Wedding of Prince Marcantonio del Drago and Countess Giada Dobrzensky de Dobrzenski 

Lady Gabriella Windsor and Princess Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis joined Royal and Noble Guests at the Wedding of Prince Marcantonio del Drago and Countess Giada Dobrzensky de Dobrzenski in Prague 10 years ago!

Prince Marcantonio del Drago married Countess Giada Dobrzensky de Dobrzenski at the St. Thomas Church in Prague with Lady Gabriella Windsor and Princess Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis among the Wedding Guests.

He belongs to one of the most illustrious and ancient dynasties of Rome, that of the Princes del Drago. She was born Dobrzensky of Dobrzenicz, in this count’s house of Bohemia from which also descended Princess Pedro d’Alcantara of Orléans and Braganza, mother of the late Madame the Countess of Paris. And this consecration of the love of Giada and Marcantonio is indeed the alliance of two lines. “Our families have been friends for four generations,” explains the groom. “My great-grandfather, the French ambassador François Charles-Roux (Edmonde’s father), met Count Radslav Kinský von Wchinitz und Tettau, Giada’s great-grandfather, when he was stationed in Prague. They both shared a passion for horses. And it was in our family that the Kinskýs took refuge when they fled the Czech Republic, at the closing of the Iron Curtain, in 1948.” It is therefore not surprising that the biggest names from Mitteleuropa, Schwarzenberg, Liechtenstein, Lobkowicz; from Italy, Orsini, Ruffo, Lucchesi Palli; and from France, Pourtalès, Castellane, La Tour d’Auvergne…

The wedding was celebrated at the Augustinian Church of St. Thomas in Prague, where Giada—a debutante at the first Point de Vue Ball in 1994—arrived radiant in her Marian blue gown, arm in arm with her father, Count Hendrik Othmar Dobrzensky of Dobrzenickz. The newlyweds’ consent was received by the Very Reverend Father Julian Large, Dean of the London Oratory. After an initial reception hosted by Count and Countess Dobrzensky at The Augustine Hotel, the newlyweds and their guests embarked on a romantic voyage up the Vltava River to Troja Castle. The seated dinner for 250 guests was lulled by the strains of a Viennese waltz, the precursor to a ball that lasted until the first light of dawn. They all met the next day, about a hundred kilometers from the capital, for an informal buffet at Karlova Koruna Castle, a jewel of Baroque art by the architects Santini Sr. and Sr., returned to the Kinský family after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Giada and Marcantonio left their parents and friends there for their honeymoon. Before settling into a new life. He is a consultant and investment specialist. She is a yoga teacher and coach for celebrities seeking wellness. And this young cosmopolitan couple will divide their time between London, Lausanne, Rome, and Paris

Countess Giada Dobrzensky de Dobrzenicz wrote about her Wedding for Finiks.

Then…. a few weeks before the wedding I was the victim of a hit and run in London whilst on a zebra crossing. It was a really random and traumatic experience and for nearly 2 weeks I was bed ridden in agony, crying a lot, broken, bruised and wondering/doubting if I could get over to Prague and actually get through all the wedding hullabaloo that I’d been planning for months…it was definitely an unexpected low point and threw a spanner into the works. Luckily my parents and Prague based team ensured that all the last minute wedding details were locked down. I was forced by this accident to focus on healing and to let go of trying to be in control of my wedding.

So after a few weeks of healing, acupuncture, osteopathy and focused meditation in London… I flew to Prague under some special assistance in a wheelchair with my wedding dress and suitcase etc…wearing sunglasses, because I found it kind of embarrassing to have to travel that way.

Once in Prague, I had some very busy days to do all the necessary civil side of getting married and last minute logistical things including attempting to do my ideal seating plan since I was unable to oversee that post accident. I had been warned it was a really important and stressful part of the planning and in my opinion, a well curated seating plan can make the difference between a good event and an amazing event.

Great introductions have the potential to change lives and to affect destiny. Once I got out to Prague I did my best to trust all was well and just go with the flow in order to enjoy this once in a lifetime experience that my family, my fiancé and I had been working towards for months.

Well….we did it and the entire wedding was of course beautiful, magical and emotional.

It felt like I was teleported into another dimension wearing the perfect dress, in the perfect locations, marrying the perfect man for me and feeling really alive and happy after weeks of trauma, shock and pain.

Countess Giada also wrote about her Wedding Dress for Finiks.

I discussed my very 1970’s bohemian couture dress ideas with a shop assistant who informed me that my idea was actually going to be very costly as it involved many peplum layers of varied embroidered laces in different textures and so I told her about my plan B idea for a dress that had the same sleeves and bodice and neckline but was more flowing and medieval with a train rather than layers of eclectic embroidered lace.

I was totally stuck on the idea of having a square neckline and transparent, puffy, halo, wing-like 1970’s bell sleeves and kept returning to this favourite retro picture as a reference.

I called Finiks for a bit of a consultation and some moral support on my new fabric and design direction- goodbye to heavy peplum lace layers and hello to organza, silk and chiffon medieval bohemian.

I knew I didn’t want to have a white dress as I had seen blue and white dresses in my dreams- shades of blue at the front with a white train at the back.

On top of the base layers of blue grey silk, we found the end roll of this incredible hand woven embroidered white silk with blue flowers from Italy for the ball gown part of the dress. After much contemplation, I settled on this embroidered organza for the sleeves and top of the dress.

I left the shop with a beautiful bag of fabrics, exhausted from being way in deep over my head in the land of textiles, but so inspired by the experience of such a creative process and grateful for the amazingly helpful and informed fabric shop assistant and the team at Finiks just a phone call away.

I returned a few days later to the studio with the fabrics and further discussed the new design ideas. Snezhana got back to me a few days after with some sketches so we could agree on and lock down the design including which bits of fabric would be going where.

Once all the design aspects of the dress had been agreed I was measured again but in very specific detail and I left them to it for a few weeks until I was invited back in for a toile trial of a plain cotton version of the dress, very simple and pretty.

Snezhana and Lily were very comforting and kind when I explained that I would probably not be able to wear heels or lift my arms up above my head to get the dress on because I had sustained several injuries from the crash. They offered to customise the dress so I could easily get in and out of it.

I was very impressed to see the solution they had come up with by adding a transparent zip going all the way from the cuff of the sleeve down under the arm to my waist for ease of getting in and out of the dress as well as simplifying the buttons on the cuffs of the sleeve and extending them on one side to fit around the cast- the solutions were genius, worked really well and were very discreet.

Getting out of my recovery mode apartment eventually, to try that customised genius of a dress on cheered me up so much. It also made me really want to get better physically and mentally as quickly as possible and get over to the Czech Republic and marry my wonderful man in a beautiful dress in Bohemia.

They also put in a small lightweight hoop so I wouldn’t trip on the dress if I ended up wearing trainers instead of high heels. I had bought a beautiful pair of custom handmade lace covered wedges on etsy which I wore only for the ceremony and although beautiful, due to the accident it was far too painful wearing heels.

They also made me an organza sling, so that the wedding guests wouldn’t constantly grab my arm when saying hellos and congratulations, which I discovered people naturally do when leaning in to kiss or try and hug a bride. The organza sling was helpful in keeping my arm in place and a subtle reminder not to grab onto me too tightly and kept my arm elevated in a much more chic way than the navy blue felt NHS sling

And the silk veil was the perfect icing on the cake really…

The hairstylist on the wedding day pinned the veil on my head literally 2 seconds before I made my way to the church and she tucked it into my hair bun instead of tucked right behind the tiara. Unfortunately when it was put over my face for the ethereal church entrance, the veil was suddenly much shorter in the front then intended, it still covered my face though. I learnt that it’s important to practise the hairstyle with the veil and tiara to avoid any last minute wardrobe malfunctions.

I knew that with a beautiful big draping bouquet, I’d be able to hold it in front of my cast and hide it for most of the wedding photos so I commissioned a bouquet in my favourite primary colour combination of red, blue and yellow with a bit of white. This was also the colour theme for the wedding party outfits and all flower arrangements.

Two years later, Prince Marcantonio and Princess Giada del Drago had a Wedding Reception at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club in Vancouver.

Giada Dobrzensky de Dobrzenicz got an easier-to-render name and a title upgrade from countess to princess with her 2015 marriage to Prince Marcantonio del Drago in Prague’s St. Thomas church. This week, parents Enrico and Aline Dobrzensky staged a reception for the couple, daughter Aurelia and 150 guests. They occupied the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club’s main dining room, not the less formal Star & Dragon restaurant that Britain’s Prince Andrew opened in 2003 while delivering a Thames Yacht Club burgee. The del Dragos live alternately in France, Switzerland and Brighton, England, a town made fashionable in 1815 when yet another prince, later King George IV, moved there. Meanwhile, they are renovating and plan to live in a 1,000-year-old castle the del Dragos have owned since the 1500s in the near-Rome village of Riofreddo. It means Cold Water which, as pelting Vancouver rain, was the motif for director Giada’s 2001 short film Mon Amour Mon Parapluie that producer Paul Armstrong revived for this week’s Celluloid Social Club screenings. In other water matters, the del Dragos should awake refreshed in all their homes. That’s because investment specialist and computer whiz Marcantonio designed a mattress with mutually compensating hydraulic chambers that, according to its U.S. patent, “form a structure enabling a body to rest.”

Finiks

Kent City of London Fringe Tiara

Aquamarine Brooch

Kent Festoon Tiara