KIM CROSSMAN'S MAGICAL LAKESIDE CEREMONY

The TV darling married cameraman Tom Walsh in an emotional day full of meaningful moments

- NICKY PELLEGRINO

It was the most perfect day for a wedding. Standing on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, exchanging their vows in front of close friends and family was so magical that it felt like a dream.

"I had tears of joy in my eyes the whole time," says Kimberley Crossman, gazing at her husband Tom Walsh as they relax in a cabin at their wedding venue, Kinloch Wilderness Retreat, the morning after the celebration.

While TV star Kim, 33, and cameraman Tom, 44, planned every detail of their wedding carefully, the one aspect they couldn't control was the autumnal Glenorchy weather.

So to wake to a fine, calm day was a real blessing.

"It can get pretty gnarly here and everyone told us there are only a few days a year when the weather is this settled, so we were lucky," says Tom. "We had this beautiful walk through the dappled light of a beech forest and when we arrived at the beach, the lake was like glass, the mountains were snowcapped and trout were leaping from the water.

It was so unbelievably stunning that people were speechless." Kinloch Wilderness Retreat is a special place for the couple. Tom went to school camps there in his childhood.

Also, it was where he took Shortland Street, Creamerie and Funny Girls actress Kim for their first-ever getaway together.

For the wedding, they booked out the whole resort and their guests gathered there the evening before to share a casual barbecue cooked up by Tom, who grilled 100 sausages while everyone got to know each other.

Yet despite the cosy atmosphere, Kim admits that on their wedding morning, they were both far too excited to lie in. She woke early and made Tom a cup of tea first thing, which is a ritual whenever they're together, inspired by his late father, who took his mum a cuppa every single morning.