Princess Kate steals the show at State Banquet alongside Prince William and King Charles – best photos
The German state visit to the UK featured a gorgeous State Banquet, and the Prince and Princess of Wales were among the senior royals to lead the event
t has been a busy day for the royal family, as King Charles and Queen Camilla played host to the German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and First Lady Elke Büdenbender for their state visit.
The Prince and Princess of Wales were also part of the proceedings and the royal couple looked glamorous as they stepped out for the final event of the day, the State Banquet. Kate stunned earlier in the day when she wore a Burberry dress and royal blue coat by her wedding dress designer, Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen, a Prince of Wales feather brooch and earrings belonging to the late Princess Diana.
A host of British and German celebrities and politicians were among the 152 guests, including German supermodel Claudia Schiffer and her husband Sir Matthew Vaughn, Strictly Come Dancing judge Motsi Mabuse, who lives in Germany, former Everton midfielder Thomas Hitzlesperger, award-winning German composer Hans Zimmer and children’s book illustrator Axel Scheffler.
Taking pride of place in the magnificent room, with its vast, vaulted ceilings studded with the coats of arms of every Knight of the Garter since 1348, was a 25-metre-high Nordmann Fir Christmas tree, decked with 15,000 twinkling lights.
Scroll down for the best photos from the State Banquet…
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Charles and Camilla hosted their guests
Official photos
The King, in white tie, led the royal procession into the dining room alongside the President, followed by the Queen and the First Lady. Camilla wore a green lace gown by Fiona Clare with the girls of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Tiara, diamond earrings, an emerald and diamond necklace and the order of Germany sash.
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The Prince and Princess of Wales
The Princess of Wales was on dazzling form as she stole the show at glittering state banquet at Windsor Castle on Wednesday evening.
Kate wore a Jenny Packham dress and Queen Victoria’s Oriental Circlet Tiara, one that she had never worn before. She also wore earrings from the late Queen, the Royal Family Order and the GCVO Sash and Star at the dinner, hosted by the King and Queen in the magnificent St George’s Hall in honour of German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier and First Lady Elke Büdenbender, who had arrived earlier in the day.
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The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh were in attendance
Other royal guests
Also seated at the 46-metre mahogany dining table were the Princess Royal and her husband Sir Tim Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, along with the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke of Wellington and other German and British politicians and dignitaries.
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The Princess Royal looked lovely
Princess Anne
Princess Anne looked splendid in a white dress as she walked alongside the Duchess of Gloucester, who wore a gorgeous red outfit.
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We wish this was our dining room!
Getting ready
Royal staff had spent five days setting up the table with pieces from the Grand Service from the Royal Collection, a silver-glit dinner service dating back to 1811 and which includes dinner plates, tureens, dessert stands and candelabra, influenced by Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Oriental styles.
Meanwhile hand-picked seasonal flowers and foliage from Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, as well as flowers from The Savill Garden in Windsor Great Park, were arranged in silver-gilt centrepieces taken from the Grand Service.
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The guests had a delicious meal
Dinner suited for royalty
Guests tucked into open hot smoked trout and langoustine tartlet with quail eggs and shellfish sauce and Windsor partridge supreme wrapped in puff pastry with confit cabbage and port sauce, followed by baked Alaska with blackberry, vanilla and raspberry ece cream and coffee and petit fours.
Wine included a Château La Fleur-Pétrus, Pomerol, 1995 –chosen in honour of the year the President and First Lady married, and guests were served a cherry brandy and chocolate cocktail, created by a royal mixologist to evoke the flavour of German dessert Black Forest Gateau.
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The speech went down well with the guest of honour
The King’s speech
In a speech, the King told the President: “It seems only yesterday that we paid our State Visit to Germany in 2023, the first one since my Accession. On this and on our previous visits, you and your dear wife showed both my wife and myself much kindness. That makes the pleasure all the greater that we can welcome you here at Windsor as our guests, a mark of a very special friendship that binds our two nations.”
Referring to this year’s Kensington Treaty – a defence initiative signed between the two countries, the King continued: “The Treaty is so named because it was signed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the London Borough of Kensington … And if any relationship can symbolize the deep empathy between the peoples of Germany and the United Kingdom, it is surely that between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. My great, great, great, grandfather brought so much to this country: as an educationalist and social reformer, not least as the moving force behind the 1851 Great Exhibition.”
The President recalled how, as a teenager, he used to listen to the British Forces radio and was fascinated with British culture, saying: “Never could I have imagined that later, just a little older, that I would be a guest of the British King at Windsor Castle.”
