...but a lot of people refused to show up:
So the crown princess of Sweden, Princess Victoria, got married yesterday to Clark Kent.
Just kidding. She married her fitness trainer, Daniel Westling, which apparently caused some controversy as her father didn't consider him blue-blooded enough to join the royal family. When King Carl XVI Gustaf eventually relented, he hired a team of courtiers to correct Daniel's rural accent, school him in history and "several European languages," and instruct him in etiquette.
Royals don't always marry other royals apart from that, though-- when Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark got married in 2004, it was to an Australian real estate agent whom he
met in a bar in Sydney during the 2000 Olympics. When he and Mary got engaged, she was taught Danish and converted from Presbyterian to Lutheran. I wasn't there at the time, but don't think there was any controversy about that. The Australians were over the moon about it. In 2005 Mary gave birth to their first child, a boy who was named Christian because it is tradition for the king of Denmark to be named Christian or Frederik alternately. Christian was, incidentally, a page in Victoria and Daniel's wedding:
That kid's gonna be a king someday. Two of those girls are future queens, of the Netherlands and Norway respectively.
Apparently attendance at Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel's wedding was
sparser than expected because there are a lot of Swedes who want to end the monarchy:
But all did not run smoothly as Swedes, many of whom oppose the retention of a monarchy, did not turn out in the numbers expected.
The city had hoped to counter the public's apathy by splashing out eight million kronor on a two week long festival - ''Love Stockholm 2010'' - to mark the marriage. Public transport was free for the days, stores boasted huge sales and Stockholm's airport was renamed Official Love Airport 2010'' for the occasion.
But it wasn't enough to dispel the city's somewhat lacklustre response.
Advance sales of royal memorabilia were disappointing, coming nowhere close to the 2.5 billion kronor forecast by the national retail organisation. Hotels and guest houses who had hoped for record bookings found themselves struggling to fill rooms.
I have to agree with them. I'm sure Princess Victoria is a lovely person, but there is no particular reason why she should be the one in
Napolean's wife's tiara getting married in front of a military honor guard and riding off in a coach.
It seems odd in this day and age for the population of a country to pay with their taxes for an unelected family to live ostentatiously.