Julian's New Bride - Our Wedding Was So Romantic
By Patricia Fidgeon

"Love rules over everything,' sighs the new Mrs Julian McMahon as she nestles into her husbands warm embrace and they share a kiss in their honeymoon suite in Sydney.
Her voice is decidedly husky, sounding more Cher than Baywatch beach babe, but then former Brooke Burns, 22, explains she has been laughing, screaming excitedly and crying tears of joy virtually non-stop for the past few days, leaving her with little more than a hoarse whisper.
Profiler star Julian, 31 years old son of former Australian Prime Minister the late Sir William McMahon, was determined to give the love if his life a wonderful surprise for the new millennium. And he certainly did that. In fact, the surprises just kept coming for their family and friends in the US and back home in Sydney - including the news the couple would be blessed with a child early in the second half of the year.
For the past six months Brooke has been filming Baywatch in Hawaii while Julian has put in 14 to 16 hour days in LA taping the hit US series Profiler.
Dubbed one of Hollywood's most glamorous couples, they met in 1998 when it was suggested to Brooke that she accompany Julian to an awards night.
"I thought he would turn out to be an arrogant pain," Brooke says, laughing. But while it may have begun as a professional date, Brooke and Julian soon realized they were falling in love.
And although they both knew the separation caused by their busy schedules might be hard, Brooke says it was worse than they'd imagined.
In the little free time Julian had, he would hope on a plane to Hawaii so they could spend a few precious moments together. Brooke would then try to get a couple of days free to be with Julian in LA.
"Our credit cards can testify to our constant efforts to be together. The rest of the time we'd burn up the phone lines," Brooke says. "The last time Julian came out to see me, I took him back to the airport afterwards and was feeling so miserable.
"Then, just as he was about to board the plane, he said, 'I love you, Brooke, and I want you to be with me always. Will you marry me?'" Brooke says she was already crying.
"Of course, my love," was her whispered reply.
"I thought he meant we could get married in maybe a year's time. I wasn't expecting what came next."
Julian said," Good, because I've already booked our tickets. We're going to Australia a week after you get back and we're going to have the wedding there."
"I'm not big on long engagements," he added.
"I had just one week to find a dress!" Brooke says.
"But I didn't need to do anything else. Julian and his mother had organized everything.
"It was amazing - beautiful and romantic, just like he is."
Julian, Brooke and her parents, Brad and Betsy, had spent Thanksgiving together on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
So when Brooke rang to tell them she and Julian were getting married, they were ecstatic - even though it meant flying half-way around the world to be at the wedding.
They came from their home in Dallas, Texas, arriving in Australia the day after Julian and Brooke touched down in Sydney.
Brooke had spent her brief time back in LA happily shopping for her dream wedding dress.
"I used to look in the window of a shop in Beverly Hills, L'Habitude. They have the most beautiful ball gowns and I'd promised myself I was going to get one, one day.
"I knew exactly what I wanted and the first dress I tried on was perfect.
"It was really heavy satin tulle with an ivory lace-up strapless bodice with pale yellow embroidered flowers, and I wore a crystal necklace which had long pieces that formed straps going down to the bodice.
"When I boarded the plane, I had all my wedding gear in garment bags. But Julian was very good - he didn't even try to peek."
While Julian's ex-wife Dannii Minogue announced her engagement to Formula One motor racing ace Jacques Villeneuve in October, it was Julian who was first at the altar a second time.
Julian and Dannii were married January 2, 1994, amid the highest security imaginable. The lavish 250 guest wedding at Melbourne's Grand Hyatt hotel featured in Woman's Day. But the union ended after 18 months. Asked what he has taken with him from his first time as a married man, Julian quips, "The liberty of not having to talk about my first marriage."
But he wishes Dannii a happy future with Jacques.
Julian asked about 20 close friends to his second wedding, although he merely told everyone he was having a party at his mother's house.
Then, when all the guests had arrived at the Sydney mansion, Julian said, "Now, about the party. There is going to be one, but first Brooke and I are going to get married."
His friends were stunned.
Then everyone made their way to the St. Mark's Church. Darling Point - the same church where, 34 years earlier on December 11, 1965, Julian's mother Lady Sonia McMahon, married his father Sir William McMahon.
"Julian wore the silk tie his father wore on his wedding day, with a gray morning suit," Brooke says. "And to have his father's memory with us - in the same church where his parents married - made it especially wonderful."
There was no best man and no bridesmaids. Brooke's parents and Lady McMahon were the bridal couple's witnesses.
And when Julian caught sight of Brooke entering the church on her father's arm, he admits he was lost for words.
"She looked so amazing, it brought tears to my eyes," he recalls.
But Brooke says by the that stage she was more than a little teary herself. "I think I cried through the entire ceremony. This was a day I had been waiting for and praying for my entire life. It was a dream come true."
And there's still more excitement ahead now she and Julian have flown back to his home in the Hollywood Hills.
Both Julian and Brooke admit they want a big family.
"We'd like to have six children. But we're going to have one and then talk about it," Brooke says quickly.
It seems the wedding wasn't the only surprise the couple had to tell their families.
They were also about to tell their friends and their parents that Brooke was expecting their first child early in the second half of the year.
"We're both so thrilled but it was early we wanted to make sure everything was going to be all right before we told anyone," Julian says.
The baby had come as a complete surprise. Not even when Brooke and Julian were making wedding plans did they realize the baby was on the way.
For Julian, his wedding and the impending birth of his first child has capped off the most rewarding time of his life. He says he knew a year ago, shortly after they met, that Brooke was the woman he wanted with him for the rest of his life.
"That's when I first knew I wanted to marry her. But you have to keep them on their toes a bit," he adds with a smile.
And what was it about this gorgeous, statuesque blonde from Texas that had captured Julian's heart?
"Her heart, her mind, her body," he says looking lovingly at his new wife, "and her spirit."
From the start, Julian was taking no chances of letting Brooke get away. "He's such a romantic. My apartment while I was in Hawaii filming Baywatch used to look like a flower shop.
"I'd walk in the door and someone would go, 'Uh-huh,' and nod. And I knew I'd had another delivery." Brooke says giggling.
Julian says Lady McMahon is delighted with her son's choice of a new wife. "When we were out here last year for a few weeks, my mother and Brooke had plenty of time to get to know each other," he explains.
"They spent a lot of time together and she was just so happy for me. She was just amazing with the wedding. I'd told her before what I was going to do before I'd asked Brooke and she asked me how I wanted the wedding to be."
"I explained I wanted it to be small, intimate, relaxed and a lot of fun. And she organized everything - from the flowers to the church and the catering afterwards."
"Brooke and I both have a lot of public attention because of our work, and that's fine by us," Julian adds. "But we really wanted this day to be just for us and our families."
"And it was everything we could have wished it would be."