Princess Carina’s Royal Wedding Tiara

Prince Gustav of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, son of Princess Benedikte of Denmark, married his longtime girlfriend, Carina Axelsson, in a pair of ceremonies over the weekend. The couple have been together for almost two decades, but they were unable to marry until questions about the inheritance of the family estate were finally settled. (We discussed the matter in great detail over here.)

On Friday, June 3, Gustav and Carina began their wedding weekend with a civil ceremony in Bad Berleburg. The witnesses at the ceremony were Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark. Gustav and Frederik are first cousins.

For the civil ceremony, Carina wore an elegant ivory suit and accessorized with diamond and pearl drop earrings. Crown Princess Mary wore earrings with coral-colored drops for the occasion, plus a gold cuff bracelet.

On Saturday, June 4, the couple were married in a religious ceremony at the castle church inside Gustav’s home, Schloss Berleburg. Gustav’s family has lived in the castle for more than 600 years.

For the religious ceremony, Carina wore a lovely wedding gown made by Danish couturier Birgit Hallstein. The dress featured a delicate lace overlay, and the coordinating lace veil was embroidered with the family’s coat of arms.

With her veil, the newly-minted Princess Carina wore the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg Diamond Spike Tiara. So far, she’s the only person who has worn the tiara in public, suggesting it may belong to her personally, or at least that it may have been acquired for her exclusive use. She’s been wearing the tiara for more than a decade, appearing in the jewel at royal events like jubilees and weddings. She has often worn the tiara with a pair of diamond pendant earrings, and she wore the jewels again in combination on her wedding day.

Numerous family and friends attended the ceremony, including several familiar royal guests.

Gustav’s mother, Princess Benedikte, attended wearing Queen Sofia’s Star and Pearl Tiara, a Swedish royal heirloom that she inherited from her mother, Queen Ingrid. She paired the tiara with pearls and a scattering of diamond star brooches. These diamond stars also come from Sweden. They originally belonged to Benedikte’s great-grandmother, Queen Victoria of Sweden.

Benedikte is pictured here after the wedding ceremony with her elder daughter, Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, Countess Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille, and Alexandra’s children, Count Richard and Countess Ingrid von Pfeil und Klein-Ellguth.

Gustav’s Danish royal cousins were also in attendance. Crown Princess Mary, attending with Crown Prince Frederik, wore the pearl setting of her wedding tiara with her pearl and diamond wedding earrings. She paired the jewels with a gown previously worn in Oslo for the 80th birthday celebrations of the King and Queen of Norway. Princess Marie, with Prince Joachim, also wore her wedding tiara, pairing it with diamond earrings.

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Gustav’s aunt, was not present at the wedding. She was in the midst of a special summer tour aboard the Royal Yacht Dannebrog, part of her Golden Jubilee celebrations. I don’t believe Queen Anne-Marie of Greece was present at the ceremony either. Her husband, King Constantine, has been dealing with serious health issues for some time now.

There were many other noble guests in attendance, though, including some that come from formerly-reigning royal families. I thought you’d recognize this couple in particular: Prince Hubertus and Princess Kelly of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. They have close ties to several reigning families, especially the Swedish royals. (Hubertus’s father, Prince Andreas, is a first cousin of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.)

For the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg wedding, Kelly wore the tiara and necklace from a set of royal heirloom jewels that have remained with the family for several generations: the turquoises that originally belonged to Hubertus’s great-grandmother, Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein.