Bride makes a dramatic entrance to her wedding in a crane with Sydney Harbour Bridge as the backdrop

Suspended high above Sydney Harbour in a crane buffeted by winds may not seem like the ideal antidote to pre-wedding jitters. 

But for bride Ruth Thomas, it was the perfect entrance for her marriage ceremony to fellow opera lover Tahou Matheson. 

The pair tied the knot in front of 80 friends and family on the floating stage for Madama Butterfly’s Handa Opera anchored off the Botanical Gardens on Sunday afternoon.

Mr Matheson, Opera Australia’s head of music, knew that they were to wed on the floating stage.

But he was taken by surprise by his wife and her bridesmaid’s entrance on the crane, which is usually used to move and change set pieces on the opera.

‘I’d arranged some soft, elegant slow music, Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll for her to walk down the aisle to…and suddenly the dramatic March of the Valkyries from the ring cycle starts playing and I see her hovering above us in a crane, I was shocked,’ Mr Matheson told the Sydney Morning Herald. 

‘It was pretty windy up there we all got a bit giggly and nervous,’ he added.

The crane’s cage, which was decorated with flowers and fabric, hoisted the bride and her three bridesmaids up above the wedding party, then lowered them at the feet on the gobsmacked groom.

Siobhan Keely, a bridesmaid, joked about overcoming her fear of heights before the stunt. 

Opera lovers Ruth Thomas and Tahu Matheson have been together around a decade and have a seven-year-old son

‘For someone who does suffer from vertigo, it’s an absolute testament of my love for this women that I’ve agreed to join her in this spectacular entrance,’ she told 9News. 

In Madama Butterfly, a young geisha marries an American naval officer who then deserts her, with the story ending in tragedy.

‘I’m hoping that this story will be rather different,’ joked Mr Matheson. 

The newlyweds, who live in Rockdale in southern Sydney, have been together around a decade and have a seven-year-old son.