source : the age
It was sheer coincidence that Heath Seib and Darren Sheen had never crossed paths before they found themselves dancing through the night at Mardi Gras in 1996.
The strangers, who met at a mutual friend’s pre-party, grew up within 10 kilometres of each other on the Central Coast and studied at neighbouring schools in the same grade.
They ended the night jumping over the fence at the Hordern Pavilion to sneak into the Mardi Gras after-party.
“Darren kind of stuck with me for the whole night and has done ever since,” Seib said.
Had the two men, who at the time were not out as gay, not travelled to Sydney’s Oxford Street that night, it “might have just been a friendship”, Sheen said.
“It was the ’90s, you still had to be very careful.”
Thirty years on from their Mardi Gras meeting, Seib and Sheen married on Saturday, before marching in the parade on a wedding-themed float.
About 200 guests attended the couple’s nuptials at the Hollywood Hotel in Surry Hills, dressed head-to-toe in white wedding tuxes or gowns.
The celebrations embraced the theme of this year’s Amsterdam World Pride, “I do”, which will commemorate 25 years of gay marriage in the Netherlands – the first country to legislate marriage equality.
“We’ll be getting married on the Hollywood stairs – it’s a bit nostalgic for us because our crew go there a lot, and we’ve always done pre-Mardi Gras parties there when Doris [Goddard] owned it … She’s passed away now but she’d always come out and have a shandy with us,” Seib said before the event.
“It’s got a history for us.”
While some couples spend the lead-up to their wedding practising their bridal waltz, Seib and Sheen have been rehearsing their float choreography.
“The float is a wedding float and it’s 60 brides and grooms and lovers all doing their dances to Like a Virgin down the main street,” Seib explained.
“There’s a chapel built on top of a truck, with cellophane pane windows and a drag queen marrying the dancers behind while performing on the truck.
“There are also six flower girls at the front that open up into these huge flowers that they’re wearing, like corsets. Then we’re walking along at the end with our tails and train.”
Ten years ago the couple bought a 50-hectare cattle farm near Byron Bay. “We needed somewhere to keep our horses,” Sheen said.
But each year they return to Sydney for the Mardi Gras Parade.
“Our heart takes us back to Mardi Gras every year with all our friends,” Sheen said.
And where will the newlyweds honeymoon?
“We’re all going for our honeymoon, with our friends, to Amsterdam for Pride,” Seib said. “We’re on one of the boats that are spectating as it goes down.”
Read more of our Mardi Gras 2026 coverage
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