Neil & Kate Get Married – The Ceremony

At 6am my bridesmaids Sarah, Christine, Kerry and I watched the sun rise over the harbour from bed in our enormous suite on the 32nd floor of The Marriott Sydney Harbour. It came with our reception package – bonus! It was a perfect sunrise on what was to be a clear, blue sky day that hit 29 degrees during our ceremony.

After a leisurely chocolate croissant and hot cross bun brekkie in the city, we headed back to the suite where we were met by our makeup artist Sandra Glynn, and hair stylist Mel Neville. Perched on stools in the living room with a gorgeous view over the harbour, Mel and Sandra set about transforming us into the gorgeous quartet you see in this photo.

There were no sign of nerves or excess emotion until 1pm, when it was time for me to put my dress on. Cue tears, lots of them, and three bridesmaids desperately dabbing my eyes so Sandra didn’t have to start again! I think I was just shocked at how amazing I looked – the girls had hit their brief of “I want to look like me but better” perfectly.

Incredibly we were ready 30 minute early, so to calm the butterflies we were forced to break open a bottle of Veuve. Thankfully our gorgeous 1940s Jag convertibles from Silver Cloud Cars were early, so we were able to spend some time doing car photos out the front of the Marriott!

The drive to Bradley’s Head was full of giggles, waving Queen-style at cars, and me saying over and over, “I don’t know why I’m so nervous… I’ve been with Neil for six and a half years!”

Perched at the top of the stairs waiting to walk down, I caught a glimpse of Neil and the boys waiting – they looked so amazing we all had to have a bit of a tear-up. Word of advice, EVERYONE needs to have tissues – the bridesmaids, your dad and your celebrant! Cue my wedding march – the first bars of the Imperial March from Star Wars, followed by a record scratch and Florence and the Machine’s fab tune, You’ve Got the Love – and we were away.

As soon as we hit the bottom of the steps and I started to walk towards Neil, both of us grinning, all of the butterflies disappeared.

We’d written our entire ceremony ourselves, so it was great to get a few laughs in the right places. As expected we both had issues with the rings, but it was nothing a tight grip on the finger and a good shove couldn’t fix!

Before we knew it, our celebrant Michael was announcing us as Mr & Mrs Gooden… both of us grinning like maniacs and feeling totally papped as 100 cameras went off around us.

After a myriad of kisses, hugs and photos with our guests, the bridal party jumped into the Jags and headed to the Cook + Phillip pools for photos.  We picked this location after I saw a magazine team shooting a fashion spread here. There are some steps off Williams Street that have the most amazing background of the cathedral and water feature. We also managed to get a few cheeky shots in the bus stop – but only after we’d moved the poor school kids out of the way (sorry guys).

Moments that made us giggle:
-    A jet boat full of tourists doing a 360 right behind us as we put the rings on, then having them all cheer as they took off again.
-    The certificate blowing off the table and getting perilously close to going in the water (Jay our photographer saved the day)
-    Groomsman Gary handing Neil & I champagne then dropping a glass in front of me. Champagne turned out to be the least grubby thing on my dress come the end of the night.

Moments that made us (me) cry:
-    Putting on the dress fully made up = instantly choked up.
-    Mum arriving and promptly bursting into tears when she saw me.
-    Walking down the aisle trying not to cry, with dad on my arm saying, “Remember no crying Kate, smile” as tears ran down his face.
-    Neil wiping “sunscreen” from his eyes as I came down the steps

PICS: You can check out some of our wedding photos on Jay's blog!