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.