WEDDING AND BIRTHDAY BALL

Amsterdam, January 31st, 2002
Two days before the wedding Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands invited the wedding guests for a dinner and a huge ball held at the Palace on the Dam Square in Amsterdam. It wasn't only the wedding ball, but the Dutch royal family and their guests also celebrated the 64th birthday of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Foreign guests arrived in Amsterdam early on January 31st, in time for the ball. Among others the Queen herself, Prince Constantijn, Princess Laurentein, Princess Margriet, Princess Irene, the Prince of Orange and Máxima Zorreguieta already arrived at the palace around 15:30 in the afternoon. More than 500 guests arrived in cars, smaller and bigger busses early in the evening, part of them even from the Krasnapolsky Hotel on the other side of the square. Security was high these days. Hundreds of people, including many journalists and photographers, stood behind the fences to get a bad glimpse of the known and less known guests. Some hours later the first guests left. At about 22:45 the first to leave were Prince Guillaume and Princess Sibilla of Luxembourg, quite quickly followed by Prince Laurent of Belgium. Many of the younger guests didn't leave until after 3:00 in the morning. During the ball bride and groom danced on 'New York, New York'.