Pierre Casiraghi And Beatrice Borromeo Tie The Knot In Monaco Royal Wedding

Pierre Casiraghi — seventh in line to Monaco’s throne, and grandson of Princess Grace Kelly — married longtime girlfriend Beatrice Borromeo in a civil ceremony in Monaco on Saturday, People is reporting.

Unlike royal events elsewhere in Europe, the wedding of Monaco’s Pierre Casiraghi and Italian heiress Beatrice Borromeo was decidedly low-key; the two were married by the tiny principality’s justice minister Philippe Narmino — roughly the equivalent of getting married at the country courthouse in the U.S.

Following the legal portion of their wedding day, the couple retreated to the Royal Gardens of the famed Pink Palace — traditionally the home of Monaco’s royalty — for a carnival-themed reception. Prince Albert described the event as “mostly informal,” according to Pop Sugar.

The low-key (by royal standards) wedding of Pierre and Beatrice is the latest example of a trend by some European royal families — who, by and large, are figureheads and have little to no actual political power — taking things down a notch amid hard times in Europe and the increasing irrelevance of royalty. For example: In the summer of 2014, according to this Inquisitr report, Spain’s King Juan Carlos abdicated the Spanish throne following a series of corruption scandals rocking the palace. His son, Prince Felipe, was crowned King a short time later, in a simple ceremony at Spain’s National Congress.

“This is the start of a renewed monarchy for a new time.”

Of course, the one place in Europe where the Royal Family’s comings and goings aren’t treated with a collective shrug and a sigh is the United Kingdom, where the British press — and, to a certain extent, the press worldwide — dutifully follows the happenings of Queen Elizabeth II and her clan, and the British public continues to eat it up. It seems the entire country turned up for the Royal Wedding of future-King Prince William to Princess Kate; then they turned up again for the birth of the royal baby, Prince George; then again for the next royal baby, Princess Charlotte.

Back in Monaco, it seems that Prince Pierre and his now-wife may have to put up with some glitz and glamour anyway; next weekend, another wedding ceremony will take place in Princess Beatrice’s home country of Italy. The indescribably wealthy heiress’ family intends to hold a much larger, and much more formal, ceremony for the couple on one of the family’s private islands off the coast of Italy.

Pierre Casiraghi and Beatrice Borromeo began dating in 2008, when the two were university students in Italy.

[Image courtesy of: Getty Images/Handout]