Preparations for King’s Day in Maastricht are in full swing. For example, a flower shop in Maastricht is already practicing putting together the royal bouquets that are worn on King’s Day. And that goes hand in hand with the necessary secrecy.
“I can’t really say too much about it”, is the first reaction of Loes Smeets of flower shop Frissen Pieters in Maastricht. The company has been around for 125 years and is therefore the official supplier to the royal family. That will also be the reason why two years ago contact was made with the company to put together the bouquets for King’s Day. But because the party was canceled due to corona and took place in Eindhoven a year later, the municipality made contact again a while ago. And Loes and her husband were interested in that. “It’s quite an honor to do this.”
ladies in waiting
To show a number of bouquets, Loes was with the ladies-in-waiting of the Royal family on Tuesday. “I had made seven bouquets and three of them were selected,” says Loes, who is not yet allowed to show the bouquets. “Of course there is orange in it and Ukraine is also included in it,” is all she wants to say. And with that, the most important colors have already been revealed. Although no nondisclosure agreement has been signed, many things are still an open secret. For example, the Government Information Service (RVD) has not yet announced which members of the royal family are coming to Maastricht. But because Loes has the guest list to see who she has to put together a bouquet for, she is still aware of who is coming. But she doesn’t want to say anything more than that the three Princesses Amalia, Alexia and Ariane are there.
children
What is already clear is that 44 children from the 44 Maastricht neighborhoods will bring the flowers to the family on King’s Day. A number of children will also personally hand over the bouquets. “But if I now say how many children it concerns, you already know more or less who will be coming,” says Loes. The final bouquets will, incidentally, only be put together two days in advance.
doubt
It is a nice order for the Maastricht company, although it does not receive a cent for it. It is seen by the municipality as sponsoring. And that while entrepreneurs were already having a hard time in corona time. Because her business is located along the King’s Day route, she also has to close the business for another three days. “If there hadn’t been corona, I would have thought this was fantastic, but now I doubted whether we wanted to do this. But my husband gave the last push.”