Victoria decided she was ready to be married after all. Just a few days after Albert’s return to England, Victoria wrote to Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister, to inform him of her decision to marry Albert. Melbourne supported the choice. As Queen, Victoria was the one to propose. On October 15, she sent for the Prince and asked him to marry her. She was thrilled when he accepted.

The wedding was a triumph. Lord Melbourne declared, “Nothing could have gone off better.” The Queen’s wedding to Prince Albert had started several traditions: white wedding dresses,   elaborate cakes, and a sprig of myrtle in royal bouquets. Royal weddings now held but during the daytime. The very profile of a royal wedding as a public event was established by Victoria, and that tradition seems here to stay.

That tension—between the personal and the political—infused the marriage from the beginning. There was love and attraction, and there was a desire to rule for both of them. Albert was not agreeable to a secondary role, and he was eager to become involved in government. As one pregnancy followed another, Victoria was literally unable to keep up with her work. Her worry about being away for two or three days was swallowed up in the dangerous and arduous experience that was pregnancy and childbirth in her time. Within months of the marriage, Albert had moved his writing desk next to Victoria’s so he could participate in her work. Despite her resistance in the earliest weeks, Victoria eventually welcomed his help.

In face of needing to create a new model of royal marriage and royal family life, Victoria and Albert started with an astonishing wedding and moved on to a marriage full of children, technological progress, international success, the Great Exhibition, and a new way of celebrating Christmas. Out of this they created a complicated marriage that changed Britain and the world.

History shows us what's possible.