BRIDE AND GROOM
Count Rodolphe de Limburg Stirum
Count Rodolphe de Limburg Stirum was born at Brussels on 20 March 1979.
His parents are Coun Christian and Countess Colienne de Limburg Stirum née Countess d'Oultremont. Count Christian de Limburg Stirum is the brother of the late Count Evrard de Limburg Stirum, husband of Princess Hélène of France.
They live at the family estate at Huldenberg near Brussels.
His paternal grandparents are Count Thierry de Limburg Stirum and Countess Marie née Princess Marie Immaculée de Croÿ.
His maternal grandparensts are Count Eugène d'Oultremont and Countess Madeleine née Countess de Liedekerke.
As eldest of four children, Count Rodolphe has a sister, Marie, and two brothers, Philippe and François-Guillaume. He followed primary and secondary school in Huldenberg and near Brugge.
In 1996 he organised and took part in an humanitarian tour in Bosnia-Hercegovina, to help rebuilding houses that were destroyed during the war. In 1998 he led a group of 15 young Belgians in Mexico to help a local organisation building a nursing institution.
In 2004 he finished a Bachelor education in International Affairs and Economics at the Vesalius College of the Free University Brussels.
He started his carreer at a big Belgian company in Louvain, as marketing assistant, afterwards worked at Deloitte Consulting, and then entered Dexia in Paris. He now works for a big international banking company in Brussels.
He loves skiing, tennis and swimming. He speaks fluently Dutch, French, English and German.
Count Rodolphe de Limburg Stirum is founding member of Super Day, an organisation that engages itself in providing wonderful moments for poor children and that works together with Toiles Enchantées, a society that installs small cinemas in hospitals.
Archduchess Marie-Christine of Austria
HI&RH Archduchess Marie-Christine of Austria was born in Brussels on 31 July 1983. She is the daughter of TRH Archduke Christian of Austria and Archduchess Marie-Astrid, Princess of Luxemburg and sister of Grand Duke Henri.
Her paternal grandparents are Archduke Carl Ludwig of Austria and Archduchess Yolande née Princess de Ligne. Her grandmother will attend the wedding.
Her grandfather died on 11 December 2007. His funeral took place at the cathedral of Vienna. He was buried at the Capucine Crypt next to his mother, Empress Zita. The husband of the latter, Emperor Karl of Austria-Hungary (great-grandfather of Marie-Christine) was beautified in 2004 by Pope John Paul II.
Her maternal grandparents are TRH Grand Duke Jean (87) - who will attend the wedding - and Grand Duchess Joséphine Charlotte, sister of the late King Baudouin of Belgium and of King Albert II. Grand Duchess Joséphine Charlotte died in 2005.
Archduchess Marie-Christine is the eldest of five children. She has three brothers, Imre, Christoph and Alexander, and one sister, Gabriella, 14, who will be bridesmaid.
After primary and secondary school in Genève, Switzerland, where her family lives since 20 years, she studied in England. She afterwards spent several months in Chile, to help in an humanitarian programme for poor people.
Afterwards she studied psychology with as speciality psychomotricity at the Higher Institute Marie Haps in Brussels. During this education she had a five-month trainee-job in an institution for children with severe motricity problems.
In 2007 she worked several weeks in Beirut (Lebanon) in an institution for handicapped children.
She loves sport, nature and travelling. She fluently speaks German, French, English and Spanish.