True love for soldier

Lee and Stephanie Hastings tied the knot recently, but not before they overcame some obstacles.

First of all, Stephanie was studying for a degree back in her home nation of America and she met Lee when she was visiting friends in the UK.

Another problem came with Lee, a grenadier guard, about to serve a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Observer readers will recognise Lee as he kick-started a newspaper appeal for readers to send messages and 'essentials' to his fellow troopers while they were away.

The pair stayed in email contact after their intial meetings but Stephanie had almost given up hope. "I came back to America and told my friends, 'right guy, wrong time'," she said.

The pair stayed in touch via email and luckily met up again last year when they attended the wedding of a mutual friend.

"It just felt so right," said Stephanie. "So we decided to go for it. I didn't know, but he had told his friends I was the girl he was going to marry and I had said the same things to my friends. I don't know what it was. I made sure I could graduate early so we could be together."

The pair were married at the Guards Chapel in London. "We had a guard of honour," said Stephanie. "It was perfect."