?) and Sophie Wessex. The grand prize goes to Letizia with a close second to Maxima and Mathilde. I absolutely love Maxima's new jewelry.:ROFLMAO:
 
I think all look really great except for a select few, mainly the Queen and Sophie. In my opinion the best dressed would have to be Maxima, she looked amazing. I also thought MM looked nice, she was actaully the first one that caught my eye in the group pic. Beautiful color on Mathilde! And Victoria had a nice dress as well. I think Letizia's dress was lovely(flowing) but it would have looked better perhaps in a different color. Another poster said something to the effect that Letizia was a little lost in the dress, I agree with that.

I couldn't help but stare at this pic after another poster had mentioned that Victoria looks so small next to MM and Haakon. It's a mystery to me, why she looks so small next to them. I've seen other pics of her standing by them and she doesn't appear so small. It's weird.

[DNF] Fotoarchief Denieuwsfoto
 
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Thanks for the pictures everyone! Máxima looked absolutely fantastic! Love the colour, style, cut, jewels (who could forget 'em? :D) - 10/10 for the hostess! And the three girls were just simply adorable :wub: And thanks for the video Vicky, I've downloaded it! :flowers:

I'll be back later to give my opinions on the gowns, once I give them all a look
 
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Thanks for that video! Poor Amalia she had an carriage accident almost!
 
All the women looked exceptional tonight, except for Queen Beatrix (what was that?) and Sophie Wessex. The grand prize goes to Letizia with a close second to Maxima and Mathilde. I absolutely love Maxima's new jewelry.:ROFLMAO:
I'm quiet sharing your opinion but in fact the first prize...of Horror is the countess of Wessex; is her sympathetic husband not very interested by how his wife has to be dress??? and the very close second one... to Queen Beatrix, very bad choice.

At the opposite and at the same level for diffrent reasons the hostess the Princess Maxima totally radiant and lightening with her superb fushia gown and estupendous tuttifrutti neklace and the princess of Asturias absolutly handsome with her somptous tanned skin very well put in value by the silverwhiteness of her gown, few jewelles but estupendous ones: the earrings... and at her arm the most handsome accessoire of this dinner, the prince of Asturias in tuxedo. This couple is incredibly glamourous!:wub:
 
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Princess Letizia was really beautiful, so glamoruos, definetly, less is more.
 
I don't have any problems with it. It must be refreshing for the royal guests to be together in such an unknown privacy. And people seem to forget that in 1975 Het Loo Palace has been given a museal destination but that the Royal House can always use the palace when requested. That is written in black-on-white in the 'gebruiksovereenkomst' (contract of use) Rijksmuseum Paleis Het Loo has made with the State.

And so the royal family has made use of this right for weddings, baptisms, royal visits, parties.
And you think that's fair? Again, I'm glad not to be paying taxes for this family. Don't get me wrong I've come to love Alexander's common sense and vision when it comes to matters like water policy and other duties, but all teh same, stuff like this, on top of all the privileges this non elected dude (that's really what he is, folks, face it) already enjoys, I can't help but think: Freeloaders! Just when he was growing on me!

Because fair is fair: who's paying for this 'private' party?
 
I really liked how Letizia (even if her earrings look like baccarat lamps), Cristina, Mette-Marit and Máxima were dressed and their general looks (makeup, hairdo, etc)

Mathilde's dress isn't the best choice for her, but that woman could wear a medieval armour and still look femenine and elegant, she has IT, so I can forgive her almost everything:lol:

Queen Beatrix is now in a head to head competition with Queen Margrethe for the most "creative" (funky, freaky, weird) outfit amongst Sovereigns:rolleyes::cool:

Men: Iñaki looked his usual handsome self, as well as Haakon; W-A isn't handsome, but he has something, a kind of masculinity (starting with that voice:wub:) that's quite appealing

Anyone from the Greek Royal Family? I haven't seen anybody from that gang:ermm:
 
Ahhh, come on “unknown privacy”, that´s way too pathetic. I´m pretty sure many RF can/do host parties on their palace grounds in complete privacy - they just don´t announce it and don´t rely on “public” resources.
And an as “private as possible setting” would be hosting the party at Eikenhorst or renting a complete hotel or something like this. If privacy is so sacred I wonder why they didn´t chose this option.

Exactly my thoughts. Nothing against holding this party at Apeldoorn's het Loo, but my goodness, if it's that private, put up a tent behind 'de Horsten' already or Drakensteyn. Not on property OWNED BY THE DUTCH PUBLIC. As much as I admire Beatrix and her son for a number of things, this isn't among them. There is an arrogance there that is just really annoying. and the Dutch are annoying for allowing these folks to just walk all over them. {edited for political comment-Empress}
 
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Exactly my thoughts. Nothing against holding this party at Apeldoorn's het Loo, but my goodness, if it's that private, put up a tent behind 'de Horsten' already or Drakensteyn. Not on property OWNED BY THE DUTCH PUBLIC..

I have to disagree. this isnt just any government property, its a palace that until very recently was occupied by members of the royal family and is closely tied up with dutch national and royal history.

I love the idea that Het Loo isnt just a sterile museum now, it's still serving its historical function. It's being used to celebrate royal events such as baptisms and birthday parties parties attended by future kings and queens. I think events like this add to Het Loo's lustre and are very appropriate.
 
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I love the Princely family, I really love the way they included their girls instead of leaving them with a nanny like most of the royal families would have, the girls looked so cute and I loved Amalia's purse and the way she was looking in it for something. She seems to have a wonderful personality.
Alexia has really gotten cute, Ariane looks alot it W-A. Thanks everyone for posting pictures.
 
How great to see so many of the royals get together for this occasion. The family looks wonderful. I thought Maxima looked stunning; her dress and necklace were as vibrant as her personality! I also think that Princess Annette looked lovely.
 
Fred is sailing a pre-World championship regatta.

Ok folks, tell me something already: is Fred a professional Sailor or is he a CP whose job it is to represent his country and schmooze with other CPs from time to time? I thought so too. :ermm:

And Rosario...can someone tell me why this woman never, ever manages a smile, not even in paparazzi pics? Oh wait, I forgot, she was a <model>. Models don't smile, now do they. ;):rolleyes:

And to counter my vitriol here a bit..loved Maxima's look, as it made her shine. Alexander looked handsome I thought. I also liked that on the video, you can clearly see that Maxima's mother is singing along with the DUTch? lyrics, that's kinda cute. And did anyone else spot the gorgeous half-sis of Maxima's in the crowd? Believe she was wearing a black dress.
 
I have to disagree. this isnt just any government property, its a palace that until very recently was occupied by members of the royal family and is closely tied up with dutch national and royal history.

I love the idea that Het Loo isnt just a sterile museum now, it's still serving its historical function. It's being used to celebrate royal events such as baptisms and birthday parties parties attended by future kings and queens. I think events like this add to Het Loo's lustre and are very appropriate.

Fair point, I can see the relevance of it.

You're saying that after all, he's CP and by inviting all these colleagues, even if he calls them 'friends', he's doing his duty of sorts. That's true. Still, I got a bit miffed by this family's ever present disdain for the taxpayer, i.e. the Groene Draek's bill etc. as it recently was revealed.

They do often want their cake and then some but in this case you're right, the guy's just doing his job, fair enough.
 
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I think that she looks wonderful. She's had three children, and she still manages to look beautiful. I am happy that she isn't a stick figure. I am sick and tired of that being the role model for women. 100 years ago having curves was a good thing.

Nobody criticized her for having curves or a hip. The only thing I said was that the dress emphasizes her hip too much and makes it look bigger. There are ways to dress and flatter curves. This dress isn't it.
 
Lately, when I've viewed recent photo's of Sophie of Wessex, I find her looking quite drab.

Bad choice in outfits, boring hair, use of makeup not particularly flattering. She can look so good when she wants to which is probably why I become puzzled with her at times.

Loved her earrings though (the ones more notably worn with the aquamarine and diamond tiara I believe).
 
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Ok folks, tell me something already: is Fred a professional Sailor or is he a CP whose job it is to represent his country and schmooze with other CPs from time to time? I thought so too. :ermm:

And Rosario...can someone tell me why this woman never, ever manages a smile, not even in paparazzi pics? Oh wait, I forgot, she was a <model>. Models don't smile, now do they. ;):rolleyes:

And to counter my vitriol here a bit..loved Maxima's look, as it made her shine. Alexander looked handsome I thought. I also liked that on the video, you can clearly see that Maxima's mother is singing along with the DUTch? lyrics, that's kinda cute. And did anyone else spot the gorgeous half-sis of Maxima's in the crowd? Believe she was wearing a black dress.

Actually CP Frederik turned up a few hours later (after 22.00) and was not on the pic.
He had all the time to schmooze with other CPs.
The guestlist was apparently not complete
 
dress

dress emphasizes her hip too much
I think it's actually supposed to do just that?! It even looks padded in places. I loved the dress. Only very few women can pull of wearing that color and dress-cut. I wonder who designed it. And the necklace was just stunning. That one will have cost someone a lot of money ;)

(as for de Groene Draeck - not that it has any relevance here - it's been paid for by the state for over 40 years; the same with the former Piet Hein schip of Juul, so it's a bit odd to see certain media try to bring it as something new. Typical komkommernews imho)

I also loved Mathilde's dress and that of Mette-Marit.

As for Frederik: why couldn't he just have come in time and with Mary (why was she not there?)? Sorry, but like the other poster said: he's not a sailor. If it had been an official event he attended, I would have understood.
 
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Many thanks, Crisiñaki for the somptuous pics that you have the generosity to make us share. Exceptionally could you give us a big pic.... of the Crwn Princes of Spain, the Princes of Asturias.
Yes, they were very discret, but some of their shots are a good representation of the spirit of this gala dinner: first of all a private dinner with royals of the same generation and of the same RANK!

Many thanks in advance.
 
Felipe and Letizia
ANP Beeldbank

Best dressed were crown princesses Letizia and Maxima. I didn´t like the dress of Queen Beatrix at all, I was also disappointed about Sophie´s dress. Crown princess Mathilde is always lovely, as is Crown princess Victoria, although the colour of her dress was a little bit boring.
 
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