Anthony Field watched his beautiful bride walk down the aisle at his childhood church, and knew he’d made the best decision of his life just two months earlier in a lonely American hotel room.
That decision culminated in a big bold showbiz wedding as Blue Wiggle Anthony married former Wiggles brand manager Mikaela Patisteas on a pefect Sydney autumn day in the presence of 260 guests.
But back in February, in the middle of The Wiggles’ sell out US tour, Anthony felt a long way from the love of his life. With his 40th birthday looming, the former Cleo Bachelor of the Year had fame and fortune, and yet his life felt empty.
"After 20 years of touring (10 with 80’s band The Cockroaches and 10 more as a Wiggle) I got to think about deeper things – like life’s pretty short and there’s more to it than where’s the next hotel room?” Anthony explains.
“I couldn’t keep going just being alone, working for myself, then going home to a big house with no-one to share my life apart from my dogs.
He decided then and there to propose to his girlfriend Mikaela, whom he had met five years before in Melbourne.
“I knew that with her by my side life would have a real purpose as marriage is about admitting there is more to like than me,” he explains.
Anthony picked up the phone and told Mikaela, 32, he was coming home to make her his wife. On March 6th the multi-millionaire took an excited Mikaela out to buy matching platinum wedding bands and that evening popped the question at their favourite Greek restaurant.
“He did it the traditional way, down on one knee and asking me to marry him,” says Mikaela. “In a nanosecond I said, yes”.
Two months later on a warm summer afternoon in the outer Sydney suburb of Kellyville where the seven Field children had grown up, Mikaela Patisteas became Mrs. Field.
Greek Orthodox Mikaela married Anthony in a traditional Roman Catholic ceremony at Our Lady of the Rosary church, which had been decorated by his widowed mother Marie in white and green. The guests included
Wiggles, Murray Cook (red), Jeff Fat
(purple), Greg Page (yellow), and
family and friends from as far as Saudi
Arabia and Switzerland.
The bride walked down the aisle on
the arm of her father Peter as Anthony
played Haste To The Wedding on a
silver tin whistle. His niece Claire, 13,
performed an Irish dance to herald
the bride’s arrival.
Mikaela says she cried all the way
to the alter and even Anthony became
misty-eyed as their said their vows
before their family priest Father Paul
Glynn, best man and brother, Paul,
who is The Wiggles manager, and
his other tuxedo clad brothers John
and Patrick. Anthony forsook his
trademark blue skivvy and turned
out in a traditional Mexican wedding
suit called a mariachi.
“I wanted him to wear it because he
kept telling me about this wonderful
costume”, says Mikaela. “He put it
on and I fell in love with it”.
The unconventional wedding mixed a traditional mass with readings in
Greek, a prayer in Italian and Mexican music performed in the church
by Anthony’s friends.
After the ceremony the couple were whisked away to a reception at the
family home – not in the Big Red Car, but in Anthony’s modest black
VW golf.
The Fields’ family home became a romantic backdrop complete with a
marquee on the tennis court, candlelight and fairy lights. The guests,
including Olympian Kieran Perkins and his model wife Samantha, danced
into the early hours to ballads by the man Anthony calls “the god of music”,
Julio Igliesias.
Because of their work commitments, the couple have postponed the
honeymoon to Mexico, Greece or Ireland until next year. The next day
Mr and Mrs Field moved into their new home in Sydney’s Hunters Hill.
“It felt right for the moment, I carried her over the threshold”, Anthony says “she was light as a feather which was lucky – I'm not the strongest man in the world” he chuckles.