IT was the wedding of her dreams.

Actor Nicole Kidman married Queensland-born country singer Keith Urban in a romantic twilight ceremony in Sydney yesterday — and every detail was just as any little girl might plan it.

There was a grand church overlooking the sea, a Rolls Royce, and the family priest presiding.

There was a nervous groom, a walk down the aisle on her father’s arm — and reportedly a tiny moment of tension when the bride stepped gingerly into her exquisite hand-stitched Balenciaga dress and found it didn’t quite fit.

Kidman’s day started at about 8am, when the personal trainer arrived at her Darling Point mansion.

Make-up was next, then Kidman’s hair, which was allowed to spring into its natural curls, instead of being ironed flat.

The dress — described as romantic, flowing, gorgeous and the “colour of chalk”, not white — had to be altered at the last minute by a local haute couture designer who was rushed to the scene.

Across town at the InterContinental Hotel in Sydney, the groom’s family and guests were emerging.

Keith’s father, Bob Urban, said he was feeling good, and it must be said he was looking mighty fine in a handlebar moustache and a very Nashville lace-trimmed shirt.

One of Keith’s young nieces, Jessica Urban, was asked: “What do you think she’ll be wearing?”

“A dress,” she innocently replied.

At 4.15pm, six white buses arrived to take the guests to the church.

About the same time, the groom’s car — as befitting a country lad, it was a four-wheel drive — was spotted by helicopters as it crossed the Harbour Bridge.

At the Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on the grounds of St Patrick’s Estate in Manly, the crowd was already gathering.

Ann Lee, 62, of Los Angeles, was perched up high. “The one thing that’s interesting is there’s no vendors here,” she said, surveying thescene. “If this was the US, there’d be Nicole T-shirts, at least. Somebody’s missed an opportunity.”

The No135 bus to Manly Hospital was allowed to trundle through. At Manly Hospital, just up the road, nurses came out in their uniforms to watch the circus.

“We’ve told the patients you’ll have to take care of yourselves today,” joked one. “We’re out here for the wedding.”

The media amused themselves taking pictures of Lea Cotter of Bateau Bay on the NSW Central Coast, who turned up dressed as a can- can girl, with a red bustier and feathers in her hair. “I’ve only seen one of her movies — Moulin Rouge,” she said. “But I liked it.’

Across the street from the church, the students of St Paul’s Catholic College put up a sign: “To Nicole and Keith, Congratulations.”

At 4.25pm, there was a roar from

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the crowd as the Boy from Oz, Hugh Jackman, in an open shirt and even wider smile, became the first guest to arrive. He wound down the window and waved, prompting the cold spectators to hoot with delight.

He was rumoured to be early because he was performing, possibly Peter Allen’s sentimental Tenterfield Saddler.

Ten minutes later, just as the sun dipped behind the Norfolk Island pines on the beachfront, word swept the crowd: the bride was on the road.

Kidman had emerged from her home at Darling Point. She was seated in the back of a cream Rolls Royce, beside her father, Antony Kidman, who looked as wistful and as fiercely proud as any father anywhere.

Kidman’s face was partly obscured by a veil, her lap covered with roses. There was something Princess Diana about it.

She sat and smiled, no doubt with butterflies in here stomach for the long 50-minute crawl over the Harbour Bridge, up Military Road, over the Spit Bridge, past a milk bar with a newspaper billboard out the front: “Nicole nervous about big day.”

At 5pm, they flipped the switches on the fairy lights in the trees outside the chapel, all the way up the curved driveway, creating a romantic path to the church door.

When Kidman approached and saw thousands of people waiting for her, she rolled down the window, put her fingers through and waved.

Her smile was enormous. You could see the little girl in her eyes.

As the car crept towards the iron gates, people rushed forward and you could feel the sudden swell of goodwill.

Here was their Nicole, looking pretty and happy, stepping out to take a second chance on love.

“You look beautiful,” cried one fan. Kidman waved the tips of her fingers through the glass and was gone. She walked down the aisle in her Christian Louboutin heels, on her father’s arm, to the sounds of a Sydney Symphony Orchestra quartet.

In the pews were the glamorous guests: Naomi Watts, the King Kong star; Jackman and actor wife Deborra-Lee Furness; Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann and wife Catherine Martin, and Russell Crowe.

The Kidman family priest, Father Paul Coleman, a Jesuit, preached on the subject of keeping love alive.

“Make time for each other,” he said. “Do romantic things together.”

And later, Urban was expected to serenade Kidman with one of his best-selling songs. The chapel bells rang at 6.25pm and the couple were married.

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Editorial — Page 11