Even Queen Victoria, who originally favoured Alix for the Prince of Wales in England, sent Her guards to play under Nicholas' window the next morning in honour of the engagement. .
Although very much in love, Alix wanted to learn the Russian language before the wedding so that she could understand the ceremony. They parted reluctantly, she to go to England with her grandmother and he to Russia. They reunited again in June in England. Nicholas brought with him Yanyshev, an orthodox priest to instruct Alix in her conversion to Russian Orthodoxy. Nicholas stayed in England for more than a month. He again, reluctantly returned to Russia. They didn't see each other until October of 1894. .
Things became bleak as Tsar Alexander III's illness worsened and exactly 10 days after Alix's arrival in Russia, he died. Less than 3 weeks later and after hundreds of love letters exchanged, Nicholas II and the now Alexandra Fedorovna were married on November 15 1894. .
The wedding was seen as a continuation of the funeral ceremonies, except she wore white. Their love carried them through many difficulties, especially the birth of 4 daughters who were ineligible to inherit the throne. The need for a male heir may have been the stressor Alexandra faced in 1902 when she experienced a phantom pregnancy the doctors attributed to anaemia. Finally a son was born on July 30 1904. Through his grandfather Alexander III, Nicholas II made Alexei heir to one of the most vast and powerful empires in the world. Through his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, Alexandra made Alexei a hemopheliac. Happiness was shattered when a week after his birth,he bled abundantly from his naval. Alexandra was devastated and she feared she could most likely lose her long awaited and cherished son. .
Criticized by the Russian Court for so long for not having a son, now they had an "invalid" and so his condition was kept secret. Alexandra was a raptuous woman as evidenced by her published diary.
