Kidman weds Urban in romantic hilltop ceremony

SYDNEY: Hollywood superstar Nicole Kidman on Sunday married country singer Keith Urban in a romantic twilight ceremony on a beachside hilltop in the Sydney surfing suburb of Manly.

The elegant, strawberry-blonde Oscar-winner put the pain of her divorce from movie heartthrob Tom Cruise behind her as she made her vows to the new love of her life in the gothic-style Cardinal Ceretti Memorial Chapel.

Kidman, wearing an ivory Balenciaga gown and veil with drop-pearl earrings and with her wavy tresses falling naturally to her shoulders, was accompanied down the aisle by her father Antony.

Her sister Antonia was matron of honour and her 13-year-old adopted daughter from the marriage with Cruise, Isabella, was bridesmaid.

As the bridal party arrived in a pair of black Rolls Royce limousines, Kidman won the hearts of hundreds of cheering fans braving the winter chill by winding down her window and thanking them for coming.

"She was very, very friendly, so gracious and so, so nice," said Matthew Smith, a US student from Miami who is touring Asia and Australia.

"They slowed down and opened the window. I was very impressed by her kindness and the Australians were so gracious to her -- in the States it would have been mad."

With helicopters hovering overhead, the bridal convoy then wound its way up an old gravel carriageway lit by fairy lights to the ornate sandstone chapel in the grounds of St. Patrick's College.

The imposing 19th Century former Catholic seminary overlooking the ocean is now an international hospitality school.