After Diana, this is the Royal marriage that has to work

What I do know is that this wedding is huge. It’s important for the future of the monarchy and it is without a doubt the biggest Royal wedding since Charles and Diana married 30 years ago. That fairytale was doomed and ceremonies which came since never quite captured the public’s imagination as much.

Prince Andrew’s was a joyous affair, with the bubbly Sarah Ferguson frolicking her way into the Royal family. Another mistake, as it turned out, and Prince Edward’s marriage to Sophie Rhys-Jones was relatively low-key, with the ceremony at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.

It’s little surprise there has been so much hype surrounding the wedding of William and Kate compared to past royal events because this marriage has to work. William is second in line to the throne. One day he will be our King and Kate will be our Queen. In the years since Charles and Diana married, royalty and celebrity have become blurred.

A big celebrity wedding always causes a stir, but this is much more than that, it’s a major public and global event, which will be watched by two billion people across the world.

If William and Kate could have got away with a small bash, I’m sure they would have much preferred it. Harry has already said as much. But as he put it: “We are who we are and the position comes with the role”.

He’s right and while expectations of this royal wedding are high, I hope and believe that William will turn out to be a new breed of royal husband. He certainly seems to have the right qualities.

One of my favourite memories of him was just a few months after his mother’s death. William and Harry went to Canada with their father. In Vancouver, the crowds seemed to be made up entirely of girls in various stages of hysteria. They went wild when they saw William. He blushed to his roots and looked unbearably shy, but he also rather enjoyed his first brush with super-stardom.

During just a few hours, I watched him grow in confidence as he went walk-about and later I was told that Harry was secretly egging him on, “Go on Will give them another wave,” he’d say and then fall about laughing as the girls screamed proposals of marriage to his big brother.

Crucially, William has also had a taste of life outside of the royal family. At university he found out what it is like to go to the supermarket, to do the cooking, wash-up and clean the loo and despite the pressures upon them, he and Kate have been able to lead something approaching a normal life. It’s what William loves and they, while they will be regarded as public property from now on, stand a reasonable chance of a normal existence in Wales for a little while as William pursues his RAF career.

He has spent 10 years deciding that Kate is the right woman for him and now I think he’ll make a great husband.

Likewise, Kate has already carried out a few engagements with William and looks like a natural. She didn’t seem at all nervous and the crowds loved her. So much, in fact, that on their second outing together in Scotland, William was back in the car waiting while Kate was still busy shaking hands with everyone.

She brings a vital ingredient to her new role: maturity. Unlike Diana, who was barely 20 when she was thrown into royal duties, Kate is coming up to 30. She’s had some experience of life and having been given time to get an idea of what life as a royal will be like, she’s decided she can handle living in a goldfish bowl.

The only advice I would give to her is stay approachable and remember that she is now a hugely valuable commodity – everything she does, says or wears will be scrutinised and if someone can make money out of it they will.

In 1981, a real party atmosphere swept the country. It will be interesting to see how much effort people put into this wedding, but it is still a day of brilliant British pomp and pageantry; an important step in establishing the continuity of the monarchy and of course, for most a well-earned day off.

Jennie Bond will be judging Flickr’s People’s Royal Wedding Album which is aiming to take a snapshot of what the royal wedding actually means to the country. The public is being asked to upload a photograph of how they spent the wedding weekend. To take part go to flickr.com/groups/peoplesroyalwedding.