© Maison du Grand-Duc / Sophie Margue
Luxembourg seems to be on a streak of happy celebrations. After helping Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie in welcoming Prince François at the end of last month, the Grand Duchy is getting ready to celebrate the wedding of Princess Alexandra and Mr Nicolas Bagory.
The couple will have two weddings, with the civil ceremony being set to take place this Saturday, 22nd April, and the religious wedding will be celebrated a week later, on the 29th.
The Grand Ducal court has released information on how to congratulate the couple (online book of congratulations is here), as well as the detailed programme for the civil ceremony, which will take place in the afternoon.
At 3pm, the Grand Ducal Family and the couple will arrive at Place Guillaume, where the Hotel de Ville is located. At 3:30, the ceremony will begin in the presence of the couple and their families. It is still unclear whether the public will get a chance to watch the ceremony on live feeds or television.
The wedding should be over in about 30 minutes, which means that at 4pm the couple and the Grand Ducal Family will exit the Municipality of Luxembourg City (or Hotel de Ville).
They will take some time to greet the crowds that will be present, before making their way back to the Grand Ducal Palace through the Rue de la Reine entrance.
At 6pm, the Palace will serve as the backdrop for a reception hosted by Princess Alexandra and Mr Bagory, which will also see the presence of members of both families, as well as Luxembourgish national authorities and guests of the couple.
This will be just the prelude to the religious wedding, which, in traditionally Catholic Luxembourg, is still considered to be the biggest ceremony of the two. However, a civil wedding also has to take place.
The same thing happened in 2012 for the wedding of Prince Guillaume and Belgian-born Princess Stéphanie, who also held a civil ceremony the day before their religious wedding. Prince Felix and Princess Claire also married in a civil ceremony before their religious wedding.
The biggest mystery surrounding this and all other Royal weddings is the designer chosen for the bride’s wedding gown, as well as the expectation to see if Princess Alexandra will choose to wear a tiara for her religious wedding, and, if so, which one.