Gaye’s a real-life wedding crasher

There are dedicated marriage celebrants, there are very dedicated marriage celebrants - and then there's Gaye Gough.
The well-known Masterton Celebrant epitomised the saying "The Show Must Go On" when facial and arm injuries sustained from a car accident on the way to her afternoon wedding appointment didn't stop her from conducting the service.
Registered celebrant Gaye Gough, 65, was heading to the Riversdale wedding of Darren Blithe and Renee Eparaima shortly before 2pm on Saturday when her car began sliding on the freshly metalled Private Road just 200 metres before the venue.
Within seconds the car spun sideways, slid off the road and halted itself above a stream between two banks.
In the impact Mrs Gough hit her face against the car and, although she is still unsure how, cut open her arm.
With blood gushing - partly due to the blood-thinning Warfarin medication she has been taking since her heart surgery in 2002- she leaned out the window to stop any getting on her elegant cream celebrants' outfit.
Ever the professional, her immediate concern was to tell the wedding party she would be arriving late.
"I'm not a panicky person - I'm a professional. But because I couldn't find my glasses to find the number, I thought, I know what I'll do - I'll ring 111.
"I was going to tell them I'm a Marriage Celebrant on my way to do a wedding and I'd like you to tell them I'm only 200 yards away from the venue."
But the process didn't go as easily as she'd hoped - and after a barrage of questions that degenerated into an argument with the operator - she heard the wail of the Riversdale Volunteer Fire Brigade's siren.
"At that point I thought, oh good heavens - I didn't want them to call the fire brigade."
Shortly after, a volunteer fireman pulled up, looked down at her and enquired: "Is it you I'm meant to be going to?"
"I said 'I don't know, it's probably me'. They came down and got me out through the car window."
She arrived at the venue to find the wedding party still getting ready for the ceremony, which meant there was even enough time for the groom's mother to wash her blood-stained trousers, bandage her arm and have a cup of tea. As well as answering questions from the Police, who had also arrived by this time!
With her clothes cleaned and her lips not yet swollen, she married the couple - before checking herself into the Emergency Department of the hospital on the way home.
She even attended a MATS show the next day, using a Venetian masquerade mask to cover her bruised mouth.
With a few days off work to recover, she is so pleased she had retained her track record of not missing a wedding in her 12 years as a celebrant.
"The show must go on. Since I knew I was quite capable of doing it in a professional manner and I do have to say that if there had been any doubt at all that I could have ruined the ceremony, I wouldn't have done it.
"I do remember saying at the ceremony however, 'I can promise you this is one wedding service I will never, ever forget'."