Tensions with the archbishop, the future prince's health problems and the soaring cost of the festivities are just some of the controversies surrounding the run-up to Swedish Crown Princess Victoria's June 19 wedding.
For her big day, the 32-year-old princess has expressed a wish that elsewhere might sound commonplace: She wants to be led to the altar by her father Carl XVI Gustaf and given away to her husband-to-be Daniel Westling.
However in Sweden, renowned for its gender-equality, the request has caused quite a stir, with Archbishop Anders Wejryd openly expressing his disapproval and calling on the couple to follow Swedish tradition and walk side-by-side to the altar.
The drama, illustrated last week with front-page spreads in the Swedish press with pictures of a crestfallen princess and an imposing-looking archbishop, has made unlikely allies of traditionalists and feminists in a fight against what is widely viewed here as an American tradition exported by Hollywood.
"Giving away the bride is a fairly new phenomenon that occasionally happens in the Swedish Church," Wejryd, who will be performing the ceremony next month at Stockholm's Saint Nicolaus Church, or Storkyrkan, told Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet.
"I generally advise against it, since our wedding ritual is so clear when it comes to the equality of husband and wife," he stressed.
The giant price tag for the wedding festivities, paid for with Swedish tax-payer money, has also become a bone of contention, and the number of people calling for the monarchy to be abolished has steadily risen as the big day draws near.
Less than a month before the nuptials, about a quarter of Swedes would rather see their country turned into a republic, according to a recent poll conducted for the Swedish Republican Association.
The royal court has estimated the total budget for the festivities to be around 20 million kronor (2.0 million euros), but that amount does not for instance include massive renovations of the Storkyrkan Church, where the ceremony will be held, or the Haga palace where the couple will live after the nuptials.
A recent decision by the king to pay the tab over the 10 million kronor allocated by the government has done little to sooth tensions, seen as he and his family owe much of their fortune to an annual multi-million-euro allowance financed with tax revenues.
Anger and frustration has popped up, among other places, on the Internet: A Facebook group called "Refuse to pay for Victoria's wedding" for instance counted 56,000 members on Monday.
Another group called "If I have to pay for Vicky's party, I fucking want an invitation," had more than 2,000 members, and the group "Those of us who think Victoria should pay for her own wedding," counted nearly 400.
In the lead-up to the royal event of the decade, Victoria's German Brazilian-born mother Queen Silvia was finally pressured to acknowledge that her father Walther Sommerlath had joined the German Nazi party as an expatriate in Brazil in the 1930s.
She insisted however that he did so simply "because he wanted to support Germany. He was not politically active."
That explanation has however done little to appease critics claiming only the most ardent supporters of the Nazi ideology joined the party that early, especially from abroad.
Victoria's future husband, a 36-year-old luxury gym owner, has meanwhile faced a wave of rumours in recent months that a kidney transplant he received last year had left him with a life-threatening infection.
"I feel better than ever," Westling insisted, in an interview with commercial television channel TV4 earlier this month, speaking of his disease for the first time.
In an attempt to calm fears that his illness would be passed on to the future heir to Sweden's throne, he also stressed that "this is not something that is hereditary ... There's no reason to worry about that."
Amid the controversy, breathless commentary about the preparatory details fill Swedish media, which are planning blanket coverage on the day the "I dos" are exchanged.
Media is already rife with speculation about the wedding gown, which is shrouded in utmost secrecy, descriptions of the future royal couple's bachelor and bachelorette parties, and commentary about how quickly they will start a family.
Among the details filling the press is the name of the chef set to cook the royal wedding dinner for some 500 guests: Stefano Cantenacci of the famous Operakaellaren restaurant, which has cooked for most large royal events in Sweden since 1961.
Also recently leaked is the name of the two steeds picked to pull the wedding couple's carriage through the streets of the Swedish capital: Felix, 16, and Max, 18, according to the Dagens Nyheter daily.
And as Stockholm braces for the tens of thousands of tourists expected to flock to the city in the weeks surrounding the wedding, numerous trinkets and ornaments bearing the royal wedding seal are already crowding shop shelves.
Pink embroidered slippers, mugs, plates, stamps and coins embellished with Victoria and Daniel's portraits, boxes of royal wedding chocolates and special raspberry cupcakes dedicated to the couple.
According to the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, the wedding is expected to generate extra revenues for city shopkeepers and others of more than 100 million kronor.
