Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling

The path to the wedding aisle had been anything but smooth for Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden when she finally walked down the aisle last June with her longtime love, Daniel Westling.

Both had surviving life-threatening illnesses.  They met in 2002 when Victoria, recovering from an eating disorder, employed his services as a personal trainer.   For his part, Daniel was forced to undergo a kidney transplant in May of 2009.  Victoria was never far from his side while he was hospitalized. 

When she became painfully thin in the late 90's, Victoria moved to the United States to escape the scrutiny of the press.  She enrolled at Yale and began to receive therapy for her anorexia.
She has said of her eating problem,  "I felt my life was completely out of control.  All the decisions someone else was making.  The one thing I could control was the food I put in my mouth.  But there was a price to be paid, and I was the one who had to pay it."
Healthier when she returned,  her health was still precarious.  In Daniel, she found a friend and eventually a lover.  She has said, "When Daniel is by my side, I feel safe and secure."
She is now fully recovered.  But Daniel, who suffered from a congenital kidney problem that would lead to total renal failure, needed a transplant.  With his father as his donor, he got that kidney shortly after the two announced their engagement.
Victoria, who is especially close to her father, had to overcome his objections to her marrying a commoner and one who might yet have further health issues,  but she was determined. 
In the end she prevailed, and the couple married in a lavish $11 million dollar wedding that rivaled that of Charles and Diana in its opulence and splendor.

Crown Prince Haaken And His Mette-Marit

 

25 AUGUST 2001 saw perhaps the most unconventional royal wedding ever. And in the years to come, the marriage of Crown Prince Haakon Magnus to Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby may be seen as a benchmark of regal nuptials.

 Because the couple certainly did not go about their courtship in a traditional way. Soon after they were introduced by mutual friends in 1999, it became clear that this relationship was going to end at the altar.

 And so,  after an eight-month engagement and a spot of cohabitation that was frowned upon by Norway’s conservative church, the heir to the Norwegian throne took a beautiful blonde single mother to be his wife and future queen.

Today, the couple has added two more children to their growing family.

  Prince Frederik and Mary Donaldson 
The couple met at the Slip Inn, a pub in Sydney, when the Crown Prince was visiting Australia during the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Their official engagement in 2003 and their marriage the following year were the subject of extensive attention from Australian and European news media, which portrayed the marriage as a modern fairytale romance between a prince and a commoner.
They conducted a long-distance relationship by phone, email and letter and Frederik made a number of discreet visits to Australia. On 15 November 2001 the Danish weekly magazine Billed Bladet named Mary as Frederik's girlfriend.
 Mary moved to Europe in December 2001 and, while she was working as an English tutor in Paris, she visited Denmark privately and was photographed attending weddings and christenings of friends with Frederik.
 Mary and Frederik were photographed during 2003 at various private outings in Denmark. On 24 September 2003 the Danish court announced that Queen Margrethe II intended to give her consent to the marriage at the State Council meeting scheduled for 8 October 2003.
They became officially engaged on 8 October 2003.
Mary Donaldson and Crown Prince Frederik married on 14 May 2004 in Copenhagen Cathedral, in Copenhagen.
Mary wore a wedding gown designed by Danish designer Uffe Frank and had a small bridal party which included her two sisters and her friend Amber Petty, a radio announcer on commercial radio in Australia.
Frederik was supported by his brother Prince Joachim. Three of Mary's nieces, Erin and Kate Stephens and Madisson Woods, were flower girls; Frederik's nephew Prince Nikolai of Denmark and first cousin once removed, Count Richard von Pfeil und Klein-Ellguth were pageboys.
The wedding was celebrated in Copenhagen and at Fredensborg Palace. The couple reportedly spent their honeymoon in Africa.
On 15 October 2005, Mary gave birth to Prince Christian Valdemar Henri John at Copenhagen University Hospital. Frederik was present at the birth. The infant was healthy, weighing 3.5 kg (7.7 lbs) and measuring 51 cm (20 ins).
His name was announced at the christening on 21 January 2006 at Christiansborg Palace Chapel in Copenhagen. He is second in the line of succession to the throne, after his father.
On 21 April 2007, Princess Isabella Henrietta Ingrid Margrethe was born, at 3.350 kg and 50 cm long.   She was christened at Fredensborg Palace chapel on 1 July 2007 and is third in line to the throne.
On 6 August 2010, it was announced that the Crown Princess was pregnant with twins. The Crown Princess reportedly said that the pregnancy was a surprise, but another report claimed Mary wanted more children; and that the pair have denied suggestions the pregnancy resulted from fertility treatment.
 In late 2010, the family appeared in the German edition of Vogue in a series of official portraits showing the couple and their children, including pictures of Mary in profile with the pregnancy being obvious.
The Crown Princess was admitted to hospital on January 8, 2011, in preparations for the birth of the twins.  The Crown Princess gave birth to a baby boy—whom her husband Frederik joked about calling Elvis, as the "King of Rock and Roll" had the same birthdayat 10:30 am local time (weight 2.674 kg., length: 47 cm), and a baby girl at 10:56 am (weight: 2.554 kg., length: 46 cm.), on January 8. 
 Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary left the hospital with their newborn twins on 14 January 2011. The names will be made public at their royal christening on Thursday, 14 April 2011, to take place at the Church of Holmen in Copenhagen.