The King and Queen of Sweden celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this month, and on Saturday they hosted friends and family in Stockholm for a day of festivities to mark the golden milestone.
King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden will mark 50 years of marriage on Friday, June 19, and on Saturday, they celebrated the milestone with a full day of events. During the day, the royal couple and their guests attended a Te Deum service and luncheon the Royal Palace, a cruise along Stockholm’s waterways on the Vasaorden, a carriage procession through the streets of Stockholm, and a concert in the Royal Garden. In the evening, they were treated to a concert at the Royal Opera House and a private dinner at the Royal Palace.
For the daytime events, most of the Swedish royals were in attendance: Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel with Prince Oscar (as Princess Estelle is currently away on a school trip); Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia with Prince Alexander, Prince Gabriel, Prince Julian, and Princess Ines; Princess Madeleine and Christopher O’Neill with Princess Leonore, Prince Nicolas, and Princess Adrienne; and Princess Christina and Tord Magnuson.
For the daytime celebrations, Queen Silvia wore a red dress and tweed coat with a matching hat, shoes, and handbag. The coat features beaded embellishments on the collar and buttons.
Silvia added more sparkle with diamond and pearl drop earrings from the royal vaults. She also wore two more special jewels. The gold medal suspended from golden chains is the Seraphim Medal, Sweden’s most prestigious award of merit. She received it on Thursday personally from the King, who wished to recognize her half century of particularly significant humanitarian efforts.
Above the medal, Silvia wore a sentimental new diamond ribbon brooch featuring her portrait beside that of her husband. The romantic jewel, per @theroyalsandi on Instagram, was made by the Thailand-based jeweler Beauty Gems.
There were few other brooches on display on Saturday, because the guests at the event were presented with a special new medal to commemorate their attendance during the anniversary celebration. On Saturday morning, Prince Carl Philip and Princess Madeleine handed out the medals at the Royal Palace before the Te Deum service began, and guests arrived for the service wearing the medals pinned to their jackets and dresses.
But there were other pieces of interesting jewelry worn. Crown Princess Victoria, who wore a butter yellow jacket and skirt, accessorized with gorgeous antique diamond and pearl earrings and a favorite gem-set bracelet.
Princess Madeleine wore a white jacket with a modern floral motif and a matching skirt. She added a coordinating hat and a pair of diamond earrings that echo the floral design of the drops on the Connaught Diamond Tiara. (Could they actually be two of the smaller drops? I’m not sure!)
Princess Sofia wore pink for the occasion, and though her hair obscured her earrings in most photographs from the events of the day, you get a glimpse here of the bold statement earrings she chose to wear with the look.
The youngest of the King’s sisters, Princess Christina, wore black and white for the occasion, with pearl and gold jewelry accessories.
There was also a significant contingent of members of foreign royal families in attendance. From left to right here in the first row are Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine of Serbia; Prince Philip and Princess Danica of Serbia; Princess Benedikte of Denmark; and Princess Takamado. Sitting behind them in the second row, from left to right, are Prince Gustav and Princess Carina of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg; Prince Leopold and Princess Ursula of Bavaria; Princess Kelly and Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; and Princess Anna and Prince Manuel of Bavaria.
Most of the foreign guests on hand wore the expected daytime formal jewels, including small diamond earrings and pearls. Here’s a closer look at the pearl earrings and necklaces worn by Princess Benedikte and Princess Takamado.
Sadly, the evening events on the program didn’t have a white-tie-and-tiaras dress code, but the black-tie gala attire still gave us plenty of opportunities to see the royals wearing interesting pieces of jewelry. Queen Silvia arrived for the evening concert wearing a pink and green dress with a shimmering floral beaded bodice, made by one of her favorite designers, Georg et Arend.
She wore the same medal and brooch that she’d worn earlier in the day, along with a diamond rivière necklace from the royal vaults and the earrings from the family’s gorgeous demi-parure of antique pink topazes.
Crown Princess Victoria wore a sparkling Christer Lindarw gown from her closet for the occasion. We saw her wear the same dress during the Danish state visit to Stockholm in 2024.
She accessorized with pavé-set diamond pendant earrings, a fascinating modern necklace with a pale gemstone centerpiece, and a bold silver bracelet.
Princess Madeleine dipped into her mother’s wardrobe archive to find a dress to wear for the concert and dinner.
Queen Silvia memorably wore the same dress during the Norwegian state visit to Sweden in 2005.
Instead of her mother’s diamonds and pearls, Madeleine opted to wear a modern pair of pink statement earrings with the dress for the dinner.
For the concert and dinner, Princess Sofia wore a soft floral evening gown that would have looked right at home at the royal couple’s wedding in 1976. It’s the same one she wore for the Polar Music Prize in 2023.
She continued the floral theme by wearing a pair of leafy gold earrings with pearl drops, plus rose quartz, tourmaline, and diamond accents.
One of the most delightful surprises of the day was an appearance by the King’s eldest sister, 91-year-old Princess Margaretha, who lives in England and rarely appears in public these days. She wore pearl and diamond cluster earrings and layered pearl and gold necklaces with her evening jacket and skirt.
Princess Christina wore a fabulous tropical floral print gown from her closet for the occasion, accessorized with a suite of pearl and pale gemstone jewels that we’ve seen her wear for various events over the years. (Scroll down here for a memorable appearance of the set at the Nobels in 2018.)
Two of the royal couple’s closest regal friends, the King and Queen of Norway, also made it to Stockholm for the banquet. Their appearance is very good news considering Queen Sonja’s recent health difficulties, as well as the general state of things in royal Norway at the moment.
Sonja wore a favorite pink evening gown from her wardrobe with a modern lace overlay on the bodice. She accessorized with the earrings, necklace, and bracelet from her suite of modern gold jewelry. The set was made in the late 1990s by the Norwegian jewelry designer Millie Behrens, and it features several different configurations with different gemstone accents. This particular setting features bright orange fire opals.
Princess Takamado was elegant in gray for the occasion, while Princess Benedikte chose a favorite gown from her wardrobe in two bright shades of coral pink.
Benedikte accessorized with diamonds and pearls, including a fabulous diamond necklace and a diamond and pearl pendant. We memorably saw her wear the pendant at the New Year’s Levee in 2024.
Princess Takamado wore a lovely suite of pearl jewelry—earrings, necklace, and bracelet—with lovely diamond and sapphire cluster accent pieces.
No major jewelry for Crown Princess Katherine at the dinner, but she choose a lovely gown that came with sparkling accents of its own.
Her daughter-in-law, Princess Danica, wore a gorgeous sleek navy and white gown for the occasion with a dramatic off-the-shoulder neckline.
Her jewels included the same beautiful diamond and emerald earrings that she wore recently for King Carl XVI Gustaf’s big 80th birthday banquet.
Princess Ursula of Bavaria chose a black-and-white gown with a sequin bodice and a patterned skirt for the dinner, paired with pearl and diamond jewelry.
Here’s a better look at her six-row pearl necklace and her gorgeous diamond and pearl earrings.
There were also gala ensembles for several more of the other foreign royal friends in attendance, but I haven’t been able yet to license photographs. I’ll update the post to include them should they become available!
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