
First wedding at Muster chapel
MUSTER virgins Tracey Lee McLean and Darren Peter Cummins were not aware that Nick Erby was a broadcasting celebrity until he married them in front of a small crowd in the Muster Chapel on Saturday afternoon.
It was the first wedding to take place in the purpose-built chapel, where ring bearers, witnesses and Muster ambassadors Chelsea Basham and Peter Denahy, gave a special performance for the couple's bridal waltz.
Tracey was a stunning bride and Darren looked calm and collected in his Wrangler shirt and Akubra - the only things giving away his nerves a small trickle of sweat down his left temple and the belt loop he had missed on his jeans.
Dire Straits' Romeo and Juliet played as the pair walked down the dirt floor "aisle", Tracey carrying a small bouquet of native flowers and wearing a fitted, sleeveless satin gown. Her hair was swept up in an elegant, loose braid.
The couple made the "random decision" to book their wedding at the Muster after Tracey read about the chapel online.
They travelled up from Newcastle on their own, leaving their sons Blake and Finn with relatives.
Thirty-two-year-old Tracey is a dietician at the hospital there and Darren, 38, is a coal miner.
"This is our first Muster," said Darren after the ceremony was over. "But it won't be our last that's for sure."
Chelsea's rendition of Let You Lead, from her new album, left not a dry eye in The Meeting Place tent where the chapel was set up.
But comedian Peter's tribute to the wedding, a song called Tracey's (and Darren's) Wedding, was a slightly altered version of another song and much livelier.
