Princess Louise of Prussia in Baden, and everyone spoke with affectionate pride of their grand duke and duchess in Constance, where the couple had a summer residence. Louise was a great friend of Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse, her sister-in-law's younger sister; i.e., Alice was the sister of Victoria, Louise's brother Frederick's wife, both sisters being daughters of Queen Victoria. The two often visited each other. In Queen Victoria's letters, she and Frederick were always referred to with pleasure or sympathy as "good Fritz and Louise of Baden". Though friends as young girls, Louise and her sister-in-law Victoria, Princess Royal ("Vicky") always had a
Princess Alice of the United Kingdom given away by her uncle, Albert's brother Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and was flanked by four bridesmaids: her younger sisters, Princesses Helena, Louise and Beatrice, as well as Louis's sister Princess Anna. For the ceremony, Alice wore a white dress with a veil of Honiton lace, and wore a tiara designed by Prince Albert, but was required to wear black mourning clothes before and after the ceremony. The Queen, sitting in an armchair, struggled to hold back her tears, and was shielded from view by the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred, her second son, who cried