Royal wedding photos

Hello dear friends,

As promised, I am posting some photos from the royal wedding we hosted on the island of Spetsai, Greece a week ago.  

The Greek Royal Family. L to R, Crown Prince Paul, Theodora, Nicolas (the groom), Alexia, Queen Anne-Marie, Philip, King Constanine. Behind them, a protrait of his grandfather, Constantine, who liberated a great part of Greece from the Turkish  occupation.

The male members of the Greek royal family arrived by boat,

the "Afroessa", a present of the King to Queen Anne-Marie for her 60th birthday.

The Afroessa

From L to R: Crown prince Paul, Prince Philip, H.M. King Constantine of the Hellenes and Prince Nicolas.

 Queen Margrete of Denmark, sister of Queen Anne-Marie, and Queen Sofia of Spain, sister of King Constantine.

Crown Prince Paul with his wife, nee Marie-Chantal Miller, and their children.

Princess Alexia, her husband Carlos Morales and their children.

The groom, his mother and father arrive in church.

Q.Anne-Marie and P.Nicolaos

King Constantine and Prince Nicolaos arrive at the monastery church, following the island's bishop and clergy.

Inside the church of St. Nicolaos

The King and Queen

Nicolaos and Tatiana

Wearing the crowns

Notice in the photo above that the "koumbari", the best men, are supposed to hold something in their hands. They were in fact holding two crowns, exact replicas of those used in the wedding of the groom's parents.

However, these were photoshopped out of the photo, so as not to stir anti-royalist emnities.

Husband and Wife

In his speech King Constantine addressing his son, concluded: 

"The advice I gave to your brother in law, Carlos, when he married Alexia, I give to you, now:

"To keep your marriage brimming, 

with love in the loving cup, 

whenever you are wrong, admit it, 

whenever you are right, shut up".

The wedding

A big day today. The wedding of prince Nikolaos to Tatiana Blatnik took place this afternoon at the monastery of St. Nicolas, on the island of Spetsai.

Here are two videos one from the arrival of the bride and one of the young couple as they come out of the church. Notice the sound of the bells and the hundreds of ships, small and large that greet the couple. See also how the horse is scared from the noise and tries to flee, but Nikolaos holds on to it!..

A very beautiful couple, and I wish them all the very best.

they are now husband and wife- να ζήσουν!

A rather moving moment was when a journalist asked the King yesterday, what he had to wish the young couple. He said " I wish they'll be as happy as Mom [Queen Anne-Marie, mother of Nikolaos] and I were ".

 King Konstantine and Queen Anne-Marie are one of the exemplary royal couples, for their love and devotion to their family, their country and its traditions.

Since we won't be having inside the church photos or videos for a while, I am posting a video from the wedding of King Konstantine and Queen Anne-Marie. 

I hope to show you more tomorrow!

Royal wedding in Greece

Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Tatiana Blatnik

 After 46 years, a royal wedding will be taking place in Greece on Wednesday. Prince Nikolaos, 41, the second son of King Constantine of Greece, the groom of the previous royal wedding to Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, will wed Miss Tatiana Blatnik, PR for fashion house DVF. The wedding will be taking place on the island of Spetsai, a stronghold of the Greek navy during the Greek Revolution of 1821, just to the South of Athens, near the Peloponnesian coast, what a friend calls " the Southampton of Greece".Thus the portrait of the couple, created by a local artist, Dina Theodoropoulos, a wedding present from the municipality of Spetsai to the couple. 

Discussion of the Greek royal family is a taboo in Greek politics and journalism. A great part of the last four decades has been spent cursing them for every possible evil. They kept mostly silent. one must admit, that the ex-king is not particularly brilliant politically, that is why he has been tricked by the late President of the Republic Karamanlis into not returning to Greece after the fall of the 1967-1974 military dictatorship and ask for a referendum that Karamanlis skillfully masterminded. But little by little the Greek royal family has been making a come back to the public scene.

I think one of the most powerful moments in my mind was when King Constantine was allowed just a few hours stay to burry his mother at the royal palace of Tatoi. Who could do that to a person, let alone a former head of state? Upon landing from London the King kneeled and kissed the Greek soil. I shall always remeber that scene. I cannot hide either that I feel a strong satisfaction knowing that some mighty powerful people have been and will be bending their knees to his sister, the Queen of Spain, and will bend over backwards to secure an invitation. It may not amount to a return of the king, but it is a sweet revenge...

Crown Prince Paul on the other hand, is not very brilliant either, and his wife, Marie-Chantal is too distant and too lofty to be loved by the people. If the Greek royal family were ever to return to Greece, Prince Nikolaos and his bride who has charmed almost everyone during her stays in Greece, would be its best bet. It is not a coincidence that Tatiana has been offered kisses, posies and good wishes everywhere she went, and accepted them with grace and understanding, very much like her mother-in-law, nearly five decades ago. Let's hope that Wednesday's bain de foule will be a success for the new Princely couple. May their life together sail with all good winds and be long and fruitful.