Ten years ago this month, Princess Madeleine of Sweden married Christopher O’Neill in a glittering ceremony at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. This week, our Wedding Tiara Wednesday article focuses on the spectacular diamonds that Madeleine wore for the big day.
On June 8, 2013, Princess Madeleine of Sweden and her British-American fiancé, Christopher O’Neill, were married in the grand 18th-century chapel of the Royal Palace in Stockholm. Madeleine is the younger daughter of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden. She met Chris, who works in finance, while living in New York and working for the World Childhood Foundation.
The couple announced their engagement in October 2012, and they exchanged vows and rings in the palace chapel less than a year later.
For the wedding ceremony, Princess Madeleine wore a white lace wedding gown made by Valentino. The gown featured a off-the-shoulder neckline and a ruffled hem.
The gown also featured a dramatic 13-foot train, which was handled expertly by pages as Madeleine moved from one part of the wedding celebrations to the next.
A cathedral-length veil completed the look.
Madeleine secured the veil with a diamond fringe tiara, with added orange blossoms tucked into the tiara’s frame. The jewel isn’t one of the pieces from the family’s heirloom jewelry collection. Instead, it’s a privately-owned tiara that was first worn by Madeleine’s mother, Queen Silvia.
The Swedish royal court has always declined to offer provenance details for the tiara, simply calling it “private.” Queen Silvia first began wearing the tiara in the late 1980s, so many have guessed that it might have been a tenth wedding anniversary present from King Carl XVI Gustaf back in 1986.
The jewel can be worn as a traditional tiara on a frame or, after removing it from that frame, as a diamond fringe necklace. Silvia wears the piece in its necklace setting here (with the Connaught Diamond Tiara) for the Ruby Jubilee celebrations in Denmark in 2012.
Princess Madeleine began borrowing the tiara from her mother early on in her tiara-wearing days, choosing it frequently for events like the annual Nobel Prize celebrations. Here, she wears the tiara with the Connaught Diamond Tiara‘s diamond drops for the Nobels in December 2005.
Like her mother before her, she’s also worn the tiara both on its frame and in its necklace setting. She wears it here as a necklace, paired with the Diamond Four-Button Tiara, for the Nobels in 2009.
Around the time of Madeleine’s wedding, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia officially gave the tiara to their younger daughter. It’s now one of just a few personally-owned tiaras in her jewelry box, and she continues to wear it frequently.
For her royal wedding, Madeleine also wore pieces of heirloom diamond jewelry loaned to her for the occasion. Her earrings are particularly special. These are the Vasa Earrings, eighteenth-century jewels featuring hand-cut diamond briolettes in diamond frames. The earrings originally were part of the jewelry collection of Queen Louise Ulrika of Sweden, wife of King Adolf Frederik (1710-1771).
With her engagement and wedding rings, Madeleine also wore a major diamond bracelet from the family vaults.
This is the family’s Diamond Zig-Zag Bracelet. It originally belonged to Grand Duchess Louise of Baden, the mother of Queen Victoria of Sweden. The piece can also be worn as a choker necklace (presumably with an additional piece to add necessary length).
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