Bondi vet Lisa: I couldn't marry without my boys

With her two pooches beside her, Lisa Chimes marries her long-term boyfriend Brad Nissen.

There was no way Bondi Vet star Dr Lisa Chimes was walking down the aisle on her wedding day without her two biggest fans – her cavalier-cross-poodles Nelson and Lucas. So it’s a good job they were suitably dressed for Mum’s big day.

“The lady who altered my bridesmaids’ dresses also made up the boys’ suits,” says Lisa, 27, who married her boyfriend of 10 years, Brad Nissen, also 27, in Melbourne recently. “I know… I’m crazy, right? They had little tuxes – a white shirt and bowtie, and their charcoal bit of material that matches the groomsmen – and the florist, Katie Marx, made them corsages to wear. Just gorgeous!” Both Nelson and Lucas were clearly thrilled to be with Lisa on the biggest day of her life. With tails wagging, they sat patiently as she fitted them into their outfits.

“Nelson is an absolute angel – if I put anything on him he’s fine,” says Lisa, smiling at her docile six-year-old pet. “Lucas is a bit younger, he’s almost two, so he’s a bit more of a troublemaker. We did practice runs with the tuxes on and he spent the whole time chewing his little bowtie.” It’s rare to meet a bride so relaxed in the run-up to her wedding – and rarer still to meet one who was more concerned with what her dogs were wearing than with her own outfit.

“With my dress – and the designer won’t be too happy to hear about this – it was lying there on the bed a few days before the wedding and the dogs decided to lie on it!” a laid-back Lisa laughs, showing us her gorgeous grey Collette Dinnigan wedding frock. “But you know what? That’s OK… they’re just as important.”Brad was equally enthusiastic about the unusual groomsmen. “The dogs were always going to be a part of the wedding – it was never up for discussion,” Lisa laughs. “They’re our surrogate children, so there’s no way they were going to miss this.”