Prince Constantijn to Marry Laurentien Brinkhorst: December 17, 2000

[Julia]

Photos from Corbis

They are a cute couple, no?

 

[Josefine]

are there no more photos from this Engagement?
i would love to see more

 

[Alexandria]

Are there actual pictures from the engagement announcement with Queen Beatrix, Prince Claus, Prince Constantijn, Laurentien and the Brinkhorst parents in attendance?

The pictures in this thread are great but they were taken to comemorate the engagement itself.

When did the engagement take place?

 

[Maxie]

The engagement took place on december the 17th 2000.
I'm doing some research on the two, since their marriage took place exactly 5 years ago today (the civil wedding that is). And boy oh boy, I finally managed to find some pictures of the engagment by peter smulders. (I found more, but I can't trace their sources).






There's more coming on Laurentien and Constantijn today, you can be sure of that...

 

[mirrjam]

exactly 6 years ago do you meant to say Maxie?
Laurentien sure looks better today, than at her egagement..

 

[Maxie]

exactly 6 years ago do you meant to say Maxie?
Laurentien sure looks better today, than at her egagement..

No, the engagement was in 2000, the wedding on may 17th 2001, just as I stated in my message.

 

[Her_Majesty]

Laurentien looks soo much better now!
She changed alot!

Thanks for the pictures! Lovely to see how happy all were! The couple and also the parents. ^^

 

[crisiñaki]

wow, she changed a lot
thankfully because her brows there looked awful, now she looks much nicer

 

[Emily]

Does anyone know background on Constantine and Laurentien as a couple? Did they date for a long time? The queen seems especially warm toward Laurentien in both the engagement and the wedding photos. That made me wonder if the Queen was very familiar with her...

 

[Maxie]

From what I remember they were already dating way back, in the nineties. I just can't find any reliable information on it at the moment. Maybe others can help you out on this one?


Here are some more pics of the engagement, I found some on ANP:

 

[PreDoc]

Thank you for the engagement photos ... they were once so thin and attractive. Great thread

 

[seto]

Thank you for the engagement photos ... they were once so thin and attractive. Great thread

I don't find them unattractive now.

 

[Maxie]

I don't find them unattractive now.

Me neither. I actually think Laurentien looks better with her current hairdo. More modern, less severe...

 

[Henri M.]

Does anyone know background on Constantine and Laurentien as a couple? Did they date for a long time? The queen seems especially warm toward Laurentien in both the engagement and the wedding photos. That made me wonder if the Queen was very familiar with her...

Queen (Princess) Beatrix, her late spouse Prince Claus and their three sons have known the Brinkhorst family all their life long.

Princess Laurentien's father, Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst, has served Queen Juliana and Queen Beatrix for more than 40 years as minister, state secretary, ambassador and vice-premier. He resigned one month ago.

Princess Laurentien's mother, Jantien Brinkhorst Heringa, was one of the ladies to share Princess Beatrix' house in Leyden, when she studied at University. Since that was the first (and last) time the Princess escaped from the royal cage, she made friends for life.

Prince Constantijn and his brothers already played as toddlers with Laurentien and her brother Marius in the park of Drakensteyn. Not many could guess, back then in 1971 or so, that Laurentien would once marry Prince Constantijn....

Laurens-Jan (father) and Jantien (mother) = Laurentien

 

[Marengo]

Wasn´t her real name ´Petra´, and she changed it when she was in her teens.

 

[Maxie]

Wasn´t her real name ´Petra´, and she changed it when she was in her teens.

Yes, that's true, but I always thought that her second name was Laurentien and she chose her second name to use as her first name.

 

[Marengo]

I think you are right Maxie, and thank goodness she did, a Princess Petra would even be worse then a Princess Anita (though still better then a possible ´Princess Chelsey´)

 

[Lindy]

I think you are right Maxie, and thank goodness she did, a Princess Petra would even be worse then a Princess Anita (though still better then a possible ´Princess Chelsey´)

I have read that "Anita" is a working class name in the Netherlands, but what is wrong with "Petra?"

 

[Marengo]

to me it sounds like working class girl ´avant la lettre´, so working-class girl of my grandmothers generation. Not that there is anything wrong with being working-class, but the combination of Petra and Princess just doesn´t sound right. But maybe I am to sensitive about it, when I hear the name ´Mabel´ I still think of the cockney kitchenmaid of ´You rang, milord?´, which doesn´t combine well with ´Princess´ either.

 

[Maxie]

I think you are right Maxie, and thank goodness she did, a Princess Petra would even be worse then a Princess Anita (though still better then a possible ´Princess Chelsey´)

Well, with a best friend who's called Petra and a sister who's called Anita I couldn't disagree more.

No, but serious, I'm totally with you. I prefer classical royal names too and I really like Laurentien, it has a special touch to it. I definitely think Mabel is not a princess-like name either, but that might as well have something to do with my dislike of Mabel. So I'm not totally objective when it comes to that.

And what about naming your child Luana? Oh well, let's not get into that. That's a whole new thread, I guess...

 

[princess olga]

You know what I find even weirder than the names? The fact Constantijn and Laurentien have known each other for their lifetimes, played with each other as kids. How can you fall in love with someone as an adult if you have been hanging out with that person all your life and treated them as if they were, say, first cousins? How can you fall for the kids of your parents' friends anyway?! There's something so, well, obedient in that, so submissive, so meek. There's also something slightly creepy in that concept, I think.
That said, I don't know their entire story, so there may be an explanation for this. Also, Laurentien is my second favorite Oranje royal (first one's name starts with a B, of course!)

 

[JessRulz]

Short video of the engagement press conference, from the Princes of Orange: Engagements & Weddings DVD:
YouTube - Engagement of Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands & Laurentien Brinkhorst