It was the biggest royal wedding Europe had seen since Britain's Elizabeth married the nephew of Constantine, onetime King of Greece. On hand in white tie and diamonds were five kings, four queens and 46 princes and princesses. "Like the old fairy tales," gushed a U.S. newsman. There were monarchs from the egalitarian kingdoms of Norway and The Netherlands, and out-of-season princelings and grand dukes from the royal boneyards of Lisbon and Estoril. From Britain came Princess Margaret and her commoner husband, Antony Armstrong-Jones; Tony wore elevator shoes to make himself taller than she is, and drew more cheers than any visiting member of the wedding party.

The Belgians seemed delighted with the dark-eyed Spanish girl King Baudouin picked for their queen. When the 30-year-old king met her a year ago—reportedly at a Swiss cocktail party to introduce him to the very eligible 24-year-old Infanta Doña Pilar of Spain—Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón, 32, was the unmarried one of the wealthy Marqués de Casa Riera's seven children, and busying herself with churchgoing, charitable works and formidably chaperoned visits to the beaches and tennis courts near San Sebastian. Baudouin took her on a tour of Belgian cities last September. Her modest ways and faraway smile made a big hit with his Flemish and French-speaking subjects alike. On the wedding morning, pictures of the royal couple smiled from every shop window in the land.