Update and royal wedding

[Guest guest]

Hi all,Sorry I've been a bit MIA around here lately. We have been staying with 's parents for a few days, it was 's niece's seventh birthday this past Saturday, and we made a long weekend out of it ('s sister lives with her family quite close to their parents, it's not in the same village, but not too many miles away).Before that we had visitors from afar. Good friends of ours who live abroad (Turkey as of right now) and visit Sweden only once every second year or so. It was great spending time with them, they are the kind of friends where whenever you meet them you just pick up wherever you left, no matter how long ago it was you saw each other last. Another event this past Saturday

was of course the big royal wedding in Sweden: The crown princess, , married her commoner, (who now has been given the titles Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim, prince of Sweden and Duke of Vastergotland, but should be addressed with either "prince " or "His royal highness"). Milla ('s niece) was quite exited that the princess was having her wedding on Milla's birthday (some say the date was chosen because it's the same date the king and queen of Sweden got married, but Milla knows better, it's because it's her 7th birthday…). I wasn't too interested in the wedding beforehand. I am as romantic as the next guy, I'd say, but I am not much of a royalist, and I am not the kind to shed tears at weddings (unlike who cries at all weddings…). And I haven't been too impressed with before either, not that I mind that the crown princess is marrying

a commoner – it may be a first (for Sweden) but it was high time. And in any case, I think she should marry whoever she chooses*. like any young woman or man. He just never impressed me before, that's all. When said that her parents would be recording the wedding (it was broadcasted on TV from quite early morning to quite late evening, and there were some broadcasts during the days before too, for that matter), I said that "Well, that's great. Then they can watch it later" and said: "You do realize that we ARE going to watch it, don't you?" Which I hadn't quite realized… However, I did surrender to the whole thing when we watched the TV broadcast of the concert held in the couple's honor the night before the wedding. Mostly because they both looked so truly and crazy in love. You need a heart of stone to be unmoved by that… The honorary concert for a royal wedding is a

tradition. You may be familiar with the ABBA song "Dancing queen"? It was written for the honorary concert when our king married his queen, and was of course dedicated to the queen. There was some newly written material in this concert as well. Cutest, in my opinion, was the song "Tomorrow there will be a wedding party") sung by a children's choir, where one boy steps up to the princess and sings to her: "You who looks just like someone who has found true love, you should dare to show just how happy you are, treasure the moment as much as you like, and it will stay on just a little while longer"**and then a girl steps up to (then not yet prince , as this was before the wedding) and sings to him:"You may have doubted the fairy tales, you may be wondering how it's possible to suddenly be made into a prince, but don't bother wondering about all of that, because

you have been given the one that you want"You can watch that part of the concert here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3er2Ioxs0zAThe wedding the next day was beautiful too. And they looked like a young couple very much in love. No, I didn't cry. But prince cried. And and her mother of course (goes without saying really…). And I was really touched by the couple's shaky hands during the exchange of rings in the wedding ceremony. They may be crown princess and prince (to be), but there and then they were just a very nervous young couple getting married. And the crown princess gave a lovely speech from outside the royal castle, after the wedding, where she thanked the Swedish people for "giving me my prince" (you can watch the speech here:

)A glimpse of the wedding ceremony (unfortunately not the exchange of rings, but a beautiful song and many loving looks at each other from the couple) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXNfPCIp6xc And CNN has some coverage of it too, here: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06/19/sweden.royal.wedding/index.htmllove/RebPS. For you ABBA fans out there: Here's a clip of ABBA performing dancing queen in the honorary concert for the wedding between the king and the

queen:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_prlKomYlo* Formally the decision on who she (as a crown princess) marries was not only hers, but rather she needed both the king and the prime minister to give their blessing to her choice. But in reality the decision was hers, of course. ** Of course, addressing the crown princess with "you" is a breach of etiquette on so many levels, but I assume that if it's done in a song, and by a child at that, it's OK…