On October 31, 2026, Princess Maria Immaculata of Liechtenstein and Georgian-born Zurab Dzidziguri married in an Orthodox ceremony at St. Peter’s Church (Peterskirche) in Vienna. Princess Maria Immaculata is the second daughter of Prince Gundakar of Liechtenstein and Princess Marie of Orléans. The groom is the brother of Princess Kristine de Bagration, the wife of Prince Juan Bagration of Georgia.
Princess Maria wore a white wedding gown with a long train and a turquoise and diamond peacock tiara, created in 1926 by the Kreuter jewellery house in Hanau for the Princely House of Thurn and Taxis. The groom wore a traditional Georgian chokha, accessorised with a dagger. A chokha is a woolen coat with a high neck.
Princess Maria met Georgian-born Zurab Dzidziguri during a visit to Tbilisi in 2021. The couple kept their relationship private for a long time. Before the wedding, Zurab Dzidziguri personally met with Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein to seek his approval to marry the princess. Princess Maria Immaculata and Zurab Dzidziguri also met with Shio III, Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia, who gave his blessing to their union.
Gosh. The church photos look like they could have been taken many hundreds of years ago. With bullets big enough to down elephants and multiple swords, I find this uniform frightening. Does anyone have information to help me understand this choice?
ReplyDeleteThis is a traditional Georgian military uniform. I agree it looks really odd, but they all look like this, with the daggers and cartridges. The choice was simply to wear his country's military uniform.
DeleteAs it says in the description, the groom chose to wear a traditional Georgian Chokha, and the dagger and sword are an absolute must to wear along with it. The bullet holders are not real (though they once were), they are called Gazyrs, decorative breast pockets still having the shape of ammunition cases. They also protect the wearer from stab wounds (nowadays a rare thing to happen; it's all about tradition).
Delete@21:08, everything you have to do is 1. read the text the admin gave us: "The groom wore a traditional Georgian chokha" to be informed that this is a national costume and then 2. look it up in Wikipedia. What is difficult to understand about wearing a national costume for a wedding? I also don't really believe that you are frightened - you are mocking the outfit. It tells more about you than about the Georgian costume.
Delete@21:08, me again: The church is of course old, it is in the inner city of Vienna and if a country was lucky enough that old buildings, churches and palaces were not destroyed in the wars, then yes, the inside looks like many hundreds of years ago. This is called: history.
DeleteAlso interesting the caption says "a dagger" but, I see two. I'm sure there's some sort of rich history here that my formal education system failed to share. :-)
DeleteHalloween?? Sorry, I'm jokeing.
DeleteThe only serious reason I can think of is tradition.
This is standard Georgian traditional dress for men, which has evolved from military uniforms. It’s most commonly black in color. The cartridge holders are always part of it, as are the daggers. The “bullets” aren’t real nowadays, but are reminders of when this was really military uniform.
DeleteBeautiful bride wore a fascinating Peacock tiara & the links of white orchids. Lovely lace dress but not the high waist design. The comment from Anon (21:08)- bullets big enough to down elephants 😆😂🤣 !!!
ReplyDeleteFashion wise; I love the bouquet. My personal taste is if it's a big wedding, with a big catheral dress, and tiara, it requires a substantial bouquet. I hate to see a grand dress with a little danty pose.' ??? Regarding the dress, I must say, I have some questions about the quality of the frabic. The hem line, to me, looks poorly done and the fabric appears a little flimsy. But, the overall affect - especially in the setting of this grand church - is lovely and romantic. Which, I would think, is what we all would want on our wedding day. Good luck to them.
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