This Gorgeous Bride Just Married A Real-Life Prince, And Their Wedding Was Magical

At one point or another, pretty much every girl dreams of marrying a prince, but not every girl is lucky enough to find both royalty and romance. Ariana Austin is the rare exception who indeed got to ride off into the sunset with her very own prince charming. Over a month ago, on September 9, the American beauty wed Joel Makonnen—his royal title is Prince Yoel, the great-grandson of Ethiopia’s last emperor, Haile Selassie—after a decade of on-and-off dating and living abroad. The couple, who describe their union as “Old World aristocracy meets New World charm,” exchanged their vows in an Ethiopian Orthodox ceremony in Temple Hills, Maryland, that was every bit as magical as the day they met. That happened to be 12 years ago, when the groom used a pickup line straight out of a bachelor’s book, telling the Harvard grad, whom he met at a DC nightclub of all places, that she and her friend looked “like an ad for Bombay Sapphire.” Apparently that was all it took for Ariana to fall for the prince—and the rest is (royal) history.