Wedding of Princess Alix de Ligne and Count Guillaume de Dampierre

Royal and Noble Guests and Relatives gathered from around Europe to celebrate the Wedding of Princess Alix de Ligne and Count Guillaume de Dampierre at the Château de Beloeil on this day in 2016, 10 years ago!

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Princess Alix de Ligne, daughter of the Prince of Ligne and Princess Eleonora of Orléans-Braganza, married Count Guillaume de Dampierre in l’Église Saint-Pierre de Beloeil, following a Civil Ceremony the previous day.

On June 18, 2016, the religious wedding of Princess Alix de Ligne and Count Guillaume de Dampierre was celebrated in Beloeil. The day before, the couple had been married in a private civil ceremony at the town hall, presided over by Mayor Luc Vansaingèle. Also on that day, Princess Alix renounced her dynastic rights to the Brazilian imperial throne. On the big day, under sporadic showers and overcast skies, the many guests gathered at Saint-Pierre Church, a building located a short walk from Beloeil Castle and whose crypt houses the tombs of Princess Alix de Ligne’s ancestors.

Their hands are clasped together. They don’t leave each other for a second. Throughout the ceremony at Saint-Pierre Church in Beloeil, in the Belgian countryside, Guillaume and Alix discreetly express their boundless tenderness. These hands, soon to exchange rings, are as if welded together. The emotion is palpable, and so is the love.

Princess Alix wore the Ligne Diamond Tiara

Princess Alix had revealed to us at the time that she would be wearing a wedding dress by her compatriot Gerald Watelet. However, she did not specify the details of this creation, which the eight hundred guests finally discovered when she walked slowly down the nave of the church.

It is a chiffon and ivory satin organza dress with a shaped skirt and square neckline bodice joined at the waist by a corset of embroidered lace, pearls and fringe of gold and silver passementerie in rocaille and ostrich and matching sleeve hem.

The family veil, dating from the First Empire period, is made of Alençon lace, scattered with bees, and bordered with a frieze also in Alençon lace. This lace is steeped in history: it adorned the cradle of the King of Rome, son of Napoleon I, and then came into the family through Prince Murat.

The diamond tiara, belonging to the Ligne family, was admired at length by the distinguished guests who filled the front rows. Among them were several members of royal families.

At 10 p.m., the five hundred guests returned to the tent for the wedding banquet. On the menu: crispy langoustine with lemongrass mist, followed by quail and foie gras with truffles, accompanied by Clarendelle wine, first white, then red. After a fireworks display, Alix is on her father’s arm for a waltz. And already, samba rhythms are setting the tone for a night illuminated by hundreds of candles floating in the castle moat.

Through a subtle web of alliances dating back to the reign of Saint Louis, the Dampierre and Ligne families are related to numerous dynasties. As the granddaughter of Alix of Luxembourg, the bride could count on the support of almost the entire Grand Duchy, and first and foremost, that of Henri and Maria Teresa of Luxembourg . In the aisles, princes and archduchesses, from Amedeo of Belgium to Marie-Christine and Gabriella of Austria, including Antoine of Orléans-Braganza, listened attentively as the Kyrie Eleison, Missa Luba, sung by the vocal ensemble of La Cambre Abbey in the gallery, resounded. The magnificent singing gave way to Vivaldi’s Gloria.