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ROYAL FAMILY

Swedish royal wedding date announced

Sweden's Princess Madeleine will marry US banker fiancé Chris O'Neill in Stockholm on June 8th, the Royal Court confirms.

Swedish royal wedding date announced

The wedding will take place in the Royal Palace church (Slottskyrkan) in Stockholm, newspaper Expressen revealed today.

“It was expected that we would announce a date. I can confirm that we have decided on June 8th,” Royal Court spokesman Berrtil Ternert told the TT news agency.

“We cannot say more at this point. We will have more information a bit later,” added Ternert.

The couple decided on the place and date for the wedding after consulting King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, Expressen reports.

The timing of the announcement is not surprising, according to Roger Lundgren, editor of Kungliga Magasinet, a publication focused on news about royalty.

“They are gathered for Christmas and were due to set a date so the announcement was expected,” Lundgren told TT.

He added that the choice of venue was evident, too. The Storkyrkan church, where Crown Princess Victoria married, is too big, said Lundgren.

“Victoria’s wedding was three times bigger than Madeleine’s will be. This is a more intimate wedding.”

Princess Madeleine and Chris O’Neill exchanged engagement rings in New York in the autumn but kept the engagement secret for one month.

The engagement was officially announced in October.

News of Madeleine and O’Neill’s relationship first surfaced in media reports in early 2011 and in February of this year, the Royal Court confirmed that Madeleine and O’Neill had been living together in his Manhattan apartment since November 2011.

O’Neill made his first official appearance with the royal family in Stockholm at the May 2012 baptism of Princess Estelle.

While in New York, the princess has been working with the World Childhood Foundation, a charity for marginalized children set up in 1999 by her mother.

London-born O’Neill, 38, works in finance and is currently a partner at Noster Capital, which has offices in New York and London.

The couple said O’Neill proposed in early October after asking the King’s permission.

“It was a very romantic and intimate proposal, but more details about the proposal we want to keep to ourselves,” Madeleine said.

She added that they plan to continue living in New York for the time being.

Madeleine’s older sister is Crown Princess Victoria, 35, who married Daniel Westling in June 2010. They have a daughter, Princess Estelle, born in February.

She also has a brother, Prince Carl Philip, 33.

TT/The Local/nr Follow The Local on Twitter

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WORKING IN SWEDEN

Swedish Royal Guards scrap ceremonial helmets over safety concerns

The King’s mounted Royal Guards will no longer be able to wear their iconic ceremonial helmets on parades, after the Swedish Work Environment Authority warned of serious safety concerns.

Swedish Royal Guards scrap ceremonial helmets over safety concerns

“We take the safety of our employees extremely seriously and we are going to address this immediately,” colonel Stefan Nacksten, head of the Royal Guards, wrote in a statement. 

Employed by the Armed Forces, the Royal Guards are the King’s cavalry and infantry units and are a well-known sight at ceremonies in Sweden, including at the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace of Stockholm every day in summer – a popular spectacle for Stockholmers and tourists alike.

The helmets will no longer be used by Royal Guards on horseback from July 7th, as they do not conform to safety standards for riding helmets, although guards parading on foot will still be permitted to wear them.

They are part of the 1895 parade uniforms and were last modified in 2000. The Armed Forces will now create an entirely new helmet which looks the part, but is also safe for riding.

“We’re working on finding an alternative solution as quickly as possible which meets safety requirements and can also be used during parades,” Nacksten said.

“We’ve been working long-term with this issue but now that it has been assessed [by the Swedish Work Environment Authority] we need to take measures immediately,” he added.

“This is good, and now we’re working to make sure something good comes out of this and we can get a safe riding helmet for parades in place as soon as possible.”

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