Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling’s Wedding, 2010
Sweden’s future queen married her former personal trainer in Stockholm Cathedral in a Pär Engsheden gown and her mother’s cameo tiara, then sailed through the city on a royal barge.
When the heir to the Swedish throne married on June 19, 2010, she chose a date with a double meaning: it was the 34th anniversary of her parents’ wedding, and the wedding fell in the year Sweden marked two centuries since Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, the founder of the present dynasty, was chosen as heir to the throne. The groom was not a prince but Daniel Westling, who had been her personal trainer at a Stockholm gym. Their wedding was a careful, very Swedish balance of pageantry and restraint.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Date | Saturday, June 19, 2010 |
| Place (ceremony) | Stockholm Cathedral (Storkyrkan) |
| Reception | Wedding banquet in the Hall of State, Royal Palace of Stockholm |
| The dress (designer) | Pär Engsheden |
| Guests | About 1,100 |
| Officiant | Anders Wejryd, Archbishop of Uppsala |
The couple
Victoria, the eldest child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, is heir to the Swedish throne. Daniel Westling was her personal trainer at Master Training in Stockholm; they were first photographed together in July 2002. Their engagement was announced on February 24, 2009.
On marriage he became Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland, the first commoner to receive a new princely title through marriage to a Swedish princess. Their daughter, Princess Estelle, was born on February 23, 2012, and their son, Prince Oscar, on March 2, 2016.
The ceremony
The two weeks before the wedding, from Sweden’s National Day on June 6 to the wedding day, were celebrated in the capital as “Love Stockholm 2010,” with events across the city.
The service began at 3:30 p.m. in Stockholm Cathedral before about 1,100 guests. The Archbishop of Uppsala, Anders Wejryd, led the service, assisted by Lars-Göran Lönnermark and Bishop Antje Jackelén.
The couple asked that the King lead the bride to the altar. The request prompted debate among the clergy of the Church of Sweden, some of whom were uneasy with the symbolism of a father handing over his daughter. The compromise was characteristically Swedish: the King walked Victoria part of the way and handed her to Daniel before they reached the altar.
Afterward the couple made a procession through Stockholm, part of it on the water aboard the royal barge Vasaorden, the same vessel used at her parents’ wedding in 1976. Some 500,000 people lined the route of nearly seven kilometers.
The dress
The Crown Princess chose a Swedish designer, Pär Engsheden, who made her a white satin gown with a five-meter train. On her head she wore the cameo tiara, a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Joséphine. Queen Silvia had worn the same tiara on her wedding day in 1976, so the choice joined the daughter’s wedding to the mother’s.
For the evolution of the royal bridal gown across Europe, see our guide to royal wedding dresses.
The reception
The wedding banquet was held that evening in the Hall of State (Rikssalen) at the Royal Palace, Sweden’s grandest ceremonial room. The whole wedding cost about 20 million Swedish kronor, divided equally between the royal family and the Swedish state.
Why it mattered
It was a royal wedding shaped by a modern country’s values. The bride married for love outside the nobility, the ceremony was adapted rather than broken to allow her father’s part in it, and the costs were divided between the family and the state. The choice of a Swedish designer, and of the tiara her mother had worn, kept the day rooted at home. It stands alongside Queen Letizia’s wedding in Madrid and Prince William and Catherine Middleton’s as one of the weddings in which European monarchies welcomed a partner from outside royal circles. See The Great Royal Weddings for the full series.
Borrow the idea
Pick a date with a story. Victoria married on her parents’ anniversary. A grandparents’ wedding date, or the day you met, gives the day a second layer of meaning. Our guide to choosing the date covers the practical side.
Wear something from your mother’s wedding. A tiara, a veil, a brooch or even a scrap of her dress’s fabric sewn into yours connects the two days.
Walk in together, or halfway. If being “given away” doesn’t feel right, a parent can walk you partway and then both partners can approach the altar side by side. Our order of the ceremony explains the options.
Leave by water. If your venue is on a river, lake or harbor, a boat instead of a car makes the getaway unforgettable.
Written and edited by the Today’s Weddings editors. How we research and check what we publish is set out in our editorial standards. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
