When a noble bride’s extended family contains members of the Brazilian, Belgian and Luxembourgish aristocracy, one can expect many royal guests at the wedding! Such was the case for last weekend’s marriage of Princess Alix de Ligne and Count Guillaume de Dampierre last weekend. As the bride’s father, Prince Michel de Ligne, is a first cousin of Grand Duke Henri, most of the Grand Ducal family of Luxembourg were in Belgium for the wedding. My sincere thanks to Valentin Dupont, author of Royalement Blog, for generously sharing his photos of the event.
Grand Duchess Maria Teresa repeated her black straw slice hat with ribbon twist trim, a hat that remains a great one for her. With her tan leaf trimmed suit, the hat made for a polished ensemble.
Designer: Philip Treacy
Previously Worn: June 24, 2015
Hereditary Grand Duchess Stéphanie went a more vibrant route, pairing her electric blue knit dress with a sunny yellow straw picture hat. While the hat looks to feature a double brim, it is actually a simple sedge shape with pyramid top (the brim of the base hat is just above ‘s eyebrows) with a curving, wide silk edged wrap of sorts that circles around the base hat’s brim (view this video at 1:33 for a full picture) and curling blue feather trim. While I want to commend Stéphanie’s bold use of colour, I’m not sure that the hat flatters her. There’s also something about the placement of those feathers I don’t like, perhaps because they are competing with the soaring wrap on the brim.
Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: I believe this hat is new
Princess Claire paired her peachy pink wrap dress with a coordinating straw hat trimmed in a slim cerise hatband and silk rose at the side. While the Hereditary Grand Duchess opted for too much colour, Claire’s ensemble read a little bland.
Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: I believe this hat is new
Princess Tessy got the colour mix in her ensemble just right, pairing her white dress and floral coat with a turquoise statement headpiece. I imagine the unique shape of this piece is meant to frame the wearer’s face… in this case, it looks more like it’s swallowing her up. With its mass of curling straw ribbon, it is fun design that I think would work better for Tessy if it was about half the size.
Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: June 24, 2011
Princess Alexandra repeated her embellished lace headband, replacing the band’s original lime green flower with a larger one in black silk. I’m all for renovating pieces to give them new life but the mix of Alexandra’s delicate lace dress, heavy black jacket and the flapper style headpiece felt convoluted and I’m afraid, didn’t work for me.
Designer: unknown
Previously Worn: in a previous reiteration, June 24, 2015
We seldom see the Grand Ducal family at the same event (except for National Day, which is coming up on Friday this week) and my quibbles about their hats aside, it’s wonderful to see the whole family together. What do you think of the hats they wore for this wedding?
Photos from Valentin Dupont, author of Royalement Blog and Rex/Shutterstock
Royal Hats 
Stephanie looks like an Ikea bag. Poor thing!
Maria Teresa correct as always
Maria Theresa’s hat is splendid, and she looked great. I love Stephanie’s double-brimmed hat, although the trim is not well placed and actually not bold enough – just looks like an afterthought. I really like the bold combination of colours, but the dress just looks a bit stolid, so the overall effect isn’t very polished. Claire’s hat has nothing wrong with it, it’s just rather bland and boring. Tessy’s, on the other hand, is full of interest! I actually think it works quite well, because the outfit is relatively simple (not belt would have improved the overall look), but yes, perhaps it is a bit too much curlicue. Alexandra’s headband is just disappointing.
That’s a lot of colour on Stephanie, but I feel it’s wearing her. That crochet dress isn’t nice either.
So shall we just go to M-T who I think was the chicest and best put together woman at this wedding. Not that there was stuff competition!
Stephanie’s hat is slightly the wrong shape. I think it goes out a bit too much.
Maria looks very good though. The asymmetrical line of her hat goes well with the asymmetric line of the black leaves of the coat.
Maria Teresa definitely wins the day here! Again, I think this is a fantastic hat for her, but I do agree her jacket closure is a bit odd.
Stephanie sorta got it right. I think she could pull this color scheme off if her hat was better designed. My solution: no double brim, but do it more like one of Máxima’s slice hats, and sit it a little farther back on her head, and then either attach the feather trim at the base of the crown, or remove them altogether.
Claire looks nice, but I agree the color is a bit dull for some reason; also, her hat looks to be made of milan straw, which is a nice straw, but is a bit hard to make really formal because it is naturally rough looking.
I like Tessy’s outfit, but her hat is just overwhelming. If this was more of a flat, round disc with a few loops, it would be amazing, but this is purely messy. Still not feeling Alexandra’s flapper headband.
And I love how well Henri dresses, even if it is quite understated; for a taller and thinner man, he definitely has a great tailor (which I appreciate as a taller and thinner man myself).
After watching the video from the comments in another post about the wedding, I have to say I like Stephanie’s hat a little more than I first did. These photos definitely don’t show it off well (no fault of @HatQueen, of course!); seeing the hat in motion made me appreciate it more, but I still would make most, if not all, of the changes I mentioned above. The size was definitely great for Stephanie.
I love the Grand Duke’s obvious love for his wife. It always shows in pictures of the pair!
Yes, I agree! In that photo of them, you can see him reaching for her hand. 💜
It’s almost unanimous. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa looks terrific, except for the jacket closure. Very good.
In common with several others- Maria Teresa looks fabulous head to toe, but everyone else seems like a bad case of the almost rights but not.
One in particular that stood out is the yellow slice picture hat- I love the double brim, and while the color isn’t the greatest it doesn’t bother me too much. It’s the weird blue feathers. They feel backwards or on the wrong side or something. To me they look like someone about to slide off the edge of an angled roof.
Isn’t it strange, that last week, HM looked fabulous in basically the same yellow/blue combination, and how the trim makes such a difference! As for the rest of the hats, my dearly departed mother told me many a time: “Jimbo, if you don’t have anything nice to say . . . ” (She was half Danish, half Polish, and grew up in Chicago.)
While I’m not too keen on the closure of Maria Teresa’s jacket, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen her look better. She rocks that hat! I’m fine with the yellow hat on Stéphanie, it’s the knit dress that doesn’t work for me. I really like the peach dress on Claire and the hat looks good on her from a distance, but the close-up shots it just looks like an upturned basket to me. Tessy – jacket, very nice (even though there something about the white on white design that might not be working if we could really see it); dress underneath, lose the belt please; headpiece – yowsah! Love the color, love the effort, lots of hat so I’m not sure it was successful – but I’d love to party with her. Alexandra – just start over, sorry, it isn’t working.
Gents – it seems they may have sent out a memo to wear blue ties because the groom and all of these men (except for the one with Alexandra) have blue ties. That can’t be just by chance. Love the morning attire on the men! The Grand Duke wins.
Grand Duchess Maria Teresa looked particularly well put together on this occasion; her hat was entirely suitable to her ensemble and to the occasion, and looks well on her. I cannot say I feel the same way about the usually soignee Hereditary Grand Duchess Sophie’s attire. Nothing was wrong with the shape or fit of any of the elements, but the combination of the yellow and blue did nothing for her.
Agree with gransgirl about the closure and thought the same the last time the outfit was worn. The yellow hat in a different colour would be lovely. I do like the pink outfit compared to others here. The turquoise hat is a pretty colour and goes well with the rest of the outfit minus the belt..like hat queen mentioned it is shaped strangely.
Maria Teresa looks flawless, except for the closure on her jacket photographs like a blacked-out “fashion-don’t” photo. As for everyone else, I agree with Hat Queen’s assessment completely!