Princess Mabel’s Dazzling Diamond Wedding Tiara—and Avant-Garde Wedding Gown!

Princess Mabel’s royal story is a complex one. Born Mabel Los in the Netherlands, she lost her father in a tragic accident when she was only nine. When she was a teenager, her mother remarried, and she took on her new stepfather’s surname, becoming Mabel Wisse Smit. As a young college student in the late 1980s, Mabel developed a friendship with Klaas Bruinsma, one of the most prolific narcotics traffickers in Europe. The two shared a love of sailing, and Mabel attended parties on one of his yachts. 

Years later, Mabel had settled into a career focused on human rights and international relations when she met Prince Friso, the second son of the Queen of the Netherlands. Friso was working in finance in London when they announced their engagement in June 2003. But soon afterward, the Dutch government indicated that, contrary to expectations, they would not seek parliamentary approval of the marriage. They noted that Friso and Mabel had “misled” them about the extent of her past relationship with Bruinsma, who had died in 1991.

Prince Friso admitted in October 2003 that the couple had provided “incomplete” information about the past connection to the government, but he stated that he would indeed go forward with the marriage and “accept the consequences”—the loss of his succession rights. After the wedding, he and Mabel would be known as Prince Friso and Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau, and their future children would also have no rights to the throne. The prospect of Friso or his children coming close to the throne was becoming increasingly unlikely, anyway, as his elder brother, Willem-Alexander, was already expecting his first child—a daughter, Princess Amalia, who was born in December 2003.

Friso and Mabel remained a united front, appearing together with the rest of the royal family as they mourned his grandmother, Queen Juliana, just a few weeks before the planned wedding ceremony. There was no indication that any of the Dutch royals personally disapproved of the union. Friso’s mother, Queen Beatrix, told the press on their engagement that she was happy to be gaining a “sweet and gifted” daughter-in-law in Mabel.

Friso and Mabel’s royal wedding was held in Delft on April 24, 2004. Mabel arrived wearing a dress by the Dutch designers Viktor & Rolf. She’d reportedly been looking for a unique and memorable gown, and the team more than delivered. They crafted a timeless silhouette for the princess-to-be, making a duchesse satin gown with long sleeves, a bateau neckline, and a long train.

And then the designers upped the drama considerably by placing bows of various sizes in a lattice pattern that covered the entire dress. Bows on the sleeves, the bodice, the skirt, and the train—almost 250 of them in total!

The bows on the skirt and train were graduated in size, growing to enormous proportions at the end of the train. Even the bridesmaids had bows on their blouses!

And two tiny bows were also placed on Mabel’s shoes. She was looking for a dress to remember, and she certainly got it—though, as you might have expected, it received very mixed reviews. But it certainly fits with Mabel’s quirky aesthetic, displayed at royal events for the past two decades.

In contrast to the avant-garde dress, Mabel chose sleek, traditional wedding jewelry. She borrowed a diamond tiara from the Dutch vaults for the occasion. The nineteenth-century tiara has a kokoshnik shape, with three rows of diamonds set on slender metal spikes. The jewel, which was originally designed to be worn as a necklace, was created by Mellerio and purchased by King Willem III of the Netherlands in 1888.

Originally set with both brown and white diamonds, the tiara is now an all-white-diamond affair. The largest diamonds in the jewel are reportedly the same ones used with Queen Emma’s Sapphire Tiara. The stones have a screw mechanism setting that allows them to be easily swapped from one tiara to another. The shared diamonds are the reason that the Dutch royal court has called this jewel a “second setting” of the sapphire tiara.

She also wore a pair of diamond stud and drop earrings for the civil and religious wedding ceremonies. I think the studs are the ones from Queen Wilhelmina’s Diamond Earrings, worn with smaller diamond pendants.

Friso and Mabel’s marriage was a happy one. They settled in London, where Friso continued his financial career, and quickly added two daughters to their family, Countess Luana in March 2005 and Countess Zaria in 2006.

But sadly, in February 2012, the family suffered unthinkable tragedy. While skiing in Austria, Friso was caught in an avalanche. He was rescued, but he had suffered serious brain damage. He remained in a coma for many months in a London hospital, eventually transitioning to a minimally conscious state. He was able to be moved back to Huis ten Bosch Palace, the home of his mother, in the summer of 2013.

Queen Beatrix, now Princess Beatrix, abdicated in April 2013, in part because of the stress of Friso’s accident and subsequent care needs. On the day of the abdication and the inauguration of Friso’s elder brother, King Willem-Alexander, Princess Mabel wore another special dress by Viktor & Rolf. The black dress featured a single white sleeve with a large bow, a nod to her wedding dress and her love for her husband.

Prince Friso died from complications of the accident on August 12, 2013—ten years ago tomorrow. His life was celebrated with a memorial service at the Oude Kerk in Delft, the same church where he and Mabel were married, in November 2013. Mabel again wore the black and white dress for that service, remembering her wedding day and her late husband.

On Mabel’s birthday, and the day before the 10th anniversary of Friso’s passing, it’s lovely to look back at the couple’s wedding day. Mabel’s memorable dress and gorgeous jewels still shine brightly, but photographs of the day take on an extra bittersweet aspect now as well. Mabel remains a beloved member of the extended royal family today, occasionally attending royal gala events and borrowing tiaras from the vaults. Here’s hoping we continue to see her sparkling in royal jewels for years to come.