Less than a Month to the Swedish Royal Wedding!

There is less than a month to go until the June 19th nuptials of Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling at the Storkyrkan in Stockholm, and details surrounding the wedding are slowly being revealed.

Both the Crown Princess and her fiancé have celebrated their respective bachelorette and bachelor parties, arranged by their close friends. Daniel celebrated his on May 8th, at the Stallmästaregården restaurant in Haga Park, with a champagne breakfast surrounded by a group of his closest friends. After that, Daniel’s friends had arranged for some time in a recording studio in Stockholm, where Daniel is believed to have recorded a song with Carola Häggkvist. Princess Victoria meanwhile was ‘kidnapped’ from Drottningholm Palace following her brother, Prince Carl Philip,’s birthday dinner on May 13th. She was taken by her friends and sister Madeleine for a boat trip to the Stockholm Archipelago, where the group spent the weekend.

Other information relating specifically to the wedding include:

• Photographs of the newly renovated Storkyrkan were released – see a gallery here.
• On May 13th, the official wedding stamp was released commerically by Posten. The stamp features a picture of the couple from their engagement press conference (right).
• The wedding will cost around 20 million Swedish Kroner. “Ten million we get from the government, and the other ten is [from] the King personally,” the Royal Court’s financial manager, Jan Lindman, told Sydsvenskan. The reception dinner will be one of the largest expenses.
• Swedish singer Carola Häggkvist will perform at the wedding reception, after being personally asked by Victoria and Daniel. “I feel great humility and honour of the honourable mission to sing at the royal wedding,” Häggkvist told Expressen.
• On May 17th, the procession route from the Storkyrkan following the wedding ceremony was printed by Expressen. The procession will be a remarkable two-hours long, and will include a trip on Vasaordern (the royal barge).
• The official commemorative coin for the wedding was revealed on May 18th, following a two-week voting period between three choices. The public can order their coin over the internet, and a picture of the winning coin designed by Joaquin Jimenez, a French coin and medal artist, can be seen here.
• A pre-wedding interview was given by Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling to TV4 – view here. One was also given to SvD, read it here.
• On May 20th, a list of the pre-wedding events was released. A private dinner will be hosted by the King and Queen on May 17th at Drottningholm Palace; on May 18th the Swedish government will host at reception at the Stockholm City Hall, followed by a dinner at Eric Ericson-Hall and a concert at the Stockholm Concert Hall hosted by the Swedish parliament. This is in addition to the series of banns and receptions held in late May-early June for the couple.

There is also much debate about whether Crown Princess Victoria should be escorted down the aisle by her father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, or whether she and Daniel should walk down the aisle together before the ceremony (according to Swedish tradition). The Swedish Archbishop publicly stated that Victoria and Daniel should walk down the aisle together, while the Royal Court’s spokeswoman, Nina Eldh, announced that the decision had been made for the King to escort his daughter down the aisle. This comment was later retracted and replaced by an “a decision has not been made yet” statement.

The thread for pre-wedding information can be found here; the thread for the pre-wedding events here and for the actual wedding here.

Filed under Sweden
Tagged Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Finances, Interview, Prince Daniel of Sweden, Royal Souvenirs, Royal Stamps, Swedish Royal Wedding 2010.

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