http://www.themercury.news.com.au/common/s...55E3462,00.html
Danish newlyweds on wedding roundabout
21may04
NEWLYWEDS Mary and Frederik are set to cut short their honeymoon to attend the weekend wedding of the man who witnessed their first meeting.
Spain's Crown Prince Felipe will marry former TV news presenter Letizia Ortiz tomorrow in a ceremony set to rival last week's nuptials between Tasmania's Mary Donaldson and Denmark's heir to the throne.
Felipe and Frederik are close friends, both sharing the tag of playboy until they met their better halves.
They were drinking together at the Slip Inn during the 2000 Olympics on the night when then Sydney real estate agent and commoner Mary walked in and captured Frederik's heart.
According to those involved in the broadcast of the wedding, Frederik and Mary, who headed to Tanzania at the weekend, will jet in to join hundreds of others from Europe's royal houses and heads of government in Almudena Cathedral.
Two weddings within a week will send princesses scrambling into royal wardrobes searching for a new look and tiara.
Ortiz and Prince Felipe managed to keep quiet their courtship for some time.
Now, the glaring limelight has replaced all that secrecy as Prince Felipe and Ortiz head for the altar in a glittering royal wedding.
The couple met in late 2002 at a dinner party given by a Spanish TV executive who had produced a documentary on the prince. They started dating the following spring, and their engagement was announced in November.
As a journalist, Ortiz has covered everything from a catastrophic oil spill to the aftermath of the Iraq war. But now, the 31-year-old divorcee, whose mother is a union shop steward and whose grandfather drove a cab, is herself the news - and in line to be queen.
And for the 36-year-old prince, who had endured many a failed romance - all with commoners, some reportedly axed by his parents - it's a dream come true to marry the person he wanted, not one imposed on him.
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