After the masque hosted by the Dornish hostage, Prince Cadan Nymeros Martell, with the soon-to-be-wed Princess Daena, all that was left to happen was the wedding itself. With so many great lords and ladies present in the city—including the Lord of Winterfell, Cregan Stark—the royal marriage promised to be the most attended event since the king’s Grand Tourney the year before. The royal household, with the assistance of various courtiers, made all ready. Princess Daena was radiant in her bridal gown, and it’s said she looked forward to the ceremony, but Baelor . . . Baelor chose to fast, and to spend as much time in prayer as he could. When he could not pray, two septons did so on his behalf. The ceremony itself proved extraordinarily long, thanks to Baelor’s request that seven orations be given before the actual marriage proper; at least one lady-in-waiting fainted in the course of the long ceremony.
The feast that followed once the interminable ceremony ended was something to behold. The prince and princess were escorted by an honor guard of knights from all the Seven Kingdoms (even Dornishmen), organized with the aid of one of Lady Tully’s kinsmen. The throne room was sumptuously decorated, thanks to the efforts of the Reyna Saltcliffe, a daughter of Highgarden. Food and drink flowed for hours, as the prince and princess held the places of honor at the high dais. Yet even with such bounty before him, Baelor fasted, and septons behind his seat prayed. His brother the king, his uncle the Hand, and the Sealord of Braavos himself sat at his right. And to his left? The princess, of course, and her kinsman Prince Aegon and his lady wife Naerys, and her sisters. They presided over the festivities into the small hours, when Baelor and Daena were finally ushered off to the bedding. However, Baelor’s request that it be a decorous and godly affair also held true—no raucous unclothing and lewd jests followed, but instead the prayers of septons and septas who escorted them to the wedding chamber.
The next morning, it’s said Daena made it plain that the marriage remained unconsummated.