Original painting: Royal bridal bouquet

IT'S DONE!

{Original acrylic of Crown Princess of Sweden, Victoria's actual bridal bouquet}

It's finished! I knew almost a year before the Crown Princess of Sweden, Victoria's wedding that I wanted to paint her bridal bouquet and then give it to the couple as their wedding gift. Why not!? The goal is to hand-deliver it at the Castle during our trip at the end of this year.

{Done on gallery wrapped canvas measuring 24x18x1.5 inches (61x46x3.8)}

The 12 hour long coverage of the royal wedding was very moving and all of Sweden were celebrating their love. It was a week long love fest which culminated on June 19 when we first saw Victoria walk down the isle alongside her father, the King of Sweden. Luckily for us Swedes living outside of Sweden, the Swedish TV streamed HD quality live TV 12 hours straight from the day. Yes, I watched every single minute with my mom. It was amazing and much more of a personal royal wedding experience than any other royal wedding I've watched.

{a 4 minute recap of the 12 hour long royal wedding coverage}

Very generously, the Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel shared their special day with the Swedish people. We watch the marriage ceremony, the cortege through central Stockholm, the journey via boat across Stockholm Bay, the speeches during the reception, the cake cutting and even their first dance around midnight. WOW. It was wonderful, and for a true romantic like me - a tear jerker!

The song played during the above clip was written for the occasion at the request of Daniel as a tribute to Crown Princess Victoria. Adorable.

{A sketched out version to capture all the details and the finished painting}

I started this painting back in January and posted a couple of updates about it (see here and here) so you could follow along in the process. Then things got busy and since I didn't have a deadline for it, I put it aside for awhile. Now, almost in time for their first anniversary, I'm so happy to share the finished version of this painting. I love its tender and romantic feel.

{Vårt bröllop}

I worked off of several photos to capture the accuracy of this bouquet - from the arrangement to the details to the lighting. Mostly, I used a closeup of the bouquet included in the book Vårt bröllop to get the actual arrangement right.

{detail work}

According to the Royal Family's website, the Crown Princess´s bridal bouquet consisted of a mixture of traditional Swedish summer flowers and more exotic flowers: Lily of the valley, rose, phalaenopsis orchid, peony, clematis, cosmos, wax flower, sweet pea, dicentra formosa, Mårbacka pelargonium, Amazon lily, gardenia, azalea, bleeding heart and the traditional myrtle from Sofiero. All the flowers are white, and the bouquet is tied into a free teardrop shape.

{Princess Madeleine and Queen Silvia walking on the powder blue carpet to the Cathedral}

I choose the soft blue background color for several reasons. To me, it symbolizes the Swedish summer and its many lakes, the Swedish flag (yellow and blue), the pale blue carpet which led from the Royal Palace all the way down the aisle at the Stockholm Cathedral and the royal order of the seraphim which Daniel received right before leaving the church as a prince (see top left photo).

If you want to read more about the wedding, the bride's dress, her beautiful tiara (a gift from Napoleon a long time ago), check out the wedding section of the Swedish Royal Court or check out this blog post for some royal wedding guests.

If you're interested in seeing more bridal bouquet paintings,  check out the bridal bouquet and commissions sections.

xo,
e.