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Like it or not, I think at heart more of us are romantics than we care to admit. Who doesn’t enjoy a good love story? My own favourite is Brief Encounter in which nothing really happens and the true love is the forgiveness of Laura’s patient husband. I always shed a little tear at his final line, ‘Thank you for coming back to me.’ And so of course many people love a Royal Wedding and yesterday’s announcement was exquisitely timed. Just as the deepest gloom of winter starts to bite, we can lose ourselves in the love of a happy couple and maybe look forward to the Disney-style glamour and sparkle of the marriage. There is of course a risk that the pomp and fluff of a fairy-tale wedding distract our attention from the reality. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will soon take profound promises of commitment, they will give themselves away to each other to the exclusion of all else. And these are promises that need to be lived out far from the crowds and sparkle of a celebrity wedding amidst the mundane realities of daily living. One of the challenges that confront parish clergy is helping couples to understand the profundity of promises which, for people of faith, are made in the presence of God. It is very easy to say the words ‘in sickness and in health,’ but having spent much of the past week witnessing the beautiful devotion of a woman whose young husband has suffered a stroke, I’ve seen the amazing courage and generosity required to live them out. ‘Love bears all things,’ writes St Paul, words that for me took on a new meaning as I watched that woman stroking her husband’s hand as he lay in his hospital bed. Fortunately Meghan Markle seems to be a person with her feet firmly on the ground. A self-made and successful actress and entrepreneur, she has been courageous in openly talking about her mixed race identity. She is a passionate campaigner for human rights and has travelled to some of the toughest places in the world to give voice to the poor and oppressed. And she is marrying a man who himself knows many of the harshest challenges that life can throw at a person. Prince Harry’s courage in describing the pain of grief and his struggles with depression have released many, particularly men, to be honest about feelings they might otherwise suppress. So doubtless there will be glamour and pomp and fluff on the wedding day. But behind it all, here are two grounded, compassionate people whose love for each other has the potential to do immense good. It certainly won’t be dull. In fact it could be remarkable.