Busselton underwater wedding a first for WA

A Perth couple have tied the knot in Busselton, in what is believed to be an Australian first. Surrounded by friends, family and fish, Debby and Cameron McLeod celebrated their wedding at the Underwater Observatory on the Busselton Jetty. The couple made their wedding vows 1.8km offshore at 10.30am on Sunday, dressed in scuba gear. Despite three cyclones in the north of WA and some heavy winds, they took the plunge and declared their love for one another — signing their register at the end of the popular tourist location. “I’m still trying to take it all in, our ceremony has been attracting a lot of attention,” Mrs McLeod said. “We didn’t think it would get this kind of response.” Cameron proposed to Debby while diving at the jetty in 2019, and when the Mandurah couple started talking about their wedding day, they knew underneath the jetty would be the perfect place. “We thought it would be amazing to have the gorgeous coral and fish as a backdrop,” Mrs McLeod said. “We wanted to mirror a traditional type of marriage but do it underwater.” With 25 guests diving alongside the couple for the ceremony and 38 others inside the observatory looking out, Cameron and Debby mimed “I do” while decked out in a tux and wedding dress. They removed their dive masks for a kiss, read vows on A3 sheets of paper, and exchanged wedding bands. “The day was just perfect, my favourite part was when we were all getting ready and getting on the train with our guests. The excitement of whether we could pull it off made it so special,” Mrs McLeod said. When Busselton Jetty chief executive Lisa Shreeve was approached by the couple for the underwater wedding, she said “why not?”. “We try and look at how we can help people achieve their dreams at the Jetty so we spent a bit of time looking at how we could do this safely and it all went swimmingly. “I think it could become a new trend for those who love the ocean and have their scuba diving ticket,” she said. With initial plans to get married on February 6 thrown into disarray after a State-wide COVID lockdown forced them to move their special day, the couple had slight concerns about an April wedding. “We were worried about the visibility and weather in April but everything turned out out better than imagined,” Mr Mcleod said. The hardest part was finding a marriage celebrant with a dive ticket, but the couple were able to secure Joanne Armstrong from Wild Heart Celebrations.