Marie-Chantal's engagement ring

I'm feeling kind of lazy today, so I'm going to make a short, small blog entry about MC’s engagement ring.

The ring features an heirloom cabochon sapphire that once belonged to Pavlos’s mother, Queen Anne-Marie, with a heart-shaped diamond on the side, a personal touch of his.

Pavlos presented the ring to MC in December 1994 while they were on vacation in Gstaad, Switzerland.

I'm not sure if Marie-Chantal still wears her engagement ring; usually when we see pictures of her at events she's wearing her hefty pear-shaped diamond ring that was a gift from her mother, or she's wearing a frequently-seen sapphire ring that is most likely designed by JAR, her favorite jeweler. And, more often, she just doesn't wear one. All I hope is that we haven't seen it in recent years because she's keeping it to give to Maria-Olympia when she gets older.

Wedding of Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece and Marie-Chantal Miller

To start off with the first entry of this blog, I wanted to do something simple and easy, something that wouldn't require me to do a whole lot of research, so I thought what better way to begin with a wedding dress entry?

Well, actually, I want to start with the civil wedding attire. I don't know the designer of the suit that Marie-Chantal wore, but my best guess would have to be Valentino, for obvious reasons. My second best guess would have to be Chanel. (I don't know the date of the civil wedding; I assume it was June 30 because, usually, civil weddings take place the day before the religious wedding.)

The picture posted is, unfortunately, one of three pictures I've ever been able to find on the internet. I actually didn't even know MC and Pavlos had a civil wedding until I found these.

MC and Pavlos after the civil wedding ceremony

Next we have the pre-wedding dinner, which was hosted by the Miller family two nights before the wedding. The dinner - which nearly 1300 royals, socialites, heads of states and fashion designers, just to name a few, from all over the world attended - was held at the Wrotham Park estate in Hertfordshire, England. MC wore a blue celadon taffeta embroidered Valentino ball gown for the occasion.

Marie-Chantal at the pre-wedding dinner (left); MC on a carousel horse her mother surprised her with

And now that you have a little taste of MC's pre-wedding day fashion, even though it is only a little taste, we finally move on to MC's wedding gown.

Marie-Chantal and Pavlos on their wedding day

Marie-Chantal’s Valentino wedding gown was created of pearl-encrusted ivory silk studded with rose appliques and a 4.5-meter train of Chantilly lace. The gown, which reportedly costs about £150,000 ($225,000), took twenty-five seamstresses four months and twelve different kinds of lace to make.

In November 2013, the gown was put on display at Valentino: Master of Couture at Somerset House in London. The exhibit was open from November 29, 2012 to March 3, 2013.

The dress on display at Somerset House