The wedding of Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, Prince of Denmark, and Marie-Chantal Miller took place on 1 July 1995 at St Sophia's Cathedral, in London, England. The wedding ceremony, hosted by Miller's father, billionaire Robert Warren Miller, reportedly cost US$1.5 million and was attended by 1,400 guests. The wedding ceremony, receptions, and celebrations combined reportedly cost Miller $8 million. The wedding of Pavlos and Marie-Chantal brought together the largest gathering of royalty in London since the wedding of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1947 and more monarchs were in attendance than at the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer.
Background
Pavlos and Marie-Chantal Miller were first introduced in 1992 on a blind date arranged by Alexander "Alecko" Papamarkou, a New York investment banker billionaire and the son of a former aide to Pavlos's grandfather King Paul of Greece. Prior to this encounter, Papamarkou had told Pavlos of Marie-Chantal, who was the daughter of his client, Robert Warren Miller. Papamarkou introduced the couple at the 40th birthday party for Philip Niarchos in New Orleans, which was given by Philip's father, Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos. According to Marie-Chantal in a 2008 Vanity Fair interview, "It was love at first sight. I knew that [Pavlos] was the person I would marry.” Papamarkou has traditionally been credited with "engineering" their marriage.
Engagement
Pavlos proposed marriage to Marie-Chantal on a ski lift in Gstaad, Switzerland, over the Christmas holiday in 1994. Following the proposal, Pavlos formally asked Marie-Chantal's parents for their permission. Pavlos's parents, Constantine II and Anne-Marie of Greece, officially announced the engagement from their residence in London on 11 January 1995. In his announcement, Constantine described himself as "over the moon about this."
The same week as Constantine's announcement, Pavlos and Marie-Chantal traveled to Fener in Istanbul, Turkey, to be blessed by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople. Prior to their meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch, Marie-Chantal announced that she would be converting from the Roman Catholic to the Greek Orthodox Church. Marie-Chantal was received into the Greek Orthodox Church on 22 May 1995 at St. Paul's Chapel in New York, with Alecko Papamarkou acting as her Godfather. Both the Greek Royal Family and the Miller family were in attendance.
During their engagement, Pavlos was attending the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. where he received a master's degree in international relations and economics in May. While at Georgetown, Pavlos's roommate was his first cousin, Felipe, Prince of Asturias. Marie-Chantal was on leave as an art history major at New York University and attended courses at the Corcoran College of Art and Design to be closer to Pavlos.
Celebrations and events
The week before the wedding, Elizabeth II hosted a tea party reception at Claridge's in Mayfair.
Marie-Chantal's parents, Robert Warren Miller and his wife Chantal, hosted an extravagant pre-wedding champagne reception, dinner, and ball for between 1,200 and 1,300 guests two nights before the wedding at Wrotham Park, a Palladian mansion in Butter Green near Sevenoaks. Two giant marquees were erected on the grounds at Wrotham Park to resemble the Parthenon, which were decorated in blue and white, the national colors of Greece. The tent and marquees were designed by Robert Isabell, a last-minute addition to the wedding planning team when he was invited by Marie-Chantal's mother to save the Parthenon tent after a miscalculation in the amount of fabric. Chantal Miller asked, "Could [Isabell] come right away?" to which Isabell responded, "I’ll take the Concorde and be there tomorrow. Get me a room at Claridge's, and we’ll put this thing together." For the party, Isabell conceived of the marquee steel structure with a floor of hand-stamped cork, a false linen ceiling, and pillars and a cornice that looked as if they were made of marble.