Sweden's Crown Princess Weds Former Personal Trainer

(June 19) -- Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria tied the knot today, marrying her former personal trainer Daniel Westling in a day of ceremony involving an air force flyby, saluting sailors and a longboat propelled by 18 oarsmen.

Victoria was married at around 9:30 a.m. ET in Stockholm Cathedral at a wedding attended by representatives from the royal families of Belgium, Spain, Jordan, Monaco and Britain, CNN reported.

The royal couple emerged from the cathedral after the ceremony to a gauntlet of crossed sword before a horse-drawn carriage whisked them through streets lined with cheering multitudes.

At Stockholm harbor, they boarded the longboat and waved to sailors saluting from ships and a submarine while a formation of 16 fighter jets performed a flyby.



Westling, 36, is the son of a postal worker and a retired social worker. He owns a chain of gyms and got to know the future Queen of Sweden when she began working out at one of them.

He will now be known as Prince Daniel, Duke of Vastergotland.

"The queen's main task is to support the king, and in my case, it is to support the crown princess, in their very important work," Westling said, according to CNN. "That is my goal long term."

Not everyone in Sweden is thrilled at the pomp and circumstance. Anti-royalist sentiment has been growing in the Scandinavian country of late. A recent study by Gothenburg University showed that 22 percent of the country wanted the monarchy abolished all together. That's up from a mere 15 percent six years ago.

Nearly 60,000 people joined a Facebook group called "Refuse to pay for Victoria's wedding!", blasting the use of public funds to pay for the crown princesses lavish nuptials.

Another controversy erupted over the style of the ceremony itself. In Sweden, the bride and groom traditionally walk down the aisle together, rather than having the bride given away. This is said to symbolize both partners entering the marriage willingly.

Victoria wanted to be escorted down the aisle by her father King Carl Gustaf XVI, Al Jazeera reported. This prompted media outcry, and an archbishop denounced the idea as backwards step for women's liberation.

In a compromise deal, both the King and Westling walked the crown princess down the aisle.
Now 32, Victoria Ingrid Alice Desiree was just a toddler when the Swedish order of succession was changed in 1980 to make the monarch's eldest child, regardless of gender, first in line to the throne. She thus edged out her younger brother, Prince Carl Philip, and will become the fourth reigning queen in Sweden's history on the death or abdication of her father, King Carl XVI Gustaf.

The young princess sometimes found the spotlight harsh. The press began complaining that the teenage princess was a little plump, and one magazine sniped that she looked as if she had "eaten too many hamburgers." In late 1997, the king and queen released a statement acknowledging the 20-year-old Victoria had an eating disorder and was receiving professional help.

The fairy-tale wedding has been a welcome relief for the royal family, which has been dogged by scandals. Earlier this year, Prince Carl Philip, 31, dumped his fiancée for a 26-year old reality TV star who has posed topless with a python.

"It's just great," Lennart Soderstrom, 61, told The Daily Telegraph. Westling "doesn't come from royalty. He's an ordinary person like you and me."