Chris O'Neill is Still Just Chris O'Neill

My grandparents have been staying at my house for a while, and I spend a lot of time each day talking to my grandmother about the British royal family. It's always fun talking to her about that, because she was around my age, when Queen Elizabeth became Queen, and she finds royalty quite interesting. She's never bored by the things I have to say, and also genuinely impressed by my knowledge of the subject, which isn't surprising, considering that until I told her otherwise, she thought that Princess Margaret was still alive.

On Saturday, I was watching Princess Madeleine of Sweden marry Christopher O'Neill on the Internet. This is the first royal wedding I've seen in entirety since William married Kate two years ago, and I'd forgotten how boring these weddings actually are once you've seen all the royal guests arrive. In some ways, this was better than William and Kate's because I could correctly identify a lot of royals, and yet in some ways it was worse, because there were a lot of royals missing. I didn't see Princess Letizia or Princess  Queen Maxima (which might become a regular thing now; as Queen, Maxima is too important to attend foreign weddings, and the Princess of Orange, Catharina-Amalia, is too young to stay away from her parents), but it was still lovely.

Afterwards, I had to look at the official pictures, because the image I was receiving via the live stream wasn't all that clear, and when I saw Madeleine's gown properly, I did a double take. It looked familiar; but I just couldn't place it. So I thought and I thought and I went over ever person I'd ever seen get married in my mind, and then I got it. Madeleine was wearing Melissa Bannon's wedding gown with a train. And some extra detailing.

Or, now that I think about it, maybe not.

I am extremely disappointed that Chris O'Neill chose to retain his name, and not adopt a royal title. If I was marrying royalty, I would jump to the chance of becoming the Duchess of Someplace Fancy. I'm also slightly disappointed that the couple is moving to New York. For two reasons. One, Sweden will have lost someone who can pull of nearly every tiara there is. And two, there's room for one Princess in the Big Apple, and that princess is Princess Mia.

I am, however, immensely pleased with the fact that Madeleine did not wear the Cameo Tiara, as most people expected her to, but instead went with the Modern Fringe! And that Princess Estelle came!

And she had her own little seat too!

Oh, Estelle. I'm going to miss you once I focus all my attention on the new royal baby. Speaking of which - only one month to go!

N