Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Crown Princess Victoria got married

Yesterday there was a lot of hooplah in Sweden, because our Crown Princess Victoria got married.



Her husband, formerly Daniel Westling, now Daniel, prince of the house of Bernadotte of Sweden, is a gym owner born in the small Swedish town of Ockelbo. He met his future wife when she needed to build her strength after recovering from anorexia nervosa:



This wreck of a woman is Victoria in 1998. Fortunately, she recovered from her anorexia rather quickly. Now 33, she looks very healthy.

Eight years ago, when she was well but not very strong, she came to Daniel's gym, because it had been recommended to her. The rest is history. This is what CNN reported from their wedding:

The Crown Princess\' wedding

Here in Sweden, we have of course been regaled with all kinds of stories even remotely related to Victoria and Daniel. I think my favorite is the one where Daniel first brought Victoria home to meet his parents in their home in little Ockelbo. Daniel had told his parents that he was seeing someone, but he hadn't told them who it was. In Sweden it is all but impossible not to know of or not to to recognize the Crown Princess, so you can imagine what it must have felt like to Daniel's parents when Sweden's future head of state and favorite paparazzi target stepped into their kitchen hand in hand with their son. Victoria has also alluded to that first meeting, describing it as an encounter where Daniel's parents just smiled and said, 'Hello, Victoria! Welcome!'

Ann

The anorexia photo is rather frightening. I'm glad that Victoria made it through as so many anorexia victims do not. That's a bad disease.

Can't help giving you another wedding tidbit.

You've got to listen to parts of Daniel's speech to Victoria. It is partly in English and partly in Swedish. But please listen to the episode he tells that begins at 1.18 into this Youtube clip. It's so romantic!

Daniel\'s speech to Victoria

And here are some cute pictures of them dancing together:

The dance and dinner after the wedding

Ann

Ann -

I had meant to be watching for info more closely for research for my own fake European country/wedding for an OF I'm working on. Sick kiddos meant I forgot .

Thanks for reminding me. She looks gorgeous and healthy. They look very happy and in love - always nice to see .

If you happen across any other sites with lots of pics and/or English , would you link? I'm sure I'll be googling around later but am going to be busy with another sick kiddo for a bit...

Thanks

Well, Sweden's most prestigious daily, Dagens Nyheter, has 225 pictures here . Not all of them are very good or a lot of fun, but even so, enjoy!

I have been unable to find a video of the actual wedding ceremony, but I'll try to describe it. First Daniel walked to the altar, accompanied by Victoria's brother, Prince Carl Philip. Then Victoria was led to the altar by her father, King Carl XVI Gustaf. (The fact that Victoria would be led to the altar by her father was sharply criticized by several media in Sweden. The idea of the father leading his daughter to the altar is considered an un-Swedish tradition, because in our country the bride and the groom have always walked to the altar together. Also the idea of the father "giving away" his daughter to the groom is regarded as a highly sexist tradition. As you might imagine, I don't like it myself. Clearly, however, Victoria wanted it. Her parents have long disapproved of Daniel, the gym owner and commoner, which is why Daniel and Victoria had to wait so long to get married. By having her father "give her away" to Daniel, Victoria wanted to show everyone that now she and Daniel had her father's blessing.)

After King Carl Gustaf had "handed over" Victoria to Daniel (yeech, I say) the two of them walked to the altar, where four bishops awaited them. One of them was the Archbishop of the Lutheran Church of Sweden, Anders Wejryd, one was the bishop of the episcopate of southern Sweden, a woman, Antje Jackelén, and then there were two other bishops as well. There was some singing of hymns and possibly a prayer (I don't remember), and I think Antje Jackelén spoke about the divinity of love and what it means to love somebody. Then one of the bishops talked to Victoria and Daniel. He said:

"Do you, Daniel Olof Westling, take this Victoria Ingrid Alice Desirée to be your lawful wedded wife, to be faithful to her and to love her in good times and in bad times, until death do you part?"

Daniel said yes. Indeed, he said "Yes.". Unfortunately, the beautiful English "I do" isn't used in Swedish, because we don't have your do-construction. If we tried to say something like "I do", we would have to say "Yes, I do that", which obviously doesn't sound good.

By the way, Daniel sounded very good when he said yes! His voice was strong and warm.

Then the bishop asked Victoria the same question: "Do you, Victoria Ingrid Alice Desirée, take this Daniel Olof Westling to be your lawful wedded husband, to be faithful to him and to love him in good times and in bad times, until death do you part?" And Victoria said yes, of course.

Then the couple said their vows. You know, "I, Daniel Olof Westling, take you, Victoria Ingrid Alice Desirée, to be my lawful wedded wife, to be faithful to you and to love you in good times and in bad times, until death do us part." And Victoria said the same thing to Daniel. One of the bishops blessed the rings, and Daniel put his ring on Victoria's finger and Victoria put her ring on Daniel's finger. (The rings had first been handed over to the bishop by one of the little bridesmaids.)

I should perhaps add that both Daniel and Victoria cried a little during the ceremony! They had waited for such a long time. Perhaps they had thought that they would never be allowed to marry one another. Two of Victoria's old male relatives lost their royal titles because they married commoners - admittedly this happened about eighty years ago, but still. Another male relative of hers lived in a stable but unacknowledged relationship all his life. The woman he loved was a commoner, so he couldn't marry her and they could never give their relationship away by having children. In order to keep his royal title this prince had to pretend to be single all his life.

Ann

The father of the bride giving away his daughter is very English/American tradition. Remember Earl Spencer giving away Diana. We don't think of it as turning over "possession" like the daughter is property, but a sign of approval of the marriage as you indicated, Ann. Victoria went to Brown University in America, so she probably saw it a lot there.
From what I read before, Daniel only new Swedish and the court muck-de-mucks despaired of him every being suitable for Victoria. Saying part of his vows in English probably was to show them he had learned other languages.
They had the coverage on morning TV here today. It all looked very beautiful.
Thanks for the pictures.
In the current issue of Majesty Magazine, there is an article about an earlier marriage of a German princess to the King of Sweden in 1774. If you go to this link: http://www.majestymagazine.com/index.php you can see a picture of the current king and queen on their wedding day. Victoria is the total image of her mother. Hedwig Elisabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp was the one who first came to the wedding in the barge - a very fancy barge - they have copied for all the weddings since.

Artemis

By chance, I heard of Hedwig Elisabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp a few months ago. What I particularly read about her, that truly horrified me, was that the girl was fifteen years old - fifteen!!!! - when she was married off to some member of the Swedish royalty in 1774. Good grief!! I have felt a little sorry for Victoria because she has not been able to marry until she was a few weeks short of her thirty-third birthday, but to me that is better than being married off to someone you haven't even met when you are fifteen. We Swedes were barbarians in the 18th century, weren't we?

Fortunately Hedwig Elisabeth Charlotte seems to have been a happy, charming, lively and quite independent girl. Good for her!

Ann

Hi Ann:
That was the technique of international diplomacy in the 18th century. The king married a young woman from a country he wanted to have an alliance with. One of the points of the article was that how often German princesses were married into the Swedish Royal Family. Queen Silvia is/was German, and was a commoner, but that was a love match and by happenstance and their choice. You'd be interested in the article in Majesty. Maybe you could chase down a copy. The pictures of Hedwig's dress in gold foil are hard to believe and were the height of fashion in the 1700's. Also, the barge she floated in on was richly appointed and a gift from her family. They didn't even see each other until the wedding ceremony. It was all arranged by letters and courtiers.
Cheers
Artemis

The current issue of Majesty has a very long article on the wedding and great pictures. It also identifies all the European royalty in attendance.
Happy reading!
Artemis

Thanks for the info, Artemis!

On another note, the boards have been very quiet lately. Could you liven things up with a bit more Nighttime in the Daytime?

Ann

Hee Hee. Well I'd love to, but I'm off to Park City and Yellowstone where it is cooler. So a couple of more weeks. Life is busy right now.
regards
Artemis
Near Death Valley, CA