Mal Fletcher comments

Mal Fletcher

'Never get married in the morning,' said Paul Hornung, 'because you never know who you'll meet that night.'

Prince William has courted his bride-to-be Katherine Middleton for a decade and he clearly sees no need to meet anyone else. The forthcoming royal wedding is great news for the happy couple but it also presents a welcome shot in the arm for a nation that's growing weary of its post-recession, austerity-era blues.

As my fellow Australian author Kathy Lette noted today, Britain often behaves as if 'optimism is a form of eye complaint.' This wedding offers an opportunity for some collective cheering up.

Of course, any wedding is or should be a major cause for festivity. Weddings bring people together to celebrate not just the love of a certain bride and groom, but the marriage bond itself, which has held societies together for millennia.

If weddings were merely about signing a legal contract, or a romantic day out, even royal weddings would hold less attraction for us. Even in these often cynical times, marriage is still seen as a covenant and a wedding involves the exchanging of vows and the intertwining of two lives into a common cause.

A royal wedding carries the extra sparkle of uniting a nation - and reminding us of the core values that shape our shared cultural worldview.

Yet while we look forward to a huge festive occasion we must remember that a marriage is at hand and not just a party.

While we may all share in the joy of a royal wedding, we shouldn't expect a share in the ups and downs of the marriage itself.

For months to come, the 24/7 news media and news chatterers on social networking sites will bombard us with information about the young couple.

Major media outlets have already established special taskforces, ready to feed the voracious wedding news beast.

Even as news of the engagement broke, broadcasters were plugging 'specials' on the royal couple, some of which went to air within hours of the announcement.

The last British TV-wedding-of-the-ages took place more than a generation ago. My young adult children were not alive to watch the marriage of Prince Charles to Lady Diana - and so much has changed since that day in 1981.

Their engagement announcement was entrancing, if a little stilted, and the wedding was the stuff of fairytales.

After a long and sometimes awkward search for a suitable bride, Charles had finally presented the world with someone who seemed the very epitome of English beauty and poise, with a hint of winsome naiveté.