Prince Juan Carlos of Spain & Princess Sofia of Greece 1962


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I agree with you, Marengo. Personally, I prefer Sofia's gown to Grace's... although clearly it's not half as famous. I think it's also due to the fact that we don't have many good-quality photos of this wedding, where one could see the details of the dress... How I'd love to have high resolution photos! :D

But from this video posted by crisiñaki and from a couple of pics posted above, we can see the beautiful cut of it and the delicate efect of the lace:
http://s2.supload.com/image.php?get=noviosatenas.jpg
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=47899
 
rchainho said:
You knew that before marry Juan Carlos, queen Sofia was to be married to Harald of the Norway by a dowry of 25 million of french? The original dowry to be paid were 50 million of french. When Juan Carlos married with Sofia, her family received from him the amount of 20 million of pesetas.
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Do you have any sort of reference for this information?

Saturn said:
According to the book Françoise Laot wrote, on one hand, Sophia was deeply in love with CP Harald of Norway, and her mother Queen Frederika and King Olav were delighted with the couple. The greek parliament had even approved of a dowry for Sophia... but suddenly in Norway CP Harald had a car crash, but he wasn't alone in the car, he was accompanyed by the plebeian Sonja Haraldsen...
When Sophia knew Harald was once again with Sonja... she was completely disappointed and decided to broke off the engagement.

On the other hand, Prince Juan Carlos was in love with Princess Maria Gabriela of Italy, but General Franco wanted a princess whose father was a reigning king, not a king in exile, essencially in order to reinforce the new monarchy.
After all that, Queen Frederica and Queen Victoria-Eugenia (grandmother of Prince Juan Carlos) arranged a marriage, soon after the couple met in London, (both queens were well known to be expert matchmakers).
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Could you provide me with the book's title?
 
Some pictures of the guests for the pre-wedding ball of Sofia and Juan-Carlos. The pictures were originally scanned by Laurent "la familia de la reina Sofia" from Ricardo Mateos Sainz de Medrano. He posted them on the Glittering Royal Events MB.

Lord Mountbatten flanked by Infantas Maria Cristina and Beatriz

Olga of Yougoslavia and Marina of Greece, on the background Princess Katherine of Greece and the Princess of Hohenlohe-Langeburg, behind them Princess Eugenie, Princess Margaretha of Parma and the Prince of Torre e Tasso.

Queen Juliana of The Netherlands and King Olav V of Norway

King Paul I and the Countess of Barcelona, behind them Queen Frederika and the COunt of Barcelona

Queen Ingrid of Denmark and Queen Ena

Queen Frederika and the Count of Barcelona

Prince Juan-Carlos and Princess Sofia,

Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands and Queen Elena of Roumania, behind them the King and Queen of Italy.

Prince Reinier and Princess Gracia of Monaco, behind them Jean and Josephine-Charlotte of Luxembourg

Princess Sybilla of Sweden and Princess Andrew of Greece (mother of the Duke of Edinburgh)
 
Oh thanks so much Marengo. :flowers: I especially like the picture Of Princess Grace.
 
Marengo said:
Some pictures of the guests for the pre-wedding ball of Sofia and Juan-Carlos. The pictures were originally scanned by Laurent "la familia de la reina Sofia" from Ricardo Mateos Sainz de Medrano. He posted them on the Glittering Royal Events MB.

Queen Ingrid of Denmark and Queen Ena
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WOW! Queen Ingrid wears one of the prettiest dresses I have ever seen!

:flowers:
 
This is one of the Royal Weddings I will remember the most (even nif I wasn't born, yet! :lol: ), for Queen Sofía and King Juan Carlos are one of my favorite Royal couples. They looked really regal the day of the ceremony. :flowers:

Vanesa.
 
Sophus said:
WOW! Queen Ingrid wears one of the prettiest dresses I have ever seen!

:flowers:
Click to expand...


ITA! Princess Grace's dress was beautiful, too.
 
Thanks for the pictures Marengo! I had seen them on GREMB, but not as enlarged. Sofia was truly a beautiful bride and the other royal bride that I think was most beautiful was Sofia's sister-in-law, Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark.:flowers:
 
Elsa M. said:


The King and Queen of Greece (and particularly Quuen Federica, the main organizer of the wedding) wished their daughter to owe a throne in the Mediterranean Europe, so to fortify the role of their country, but also the new monarchy.
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you're implying there was an element of arrangedness in this union, correct? That's how I always saw it too. That they liked each other, that she in particular loved him, but that there was an overwhelming element of convenience about this arrangement.
 
princess olga said:
you're implying there was an element of arrangedness in this union, correct?
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Well, it wasn't me who actually implied it, but Fernando Rayon (the author of the book I mentioned above) ;)
 
princess olga said:
you're implying there was an element of arrangedness in this union, correct? That's how I always saw it too. That they liked each other, that she in particular loved him, but that there was an overwhelming element of convenience about this arrangement.
Click to expand...
I believe most of the royal marriages before were arranged.
 
I didn't know that their wedding was Greek Orthodox. When did she become Catholic?
 
acdc1 said:
I didn't know that their wedding was Greek Orthodox.
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When Don Juan Carlos and Doña Sofía decided to get married, Greece was officially an orthodox State, and this constituted a seemingly unsalvable obstacle for a Catholic wedding. Given the difficulties, Don Juan and Don Juan Carlos went to the Vatican, for an audience with Pope John XXIII, who ended up authorizing a double liturgic ceremony. So, the wedding was actually made of two parts: one observing the Orthodox and another one by the Catholic rites.

The nuptial ceremony itself was celebrated by the Catholic archbishop, but the Catholic Church had to compromise, by authorizing a previous orthodox celebration, which included all the liturgic elements, except the questions of marriage acceptance.

Sofía became Catholic when she got married, but she did it by conviction rather than just because she was marrying a Catholic Prince... nevertheless, this was a very important issue for the Spanish royal family, especially because all the Spanish kings, since the Godos, have been Catholic.

In order to become Catholic, she received a few "lessons" from the archbishop, Benedicto Printesi.
 
Can any one tell me who were the grooms men at this wedding?

Thank you
 
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OMG...I didn't realize that Princess Alexandra of Kent was a bridesmaid! Who else was in the bridal party?
 
Zonk said:
OMG...I didn't realize that Princess Alexandra of Kent was a bridesmaid! Who else was in the bridal party?
Click to expand...

I believe Princess Irene of The Netherlands was part of it too. Quite interesting when one realises that she later married a rival claimant to the Spanish throne.
 
Does anyone know if the Dowager Queen was forbidden from attending the wedding? it would have been lovely to see Victoria Eugenie there.
 
Nevermind. I just saw the photo. It's breathtaking how so many of Queen Victoria's granddaughters retained there beauty and regal carriage to the end of their days.
 
Saturn said:
According to the book Françoise Laot wrote, on one hand, Sophia was deeply in love with CP Harald of Norway, and her mother Queen Frederika and King Olav were delighted with the couple. The greek parliament had even approved of a dowry for Sophia... but suddenly in Norway CP Harald had a car crash, but he wasn't alone in the car, he was accompanyed by the plebeian Sonja Haraldsen...
When Sophia knew Harald was once again with Sonja... she was completely disappointed and decided to broke off the engagement.
Click to expand...

That sounds like something that would happen in a movie or a book! How did Sophia find out - was it in the newspapers or something? Were they injured in the accident?
 
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