A palpable sense of excitement and anticipation ripples through the 700 guests gathered in Monaco’s Cathedral as the bride makes her entrance through the front doors and down the aisle. Her dress was worked on for six weeks by three dozen seamstresses and her hair is crowned with a veil trailing 80 metres behind her. Exactly one minute later, His Serene Highness walks up the stairs of the portico.
“Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand, do you take Grace Patricia to be your lawfully wedded wife?” asks Bishop Gilles Barthe of Monaco, speaking in French.
“Oui, monseigneur,” responds Prince Rainier III.
“Grace Patricia, do you take Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand to be your lawfully wedded husband?” asks the Bishop.
“I do,” says Grace Kelly. The groom appears nervous as he holds out the wedding ring. The bride quells his nerves and helps him slide it on her ring finger, as a choir sings and guests applaud.
Princess Grace and Prince Rainier III had the world’s first televised royal wedding on 18 April 1956. Dubbed the “Wedding of the Century” by the media, 1,500 reporters descended on the Principality’s small territory to report on the event. In the week leading up to the wedding, crowds of reporters and fans reached such a fever pitch that the government called in the French riot police. The wedding was watched by over 30 million viewers on live television and was broadcast by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios.
“For once at least, let it be recorded that imagination has been matched by reality. There is little that can be added in words to an image of this kind,” said one reporter as Princess Grace and Prince Rainier stepped out of the Cathedral into the dazzling sun, “emerging from the cathedral on the arm of her husband the Prince, Her Highness Princess Grace is a triumphal symbol of the world’s joy in youth and love.”
The wedding itself was only one part of the festivities, a joyous two-day celebration of arts, culture and national heritage in honour of the princely couple. Two weeks before her wedding, Grace Kelly sailed from New York to Monaco on the SS Constitution with 65 family members and friends. The day before the wedding, the bride arrived in Monaco and was met by the Prince aboard his yacht. In the port, they were greeted by an excited crowd.
The Napoleonic Code of Monaco required two ceremonies: a legal one and a religious one. The civil ceremony took place in the Palace throne room on 18 April and was presided over by Marcel Portanier, Monaco’s Minister of Justice, with 80 guests in attendance, including representatives from 24 nations. The ceremony was followed by an evening performance at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and a gala.
Father John Cartin from Princess Grace’s home town parish (St. Bridget’s Roman Catholic Church) accompanied Princess Grace at the altar. The cathedral was decorated with lilies, white lilac and a newly bred carnation called the Princess Grace, suspended from baskets and chandeliers. Guards of Honour from Britain, France, Italy, and the United States were stationed outside of the building. The service began with Grace’s arrival, walked down the aisle by her father, John Kelly, alongside the bridal party. The bride’s sister, Margaret, was her maid of honour. In accordance with Monaco tradition, the groom made his entrance after the bride, with trumpets signalling his arrival.
The Cake
The newlyweds departed the cathedral in a Rolls-Royce. Their reception at the Hotel de Paris had 600 guests. The Prince and Princess’s six-tiered, 200-pound wedding cake was a gift from the chefs at the Monte-Carlo Hôtel de Paris.
The cake itself was a work of art and featured a three-dimensional replica of the Palace along the bottom. The Monegasque crest was recreated in red and white spun sugar on the middle tiers and two cherubs holding a crown topped the cake. The dessert also featured a musical box with a revolving statue of the bride and groom that played Mendelssohn’s Wedding March and Ave Maria. A cage holding two turtle doves was opened when the couple cut the cake, with Prince Rainier’s ceremonial sword.
Guests are Robbed
The wedding guests included royalty and celebrities like Aristotle Onassis, Cary Grant, David Niven and his wife Hjördis, Gloria Swanson, Ava Gardner, the Aga Khan III, Gloria Guinness and many others.
On 14 April 1956, Riviera thieves stole jewellery estimated to be worth “$50,000” according to a 1956 report by the New York Times, from the hotel suite of wedding guests Matthew H. McCloskey, Philadelphia publisher, and his wife.
Prince Rainier and Princess Grace’s honeymoon was a seven-week Mediterranean cruise aboard the Deo Juvante II yacht, which was a wedding gift from Aristotle Onassis. The honeymoon departure after the reception was attended by a throng of people, hoping for a glimpse of the newlyweds.
Princess Grace and Prince Rainier were one of the earliest tabloid super couples. The Prince and Princess would later describe the wedding event as “overwhelming”, with Prince Rainier later remarking that the couple had both agreed that perhaps they should’ve gotten married in a little chapel in the mountains.
The Proposal
The couple met at the Prince’s Palace on 6 May 1955 and after seven months of correspondence, Rainier proposed to Grace over Christmas in 1955 at her family home in East Falls, Pennsylvania. Their engagement was announced on 5 January 1956 during a press conference with the couple at the Philadelphia Country Club. A celebratory ball was held in their honour at the Waldorf Astoria New York.
The Ring
Kelly’s initial engagement ring was fashioned from two family heirlooms, forming intertwining diamond and ruby circlets. During the filming of High Society, Rainier presented his fiancée with a second diamond engagement ring made by Cartier to wear during production, in the place of a prop. The second ring featured a 10.5 carat emerald-cut diamond flanked by diamond baguettes. Kelly’s family reportedly paid $2 million in dowry; half came from her inheritance, while the other half came from her own earnings.
The Dress
Princess Grace’s wedding dress is cited as “one of the most elegant and best-remembered bridal gowns of all time”. Its elegant and lavish style was a major influence on women at the time, who strove to emulate the masterpiece for their own weddings.
The gown was gifted to Kelly by MGM, designed by Helen Rose and created by the studio’s wardrobe artists. The dress was made of silk adorned with thousands of tiny pearls and 125-year-old rose-point lace, which was bought from a museum in Belgium. Prince Rainier III wore a military suit of his own design, based on the uniforms of Napoleon Bonaparte.
After the wedding, Princess Grace gifted the gown to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the wedding in 2006, the museum displayed it in an exhibition, which was reported to have been its “most popular exhibit”.
