Last weekend, Princess Caroline’s younger son Pierre Casiraghi married his longtime girlfriend, Beatrice Borromeo, in a civil ceremony in Monaco. The Borromeo family is made up of very wealthy Italian aristocrats, so this whole union has been widely celebrated as the marriage of two great European families. The bride wore pink Valentino for her Monaco civil ceremony – go here to see. These are photos from this weekend’s Catholic service in Italy, then the reception (which featured a costume change) the castle Isolino di San Giovanni in Lake Maggiore, Italy.
Beatrice wore back-to-back, custom-made Armani gowns for both the Catholic wedding service and her reception. She is Italian, and it seems that Armani has close ties to her family. I like her wedding gown because it seems deceptively simple and appropriate for a more conservative wedding in Italy. I also love her reception look – very, very elegant.
The Italian stuff was mostly for Beatrice’s extended family and friends, most of whom did not make it to Monaco last weekend for her civil ceremony. I don’t believe that Pierre’s uncle Albert or his wife Charlene made it to Italy for this weekend’s wedding, but Pierre’s immediate family did come out. His mom, Princess Caroline, plus Pierre’s siblings Andrea and Charlotte came out. Andrea brought his wife Tatiana and their son Sacha. Charlotte brought her partner Gad as well.
Even though the bride and groom are already quite wealthy, they set up two wedding registries in Milan and Monte Carlo. One registry was for a shop called Czarina, which sells “bespoke furniture, antiques, porcelain, jewelry and rare objects.” They are also registered in Taschen, a rare-book bookstore. Thankfully, they also will accept donations made to charity.
Photos courtesy of Instagram, WENN.
Absolutely love the wedding dress. Probably my favorite ever, next to Carolyn bessett.
It’s Gorgeous!
I’ve thought Bessette’s dress was almost too simplistic. It was lovely and the fit/drape was perfect, but… there was something incomplete about it. And not in a beauty in its simplicity type of way.
A personal top dress was Ivanka’s Vera Wang dress.
FLORC, Extremely grand or humble wedding venues create great challenges and opportunity in wedding dress design if the bride goes with the traditional view that the dress should not over or underwhelm the venue in which she is marrying.
Iirc, Narciso Rodriguez in a magazine interview, said CBK’s wedding dress was very challenging because CBK wanted a simple dress. That’s because they chose a tiny wood chapel in a very rustic setting which was Cumberland Island off the coast of Georgia. See photo. http://luellajune.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/wedding1.jpg
The Emanueles who designed Diana’s dress, discussed a challenge opposite to CBK’s dress. How to design a dress that was sufficiently elegant for the POW’s bride and to ensure that Diana would not be lost in the interior grandeur of St. Paul’s.
MinnFinn
I get that. I’m not saying it didn’t match the venue and appear well placed. That the accessories and all the touches were off. I just thought overall it was too simplistic and lacked something to finish it. Not a favorite as an overall package of wedding or dress.
I love CBK’s dress precisely because it’s simple and unadorned. Her hair seemed like a a last minute affair, ditto the veil and flowers. Gloves, dress, shoes – on point.
Moi aussi, LAK. Totally agree. CBK is still my most heartfelt fashion icon, and I have several of her ensembles burnt into my memory. They will be among the last details flitting around, mosquito-like, in my faltering brain as I grow older and begin to lose touch with such practical matters as whether or not I have brushed my teeth before bed, and whether or not I have achieved “the little death” during coitus.
Lahdidahbaby: you read my mind. 🙂 loved, LURVED CBK’s style. To this day.
I would expect nothing less from you, my elegant friend. Somehow I think I’ve always known that about you.
+1000 for CBK’s dress and overall clean-lined style.
LAK, At the time and even today, I still see CBK’s entire look as pure design genius.
@Lahdidahbaby: “They will be among the last details flitting around, mosquito-like, in my faltering brain as I grow older and begin to lose touch with such practical matters as whether or not I have brushed my teeth before bed, and whether or not I have achieved “the little death” during coitus.”
You just made my entire week – and on a Monday, too.
Thank you.
And you just made MY week, Belle de Jour. Thanks.
Yes, perfectly beautiful.
Everything yes!
I love both dresses. She looks amazing. Pierre looks much better in a black tux. Grey isn’t the right color for him.
She’s channeling Grace Kelly.
Reminds me a bit of Goop.
In one of those pictures she reminds me of Portia de Rossi.
She’s wearing white, has long sleeves, wore lace and is marrying a royal. How can you fail to notice she is copying Kate Middleton! (snark)
In the instagram picture he looks like a modern-day Luke Spencer from General Hospital during the Luke and Laura wedding. Her dress is pretty uninspired.
Damn those Borromeo sisters DO NOT play.
Every single one of them have married either big money/ big name/big title.
They are like a throwback to the Cushing/Bouvier sisters the 60s, and Miller Sisters of the 80s, for defining the term ‘Grand Alliance’.
Well I’m off to re-read Truman Capote’s Swans.
While the rest of the lower classes are worrying about jobs and debts these rich borns want to keep the money in their circles more than ever and marry only those of their own caste.
I was thinking the same thing!! 🙂
What I find hilarious about Beatrice is that at a certain point of her life she wanted to play the “journalist”. Yes for me she has never had a “career” or a job, for me she wanted to “play”, because I remember her trying to speak about “the young people in Italy who struggle with jobs and paying their bills”; and it was completely absurd coming from her.
I prefer her like this than her writing nonsense column about people who cannot pay their bills.
Btw: I love the dress.
Uhmmm she is still a journalist. She works for the Il Fatto Quotidiano.
I am sorry but they are big money, she is rich not only from the father side but from the mother’s side too. Marzotto is a huge textiles industrial group, and this might be the case of him marrying big money.
@luisa
And? The Miller sisters are mega wealthy too.
(In fact MC supports her husband Prince Pavlos, but she got a title out of it)
Robert Miller was one of the richest men in America.
Does not change my point on a singular ‘Grand Alliance’ strategy.
And like the Borromeos they were socialites selling themselves as sophisticated intellectuals.
Jegede: do you remember the Vanity Fair article on the Miller sisters on this very topic? It might still be up.
The ‘Grand alliance’ was a trend of rich wealthy people marrying titles or even bigger fortunes.
Not the same thing as a princess marrying a foreign prince for mostly strategic reasons as royalty tend to do.
The most 2 most famous ‘grand alliance’ marriages of ye old times are Catherine Medici to the King of France and Consuela Vanderbuilt (sp) to The Duke of Marlborough.
In the modern era, the Miller sisters were the most famous example. Their father is a duty free shops billionaire. Rumour has it that he settled £200M on the eldest Miller sister when she married the CP of Greece. And that was for starters. Sister 2 married one of the Gettys (again far wealthier than hubby), sister 3 married Alex Von Furstenberg, son of Diana. Von Furstenberg senior is a Princeling, which I suppose makes junior some sort of aristocrat.
@LAK
Yeah I faintly remember the article. I also remember it was the same go-to who hooked up/introduced all 3 Miller sisters to their respective beaus.
Their mother Chantal Miller, was a former Ecuadorian beauty queen and she especially put a lot of importance in the type/status of partners for her girls.
Speaking of allying with royalty.
Someone like Lee Bouvier annulled her marriage to Michael Canfield to take up with Stas Radziwill (a deposed Polish prince).
Its telling how important that title was to her that she was presumptious enough to invite European Royal Houses to her (late) son Anthony’s wedding
(Anthony even sometimes addressed himself as Prince, something his cousin JFK Jr, teased him about) –
And the fact that even though they were long divorced, and she remarried, Lee STILL uses the name Radziwill.
And sometimes the defunct pre fix ‘Princess’.
Not enough to top First Lady sister, Jackie though
@Jegede: aha! I forgot about the Bouvier sisters.
I remember reading this biography (or possibly an article) about how their mother, Jackie Auchincloss, wanted/groomed them to marry in the fashion of a grand alliance even though they didn’t really have any money.
I think that’s what I found so fascinating about Carole Middleton in the beginning.
Here was a woman who had the gajones to make something of herself, but who seemed to be following in Jackie Auchincloss’s footsteps.
I’m fascinated by the social experiment of it in this modern age.
@LAK – I find it interesting as well.
But I gotta say I think the Cushing sisters top them all.
Bouviers/Millers/Borromeos et. al bow to them!!
OH YEESSSS guys!!! but I remember the Millers were kinda really thirsty for fame too, it wasn’t just about being Moneyed and discrete, they wanted the articles in Vogue/vanity fair too
MC is still thirsty. There was a photo shoot of their (Pavlos and MC’s) home a few years ago, iirc around when she gave up her American citizenship. One wall had framed magazine covers featuring MC.
I remember that Vanity Fair article!
And maybe I’m just showing that I’m a common pleb here, but I never understood the cache of marrying Greek royalty. They’re deposed. He’s literally the crown prince of nothing.
Do people honestly believe this rich (old Money/ aristo/ gentry-like) folks want or would married poor/ broke and unconventionally pretty people?!
That´s a fantasy…
Exploiting this fantasy lots of romance novelists made their own small fortunes…
Micki says:
August 3, 2015 at 9:14 am
Exploiting this fantasy lots of romance novelists made their own small fortunes…
Yes! that´s true 🙂
Agreed – I was not familiar with the family and upon reading about some of those marriages I couldn’t believe that it appears that all of the sisters married “better” than Beatrice (considering Pierre is no slouch). Impressive indeed!
I should have posted up here. Maybe this is why Haakon and Mette-Marit brought her son Marius with them to the wedding. To make him a member of this circle to increase his changes of making an old school moneyed marriage a la the Miller Sisters? He’s grown up in the lap of royal luxury but that won’t last forever.
I’ve never seen any of the three of them spending time with the Borromeo or Casiraghi families, that’s why I’m questioning it. Did MM bond with some of them while spending money on ugly Valentino floral gowns?
I don’t know how MM and Beatrice met and became friends, but there were pictures (maybe a month or so ago) of Beatrice with MM and Martha Louise in Norway, cleaning trash from a beach for an environmental charity.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/32/12/a6/3212a63df886d02fe635bc34ad6ca529.jpg
Capote’s swans were just one of a kind. I bow to Legend Babe Paley (the Cushings were the masters of the “good marriages”), Slim Keith (lol even Pamela Harriman home wrecked her marriage to Leland Hayward), Gloria Guiness, Marella Agnelli! Truly fascinating woman of a bygone era. And that jet set were all relate in a way to the other!
About the Millers, lol Papa Miller even gave them a dowry! Interestingly, only Marie Chantal is still married to Pavlos, as Pia Getty and Alexandra Von Fustenberg despite having children got divorce.
Now the Borromeo sisters are quite cut from the same cloth. They mostly have move only in elite circles and did not seek advantageous marriages per se, as Lavinia dated John Elkann (yup Gianni Agnelli eldest grandson) for many years and were very low profile , as did both Matilde with Antonio Von Fustenberg and Isabella with Ugo Brachetti, and Carlo with designer Marta Ferri. And if you read the Italian press, actually the grooms and bride were lucky in finding such an aristocratic family to marry into. So Caroline of Monaco is counting her lucky stars in having another son marrying so well.
Anyway, I love the wedding as it was a rare occasion to see together all that circle of people, and lol even Maria Fernanda de Saboya was there (which is funny as Beatrice was being very vocal in Vittorio Emanuel criminal history).
Oh thank you, I remember the Miller sisters very well indeed! showing my age.
You really need to get closeups of the religious wedding dress to appreciate it – it is divine. She is channeling Liz Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the reception dress.
Both dresses are spectacular and the bride is beautiful – brava!
Both dresses were lovely and they look really happy. That first picture of him, though… Sort of ruined it for me, but I regrouped. 🙈
All 4 of her gowns were amazing – the civil ceremony dresses seemed so perfect for the occasion. She has impeccable taste.
I wish them happiness, health, joy, and peace. When two people take such a big step in their lives, I really want to support (even if I may not know) them and only wish them the very best. Many blessings!
Wow, perfection.
I DIE for the second dress. That’s pretty much my dream dress, it’s simple but still has movement and elegance. They look very cute together!
Ah, to be born into old money!
What a lovely wedding.
3 white dresses and every time another hair style. Seriously, i loved every look.
This woman definitely has style and knows how to carry herself.
Agree. Her carriage is naturally elegant and assured, and that Grecian gown wouldn’t have worked so well with anything less.
all the looks from all her weddings!
i am saying yes to all the dresses
I would love to register at a rare bookstore! 🙁 Sounds awesome.
Best dressed wedding. The Grecian reception dress is my fave, but all of her dresses were amazing.
Me too. Must be a bummer to have all those choices. Sigh.
It must be nice to have enough money to not HAVE to make a choice! I’ve been known to buy two or three pairs of shoes if I can’t decide which ones I want, but that is small potatoes compared to five custom designer wedding dresses. 🙂
I adore Armani. No one drapes it better, understands the architecture and flow and settling of fabric . No one. The wedding dress is diaphonously divine. Perfection.
I don’t understand the desire for a second dress.
So agree re Armani.
Both dresses gorgeous: luxe without being overdone or over-detailed, elegant without being austere, she’s wearing them, they aren’t wearing her. Wow the Lord does hand out some uneven hands of cards, doesn’t He?!
It’s a beautiful dress but it seemed like no one really cared about this wedding. Will&Kate they are not.
I liked Kate’s dress better.
As if they care! The Borromeos (and Marzottos, btw I LOVE Marta Marzotto attitude all weekend alongside Fernanda Casiraghi! Two proud grandmas) are an aristocratic family of old money, so no Beatrice is nothing like Middleton (apart from the fact she does work as a journalist, has a master in Columbia and if you go to her twitter can see she is very conscious about social issues). Not to mention she is truly elegant and fashionable, unlike certain duchess.
Thanks for more royal stories, Kaiser!
Haakon and Mette-Marit of Norway were there with her son, Marius. I liked her early on, but she makes it difficult. MM never has trouble with airplanes when it means a jet-set event. Why is Marius there, is he friends with any of these people? I think he’s at least a decade younger than the bride and groom. Is she’s trying to position him like the Miller sisters, so he ends up with an advantageous wealthy match?
Beatrice and Mette-Marit are friends. A few months ago they cleaned a beach in Norway together.
With CP Victoria as well. I think the reason CBers on this thread think so is that they don’t really like CP MM. You don’t holiday with vague acquaintances.
I liked MM early on, I just have trouble with her attitude in the last few years. The Scandinavian royals all seem close, so spending time with CP Victoria or CP Fred makes sense.
The relationship with Borromeo, if there is one beyond one photograph, confuses me. She’s a generation younger than Haakon and MM. Have they ever been seen together at any other time? Or just that one environmental event where they were photographed deliberately?
Plus Mette Marit is friends with Franca Sozzani who is extremely tight to the Borromeo family so they run in the same circle. And Mette Marit is also friends with Rosario Nadal and Marie Chantal Miller who are of Valentino (and he is friends with Beatrice’s grandmother Marta) inner circle, so they all know each other.
I thought it might be a connection through Valentino, so the connection to MC and RN also makes sense.
Talking about that , I miss the days in the early 00’s were all that “gang” hang up together while living in London. Rosario and Kryl of Bulgaria, Gwyneth Paltrow, MC Miller and both Pavlos and Nicholas, Lady Helen Windsor, Mette Marit and Hakoon, Jemima Khan, Cate Blanchett, Elle McPherson and Arki Busson, Stella McCartney, alongside Giancarlo Giametti and Valentino ughh those were the days. They were a fun group to follow.
All of her choices since Monaco, are great, but this wedding dress… just WOW.
indeed,,,. completely lovely.
She has fabulous taste and style when it comes to clothes. I wish she would give Duchess Kate pointers on how to dress!
It’s kind of obscene when incredibly wealthy people have a fricking gift registry. Jesus, tell people to donate to charity for christ sakes, you have enough money to buy yourself your own pots and pans.
Bride is very elegant, from her posture it looks like she did a lot of ballet. Groom looks like a Disney Prince. Well God bless you two.
She has a freakishly small head, or freakishly large shoulders