Wedding of Albert II of Monaco and Charlene Wittstock

Wedding of Prince Albert II of Monaco and Charlene Wittstock

On 23 June 2010, the Princely Palace issued a statement, announcing the engagement of H.S.H. Prince Albert II and Miss Charlene Lynette Wittstock, his long-term girlfriend, a South African swimmer who represented her country in the 2000 Olympic Games. The engagement ring, by Repossi, has a pear-shaped diamond of approximately three carats along with smaller round diamonds, set in grey gold.

The official website for the royal wedding is available in French and English.

At the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, 19 June 2010, she accompanied Prince Albert to the church and was seated right behind him. As the guests were seated according to strict protocol, Charlene Wittstock, at that time still “just” the girlfriend of the Prince, would not normally have received such treatment, if she even would have been invited. However, the Swedish royals were more than probably “in the know” about the engagement, as they accorded her with all honours a fiancée of a reigning monarch should receive.

The original wedding dates of 8 and 9 July were changed on 2 August 2010 to 2 and 3 July 2011, to allow the couple to visit South Africa so that Prince Albert could take part in the meeting of the International Olympic Committee on 5 to 9 July in Durban. The dates were further adjusted on 26 December 2010 to 1 and 2 July 2011. The civil wedding will take place on Friday 1 July at 5 pm in the throne room at the palace. The officiant will be Philippe Narmino. The religious wedding will take place on Saturday 2 July at 5 pm in the palace courtyard. The official dinner and dance will take place in the Oceanographic Museum.

In January 2011 it was announced that Giorgio Armani would be designing Charlene’s wedding dress.

Be Sociable, Share!

Subscription

Also check out…

The Royal Universe forum

The Royal Universe Twitter Account

The Royal Universe Facebook Page

Today in Royal History

Francis II of France was born on 19 January 1544, 10 years after his parents' wedding. His mother, Catherine de' Medici, had no power at her husband's court, having to defer to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. Henri II died when Francis was only 15, and Catherine finally had the power she craved as regent. Francis, who was married to Mary Queen of Scots, lived for only a year as king, dying in 1560.

Charlotte of Belgium, daughter of Leopold I (Queen Victoria's maternal uncle), married Maximilian of Austria in 1857; he was offered the Mexican throne in 1864, at which Charlotte became Empress Carlota. By 1867 Maximilian had been executed by revolutionary forces and Carlota was having mental problems. She spent the rest of her life in Europe, dying in Belgium on 19 January 1927.

Princess Margriet of The Netherlands, younger sister of Queen Beatrix, was born on 19 January 1943 in Ottawa, Canada, where her parents had lived since the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands in 1940. In order that she should hold Dutch citizenship only, not Canadian citizenship, the Canadian government declared the maternity ward where she was born to be temporarily extraterritorial.