Because the civil wedding of Prince Ernst August von Hannover Junior and Ekaterina Malysheva was to take place on Thursday 6 July 2017, I travelled to Hannover the previous afternoon. For me it is only an almost four-hours train ride, which unfortunately because of some delay turned into an hour extra. I met up with three internet friends for dinner. Nothing more appropriate than the Brauhaus Ernst August in the heart of the old town of Hannover, as that is where the Polterabend on Friday evening was to take place.
Although the wedding on Thursday was at 11am, we were there around 9am. We were not the only ones thinking we should be in time, as there were more fans and media hanging around in front of the Neues Rathaus (new town hall) already. None of us knew exactly what to expect. We were all hanging around, talking, taking pictures, giving interviews to German TV-channels … And there was a lady from I guess the town hall itself telling all the media it would be a private event, but that they would enter through the back.
Now, that is actually not really what I would have wanted to see from the car if I would get married. Lots of scaffolding on the back, even around the entrance for the cars. I remembered from a previous visit that there is a courtyard at the back of the building. And of course that is where the bride, groom and their guests could park their cars, or in this case minibusses. Just before 11am a car came and went inside, and as they used a car with blinded windows in the back, nobody saw anything. Some time later most media had gone and I stayed behind for a while, with only a few others still present, and then several minibusses arrived. Lucky me, Andrea Casiraghi was sitting in one of them on the front seat, more or less photographable.
As we later saw the media had entered the building, and some managed to take pictures of the bride and groom and their guests by holding cameras over the panelling placed there (we were not among them). Among the guests were at least Princess Chantal of Hannover (mother of the groom), Prince Christian von Hannover (brother of the groom) and his fiancée Alessandra de Osma, Princess Alexandra of Hannover (halfsister of the groom), Andrea Casiraghi (the groom’s stepbrother) and his wife Tatiana Santo Domingo, as well as several others. Apparently some guests also appeared on the balcony shortly. The couple was married by the Lord Mayor of Hannover, Stefan Schostok. The witnesses were Prince Christian, Dina Amer and Julio Santo Domingo. They can be seen on the official photo that was released after the wedding (see on top).
I do very well understand that the couple wanted a private civil wedding. I just wonder why the date and place and even the time were released through the new town hall some time before the wedding then. Nobody would probably have known if it hadn’t been announced. To my opinion therefore the best they could have done was posing for a minute and all of the fans and media people outside would have been completely happy. Despite of not seeing the bridal couple we had a nice day anyway, travelling to Bückeburg afterwards …