Royal Wedding this Saturday!

H.R.H. Prince Carl Philip and Miss Sofia Hellqvist
 Photo: Mattias Edwall, The Royal Court, Sweden

This Saturday, June 13th, the wedding between HRH Prince Carl Philip of Sweden and Miss Sofia Hellqvist will take place in Stockholm. He is one of the King's three children and the final one to get married. His older sister, the Crown Princess, got married back in 2010 and his younger sister got married 2 years ago. In other words, Stockholm is getting pretty used to holding royal weddings!

The Royal Chapel, The Royal Palace
Photo: Alexis Daflos, The Royal Court

If you are visiting this weekend, here are some tips on how to take part in the festivities. The wedding itself will take place in the Royal Chapel at the Royal Palace in Gamla Stan and will start at 4:30pm. After the ceremony, the newlyweds will travel around the downtown area in the horse drawn carriage. This is expected to start at 5:30pm and take approximately 25 minutes. Click here for the parade route. It is expected to be glorious weather and there should be a lot of people lining the streets to wish the new royal couple well. If you want to see them, the best places will be by the Palace along the waterfront, at Slottsbacken or Nybroplan in the city. Unfortunately, these will also be the most crowded. For less of a crowd, take a spot on a street along the parade route. When the couple return to the Palace after the parade, there will be a 21 gun salute fired from Skeppsholmen. That evening there will be a party at the Palace for invited guests and will feature some of Sweden's top pop stars like Avicii and Icona Pop. If you are not invited, don't worry... the wedding, parade and festivities will be shown on Swedish TV all day starting at 3pm. Click here for The Local's guide to the wedding.

Norrbro, part of the parade route. Good place to stand?

Not interested at all in the royal wedding? Then just keep in mind that there will be some traffic problems. Not only during the parade itself, but also on Friday evening and most of Saturday as dignataries and visiting royalty are escorted to and fro through the city. Another good thing to know is that parts of the Royal Palace will be closed in the days before and after the wedding and will be completely closed on Saturday. Avoid bus sightseeing tours and go for the boat tours instead. Here you will find a calendar of all events and festivals going on this summer.