Wedding in Belgium (Part II...)

(... Part II, because the first of the weddings of my cousin Charles Antoine de Ligne's sons was in September 2009 and some of my loyal readers might remember it, since I wrote a post on it...)

Yesterday was the turn of Charles-Joseph de Ligne, who bears the same name of his distinguished ancestor, one of the most interesting characters of the 18th Century because of his Culture and his friendship with many of the greatest people of his time, among which was Catherine the Great. He held a long epistolary friendship with her and all those letters are carefully secured in the Castle in Antoing. And it  was there, in Antoing, that we all gathered again to celebrate.

But there were some differences with the wedding of his brother: Charles-Joseph married Ran Li, a beautiful girl from China. I think, in fact, that she is the first Chinese to become princess in Belgium and probably among the few in Europe. For me it's like a breath of fresh air when the antique European families incorporate young people from other cultures. 

The wedding indeed, thanks to Ran's Chinese influence, was really sensational and fun. To begin with, the dress code for the ball asked for looks resembling the style of the "Deuxième Empire," which was the time of Sissi the Empress. For almost a month, all of us guests organized together the frenetic search over dresses with huge skirts for the ladies and uniforms for the men. Rental houses were sacked! As for me, to simplify matters, I decided that an Oscar de la Renta, as usual, would do the trick. All I did, then, was get myself a tiara to finish the look.

Yesterday's afternoon we had the civil ceremony, because as the groom and bride belong to different religions, there was no ceremony at a church.

And at night, as I got to the ball, I could see that all the guests have done important efforts to fulfill the dress code... I felt as if I had travelled back to 1870!!! 

The dominant color of the decorations of the tent were dinner was held was red. The bride herself wore a red dress, as it is a custom in China (she told me this). Gerard Watelet (from Belgium, of course), was the designer in charge of it. The groom looked so handsome with his white and red uniform and hair tied in a ponytail.

As we had dinner, a Chinese all-women-ballet with infinite grace, danced to entertain us. And after the traditional waltz, none of our huge skirts held us from dancing to disco music and rock... I guess that, seen from outside, we must have looked quite ridiculous... But who cares?

Lots of luck to Ran in her new life...

(Me with Hubert Guerrand Hermès (yes, the sane of the bags!) and the Baron de la Vallette)