After looking at the bridal couple and their mothers and the Grand Ducal family, we’re going to wrap up our look at last weekend’s wedding of Princess Alix de Ligne and Count Guillaume de Dampierre with a review of the hats worn by some of the remaining royal guests. My sincere thanks to Valentin Dupont, author of Royalement Blog, for generously sharing his photos of the event.
Archduchess Marie-Astrid of Austria wore a small green cocktail hat trimmed with natural straw twists, beige feathers and a net tulle veil. I’m all for royal women trying new millinery shapes but the base of this one is much too small for Marie-Astrid and the placement of it’s embellishment leaves the piece looking like a toy helicopter hovering over her head.
Marie Astrid’s eldest daughter, Countess Marie-Christine of Limburg-Stirum, wore a gold headband while her youngest daughter, Archduchess Gabriella of Austria, wore a navy straw hat with ruched silk trim. The navy hat is fine but the gold headband? I’m perplexed.
Countess Diane of Nassau (wife of Prince Jean of Luxembourg) wore an interesting blue straw hat with upturned brim cut in a unique chevron shape. This unusual brim shape is emphasized by several rows of cream stitching that contrasts nicely with the denim blue hat. While I was originally intrigued by this hat, seeing it on this video shows an entirely different picture- one of a floppy denim hat that looks far more suited for a day in the garden than a wedding. Countess Diane and Prince Jean are photographed below with their friend, Count Jehan de Lannoy (elder brother of Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie. It’s a small world, this world of western European nobility).
Prince Jean’s daughter, Princess Marie-Gabrielle of Nassau, looked to be wearing a chocolate Garbo style hat with floppy brim that coordinated with the piping on her pink and yellow dress. She was photographed with her cousin, Princess Marie-Astrid of Liechtenstein (daughter of Princess Margaretha of Liechtenstein) who wore a natural straw cloche hat with an embellished hat band.
Princess Margaretha of Liechtenstein topped her blue and white ensemble with a navy straw headpiece. While these photographs don’t tell for certain, I suspect this headpiece is an open circlet. Her daughter, Princess Anunciata, wore a cream Garbo style hat with floppy brim that looked effortlessly chic with her fuchsia top and trousers. Between the two fuchsia pant suits we saw at these nuptials, this one was by far my favourite!
Princess Sibilla of Luxembourg, wife of Prince Guillaume (Grand Duke Henri’s youngest brother) wore a lime straw hat with raised brim at the back, embellished by straw curls and what looks like pleated hat bands in the same straw. While the style of the hat is intriguing, I’m far less convinced about the colour, both with Princess Sibilla’s colouring but especially, paired with her yellow lace dress. This ensemble begs the question- how much citrus can a royal outfit handle before it turns sour?
Prince Robert of Nassau (cousin of Grand Duke Henri) was also in attendance with his American born wife, Princess Julie, who wore a melon orange straw hat with sharply raised ‘slice brim’, trimmed with a large straw swirled rose. Their daughter, Princess Charlotte of Nassau, wore a dramatic white percher saucer hat lavishly trimmed in white silk roses.
The Duchess of Bragança, who attended with her husband and two of her children, wore a natural straw hat with square crown and flat, upfolded brim trimmed with a hat band sash in the same pale green silk as her coat.
With 900 people in attendance there were numerous other royals and nobles in attendance. Valentin Dupont, author of Royalement Blog, has posted a gallery with 81 pictures of royal and noble guests (with identification!). It’s certainly worth a peek.
That brings our look at this Belgian royal wedding to a close. What hats stood out to you most at this event? Stay tuned this Friday when we see the Grand Ducal family out again (and in hats!) for their country’s National Day.
Photos from Valentin Dupont, author of Royalement Blog and Rex/Shutterstock
Royal Hats 
I think these ladies would have been better off not wearing their hats. But let’s remember that they are pretty much just normal people without stylists, trying to dress up a bit more than usual. They all look very relaxed and happy.
I can’t keep up with them all! How do you do it?
I don’t! I rely heavily on the excellent Luxarazzi blog (especially their Who’s Who page) to identify the lesser known Luxembourg royals. Keeping Princess Marie-Gabrielle, Princess Marie-Astrid and Princess Anunciata straight is impossible on my own brain power.
It was interesting to look through Valentin Dupont’s gallery (which was so graciously shared!) and see all the crazy fashions. Out of this group, the only one I liked was Marie-Astrid’s hat, and I agree that the base was too small for her. After all the wonderfulness of Hat Christmas (a.k.a. Ascot), even with all its mistakes, this was mostly a disappointing display of hattery.
ha ha Hat Christmas I love that, so appropriate
After having just spent three days as Royal Ascot seeing a sea of fantastic hats and outfits on women, and men in morning attire with top hats, this collection was disappointing. How could a horse race meeting be a time for more beautiful attire than a royal wedding? Almost shocking how casual some of these women were dressed. If I were ever invited to a royal wedding I’d turn it out!
On another blog someone posted about the men’s fashion requirements at Ascot and that maybe the rules should be more modern or contemporary (stop requiring clothing that is late 19th C in its origin). This wedding shows exactly why the rules as Ascot must remain! Every gentleman in these photos looked great – turned out beautifully in his morning attire (too bad we saw only one top hat, on the groom’s father). Can you imagine the variations on the men had they been able to dress as they wish for this wedding?
OK, I should have waited to comment until I looked at the video and collection of photos (links on first posting about the wedding). The guests looked like they left Ascot and went directly to the wedding! Except, in the photos of scores of men in their beautiful morning attire – one top hat in the bunch! C’mon guys!!!
Good Lord, there are some truly bad outfits here! These women are obviously struggling with occasion wear – specifically the hats. Just some very odd colour and outfit combos I think.
indeed James indeed
You took the words out of my mouth! A lot of very random ensembles – as if the power were off and people just reached into their darkened closets and wore the first things they grabbed!
I really love the orange one!
I find most of these ensembles in shockingly poor taste. The only one that looks well put together features the cream Garbo hat. Still, it is not suitable for a royal wedding unless you of course are seated in the bleachers. HQ your helicopter comment made me laugh out loud. And I needed that laugh to carry me through!
I would like Princess Sibella’ s hat if it was a neutral straw instead of the citrus overload color! I also liked Princess Julie’s hat, but thought the color was too strong for her dress. Now, Princess Charlotte’ s hat looked wonderful. I would like to see it from different angles.
A little odd to us but not to them.
Here I go again, going out on a limb, to say that the only one I really liked was the first one, worn by Archduchess Marie-Astrid. When I saw the blue denim one in the video, (BTW, thanks for sharing that clip, Fabulous Bubbles!) I laughed out loud. (is that LOL?) HQ, I agree – this pink pantsuit is much better.
After seeing the video, I had to update my assessment of this hat. For a day mucking about in the garden, floppy denim is fine. But a royal wedding? No thanks.