Among the guests at the royal couple's coronation were Marie's sister "Baby Bee", the Duke of York and French generals Maxime Weygand and Henri Mathias Berthelot, who had led the French military mission to Romania. The ceremony was conducted by the Metropolitan of All Romania, Miron Cristea, but it was not performed inside the cathedral as Ferdinand, a Roman Catholic, refused to be crowned by a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church. After placing his crown on his own head, Ferdinand crowned Marie, who had knelt before him. Immediately, cannons were fired as a sign that the first king and queen of Greater Romania had been anointed. A feast was given in the same room where the union had been proclaimed in 1918; there, more than 20,000 peasants were offered roast steaks. The following day, Ferdinand and Marie triumphantly entered Bucharest. The splendour of the coronation was subsequently cited as evidence of Marie's theatricality. Marie would be received into the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1926, mentioning a desire to be closer to her people.