A Royal Wedding In Stockholm, AKA Everything You Ever Needed To Know About The Swedish Monarchy

by Chiara Atik · June 21, 2010

On Saturday, Princess Victoria of Sweden married her long-time boyfriend, Daniel Westling. I happened to be in Sweden just a few weeks ago, where I got all the gossip from the people who are most in the know: the hairdressers.-

While sitting at the Klip-it Frisör in Lund, I'm not kidding, every single woman was happily chatting away about the upcoming Nuptials. Luckily, my hairdresser was only too happy to translate/fill me in. I learned the following:

The marriage is sort of a modern twist on a Cinderella tale: Victoria, the Princess of Sweden, met Daniel Westling when he was her personal trainer. The two fell in love and moved in together in 2008. Que scandal!

When the couple decided they wanted to get married, Victoria's father, King Carl XVI Gustaf went to the Swedish Parliament and asked them for permission for his daughter to marry the commoner.

Speaking of Dad, here's another tidbit: Victoria was the first born of the King and his wife, Queen Silvia, but under Swedish hereditary laws, her younger brother Prince Carl Philip, the first male, was born heir apparent. However, after his birth, Sweden became the first country to adopt the system of equal primogeniture, aka the first BORN, not just the first born MALE, gets the crown. Yay for Victoria and, like, women, but the King was NOT too happy about it. He felt like it wasn't fair to take the crown away from his son, who had been born Crown Prince.

Victoria wanted very much for her Dad to walk her down the aisle. However, in Sweden, the bride traditionally walks down the aisle by herself. Surprisingly, this break from Swedish tradition, by a princess no less, caused quite the furor in the more conservative Swedish households. (However, an old lady getting her hair permed next to me seemed to think the Princess should be allowed to walk down the aisle in any way she wants).

Another aisle-related snafu: technically, Daniel isn't supposed to walk next to the Princess, but rather behind her.

The wedding was officiated by a lesbian! (The first lesbian Bishop of Stockholm, to be exact.)

Victoria actually spent two years in the US while studying at Yale.

The women in the salon all seemed to agree that Victoria's younger sister, Madeleine, is prettier. (Mean! But that's what they said.)

Said prettier sister recently broke off her own engagement when he purportedly cheated on her. Who would cheat on a PRINCESS??

So there you have it: all caught up on Swedish Royal gossip. How up to speed are you in terms of other European Monarchy? Can you recognize the Kings, Queens, and Princesses of Norway, Spain, Jordan, Belgium, and Monaco, pictured below?