Friday, April 15, 2011

Queen to welcome royal guests at pre-wedding dinner

When Queen Margrethe II and other foreign royals opened their wedding invitations, they found the gold-embossed invitation to the church service and to the buffet reception after the wedding, which will be held at Buckingham Palace, and hosted by the Queen.   But the foreign royal guests were not invited to the more intimate dinner-dance, which will be hosted by the Prince of Wales, in honor of his son and new daughter-in-law.  Only 300 family and close friends have been invited to the evening event.

On April 28, the eve of the royal wedding,  Queen Elizabeth II will welcome 40 foreign royals, including family members and heads of state, to a gala dinner at the Mandarin Oriental, a five-star hotel overlooking Hyde Park.

The Queen, however, is not the host of this event.  The dinner is being arranged by her cousin, Lady Elizabeth Anson, who runs Party Planners, "which organizes high society social events." 

The invited guests include Queen Margrethe II of Denmark,  King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway, Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden, The Duke ad Duchess of Brabant,  Queen Sofia of Spain and the Prince and Princess of Asturias,  King Constantine II and Queen Anne Marie of the Hellenes, Crown Prince and Crown Princess Pavlos of Greece,  Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine of Serbia, Crown Princess Margarita and Prince Radu of Roumania, King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan, and  Prince Albert of Monaco and Miss Charlene Wittstock.  It is expected that the Margrave and Margravine of Baden, and other relatives of the Duke of Edinburgh will also be attending this event. 

Senior members of the British royal are expected to attend, including the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Duke of Kent.    The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall may attend, but this has not been confirmed.  Catherine Middleton and Prince William will not be at the dinner.

Thus, the buffet reception will be the only opportunity for the newly weds to meet their foreign cousins and other heads of state.  This will be largely reserved for a quick hello during the receiving line.

2 comments:

MAXny said...

I think eventually we can add the Luxembourgs,th Liechtensteins, the Duchess of Kent and Princess Margarita von Baden among others to that list.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

The Duchess of Kent may only go to the wedding and reception. She does not usually do these sort of events. We also do not know who is coming from Luxemgbourg and Liechtenstein.

Margarita of Baden may be there if she was invited to the wedding