From Actress to Princess

“I prefer pearls on screen and in my private life”. She was beautiful, both to look at and in her personality and played one of the most compelling roles in history. She starred with such actors as Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Bing Cosby and Frank Sinatra but married a real life Prince. To act in films, she had to change her accent and, coming from a deep religious Catholic family, her parents disapproved of her acting career. Growing up, she was not considered beautiful. We know and love her as the woman who lived a real life fairytale. She was, of course, Grace Kelly.

Even though she married a Prince, Grace (and her father) still had to pay $2 million as dowry. Part of this came from her inheritance and Grace paid the rest. We find this hard to ‘understand’ considering Grace was marrying into a Royal family but it was the way things were done in 1956 in Monaco.

Prince Rainier of Monaco was born in 1923, the only son to Prince Pierre and Princess Charlotte. The Prince studied in England, Switzerland and France and received a well-rounded education. He joined the French army as a foreign serviceman in 1944, the same year his mother ‘renounced’ the throne. This meant that Prince Rainier succeeded his grandfather to the throne in 1949. He was the only heir to the throne of Monaco and could not abdicate for any reason. Duty became his life! Rainier soon became known as the wealthiest bachelor in the world and even Marilyn Monroe was ‘considered’ as a bride.

In April 1955, Grace headed the U.S. delegation at the Cannes Film Festival, where she was invited to do a photo-shoot with Prince Rainier III at the Prince’s Palace of Monaco (it was around 55m away from Cannes). The couple went on a tour of the Palace, which then included the family’s private zoo. The couple met again at a cocktail party in Cannes. Grace thought the Prince to be charming and the Prince was ‘besotted’ with the then famous actress. He pursued his future bride “relentlessly”, writing letters to Grace and sending the actress expensive gifts. Grace, eventually, succumbed to the Prince’s ‘charms’ and agreed to marry him (after a year of corresponding through letters).

Grace’s initial engagement ring was ‘fashioned’ from two family heirlooms, forming intertwining diamond and ruby circlets. A second ring featured a 10.5 carat emerald-cut diamond flanked by diamond baguettes, and she wore this during filming (in the place of a prop). The Prince proposed to Grace at her family home during Christmas 1955 and the engagement was announced on January 5th, 1956. The Prince was 32, Grace was 26. Their ‘Engagement Party’ was a celebratory Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City and it was attended by New York’s High Society.

Two weeks before the wedding, Grace and 65 family and friends sailed from New York to Monaco on the SS Constitution, and were greeted by 20,000 Monegasque when she arrived. 1,500 journalists were ‘attracted’ to the wedding and celebrations. According to the Napoleonic Code of Monaco, there were to be two ceremonies, a religious and a legal ceremony. The civil ceremony was on 18th April, 1956, and took place in the Throne room in the Palace with 80 guests. It was here that grace inherited 142 official titles on her marriage to the Prince. There was an evening performance at the Opera do Monte-Carlo followed by a gala.

The next day, 19th April, the church ceremony took place at the Saint Nicholas Cathedral, attended by 700 guests. The Cathedral was decorated with lilies, white lilacs and snapdragons, all hanging from baskets and chandeliers. The altar was surrounded by flickering candles. According to tradition, the bride arrived first with her father, and then the groom. The couple said their vows, exchanging a single ring, before kneeling to pray and receive communion. The couple left for the reception in a Rolls Royce, a gift from “the people of Monaco”.

The reception was held at the Hotel de Paris for 600 guests and 3,000 Monegasque citizens. The wedding cake was a 6 tier replica of the Palace (in sugar), and it was cut using the Prince’s ceremonial sword. Both ceremonies were broadcast by MGM. Grace had to be released from her contract in exchange. “The Wedding” was watched by 30 million people.

For the civil ceremony, Grace wore a dress of pale pink taffeta, covered by cream lace, designed as a high-necked, fitted dress with a flared skirt. She wore kid gloves and a matching Juliet cap. For the religious ceremony, the actual wedding dress was designed with lacing at the high-necked-collar, with the detailing extending to the long sleeves, with a fitted waist panel which gave way to a lengthy, billowing skirt. The dress materials included 25 yards of silk taffeta, 100 yards of silk net, peare de soie, tulle and 125 year old Brussels rose point lace. Grace wore a Juliet cap, which had seed pearls and orange blossom. Both dresses were designed by Helen Rose. The wedding dress was worked on for 6 weeks by 3 dozen seamstresses. The veil was 90 yards of tulle, the bouquet was Lilies of the Valley and Grace also held a small Bible. The Prince wore a military ‘uniform’, based on uniforms worn by Napoleon Bonaparte.

A truly beautiful wedding, one that you would usually only see in the films. This, however, was real life. Grace had to give up her acting career, as well as her American citizenship, in order to become the Princess of Monaco. Grace must have loved her Prince to give up her whole “career” and start a new life in a new country. The actress married the Prince and became the Princess. The couple were happily married for 26 years until Grace’s death. She really did live in a real life “film”!

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