Oscar-winning beauty Grace Kelly left Hollywood behind and married into the royal family of Monaco on 18 April 1956.
The first ceremony was a civil ceremony on the 18th, the second was a church service the next day.
We all kind of know the story, including the tragic ending when Princess Grace gets killed in a car accident in 1982. Grace Kelly was a Pennsylvania girl who made it big in Hollywood, then became a European princess. Weird.
Even weirder is to remember that her Hollywood career was really only about five years long. Grace Kelly was 26 years old when she got married. By that time she’d made a classic western (High Noon) and three movies with Alfred Hitchcock (Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and To Catch A Thief).
She’d also been nominated twice for an Oscar, as a supporting player in Mogambo, and as the best actress for The Country Girl. She won for The Country Girl.
Then she made High Society with Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, and then she was off to Monaco, so that American reporters could ask her questions about children she hadn’t even planned to have yet.
This year would have been the 56th anniversary for Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace. Except for that part about her dying in 1982 and him dying in 2005.
The traditional wedding gift for a 55th anniversary is emeralds, and the traditional gift for a 60th anniversary is diamonds. You’d think the traditional gift for the 56th would be something in between, like spinel or topaz. According to the internet, however, there either isn’t a traditional gift for the 56th anniversary, or it’s wrought iron.
Wrought iron. I wonder who thought up that one. “Happy Anniversary, Grandma and Grampa, here’s your new wrought iron gravy boat!”