Barnaby Joyce wedding: Ex-Nationals leader’s one message to his guests as it emerges bride Vikki Campion was more than an hour late – before suffering a problem with her dress

Barnaby Joyce jokingly told guests at his ‘bush bash’ wedding to former mistress Vikki Campion not to ‘hit’ because the paparazzi were camping ‘across the creek’.

The former deputy prime minister, 56, married his ex-political adviser Ms Campion, 36, on Sunday afternoon in an outdoor wedding at his sprawling estate at Woolbrook, west of Walcha, in the NSW Northern Tablelands.

It came almost six years after their scandalous affair came to light, helping to usher in then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s infamous ‘bonking ban’ on MPs and their staffers.

In an exclusive interview with Ny Breaking Australia, Joyce’s new father-in-law Peter Campion gave an insider’s account of the couple’s happy day – and the subsequent unfortunate war of words with the politician’s adult daughters who did not attend their father’s wedding.

Mr Campion revealed his daughter was more than an hour late for the ceremony and had a wardrobe malfunction when she arrived.

‘The bride wanted to gallop. “I told her, ‘You want to walk more naturally,’ but she was enthusiastic,” Mr Campion said.

‘She arrived about an hour and eight minutes late and I had to hold her hand to slow her down and keep her from galloping ahead.’

But Ms Campion’s long ivory dress kept getting twigs stuck at the hem, despite the fact she was wearing black heeled cowboy boots.

‘It dragged across the ground catching sticks and twigs in it and there was a constant swarm of bridesmaids removing the twigs until Vikki said, ‘It’s a bush wedding, don’t worry, just let the sticks accumulate.’

Here, Ny Breaking Australia provides an in-depth account of the wedding – and its mud-slinging aftermath.

Barnaby’s warning to guests

Mr. Campion said his son-in-law jokingly warned his 120 or so guests to cut down on drinking and avoid “carrying on” because he was aware that news photographers had their sharp lenses trained on the event.

“There was a lot of champagne drunk, but no one got a face,” Mr Campion said.

The couple’s young sons, Sebastian and Thomas, aged five and four, were seen outside the venue before the ceremony, ready for their roles as page boys.

Joyce himself jumped out of a Toyota Landcruiser on the grounds ahead of the ceremony, before guests – including former National MP George Christensen – arrived in a four-wheel drive convoy.

Hours later, the newlyweds beamed as they walked together hand in hand to greet their guests – wearing his and hers Akubra hats.

A new gold wedding ring could be seen on Joyce’s hand as his bride smoked a cigarette and chatted with friends.

The guests enjoyed snacks and tapas, but there was no traditional cake: just a wedding pavlova and a cheesecake.

What was supposed to be a quiet barbecue for a dozen guests turned into a celebration for more than 80 of the couple’s closest friends and family.

A dance floor had been commissioned for a shed on the property, where guests were invited to arrive in utes or 4WDs, roll out their swags and party long into the night.

The groom’s speech

Joyce entertained the audience with anecdotes about his first encounters with his future mistress-turned-wife, who was working as a journalist at the time, claiming that he was struck by her appearance.

‘The first time he met her was in Parramatta and she was doing a story about fuel prices and she saw him there on the footpath and she told him she said, ‘Get your nose out of my story’ because he was stealing her thunder ,’ said Mr Campion.

‘The second time was in Kirribilli when he was walking down the street and saw Vikki and she told him how to find his way there.’

Joyce’s relationship with Ms Campion sent shockwaves through Australia’s political scene when their affair came to light in February 2018 – two months before she gave birth to their son Sebastian.

Mr Campion – who once famously said he would burn Barnaby alive until he reconciled with his daughter and future son-in-law – said his daughter was vilified in the media for stealing Barnaby from his first marriage.

“It was a really good afternoon, a good atmosphere, with about 110-120 people, including aunts and (Vikki’s) mother, who became very emotional and tearful during the speeches,” he added.

Adult daughters are not present

Although Joyce successfully avoided fireworks that night, they certainly flew in the aftermath of the wedding.

On Monday, his youngest daughter Odette told Ny Breaking Australia that neither she nor her three older sisters Caroline, 23, Julia, 24, and Bridgette, 26, were present.

“Personally, I wasn’t invited to the wedding, my father wasn’t even told about it, so I found out through other sources,” she said.

Instead, 20-year-old Odette celebrated a friend’s birthday on Saturday evening.

“If my father doesn’t want to think about me or even take me into account in the decisions he makes that ultimately affect me, then I honestly don’t have the time to think about him,” Odette said.

Odette also slammed her father for allowing a media photographer to photograph the happy couple’s wedding.

She called it a “grand attempt by them to stay relevant when everyone is over it.”

“I also think involving the media and having them at the wedding is not only in bad taste, but in bad taste,” she said.

The daughters’ mother, Natalie Abberfield, who was married to Joyce for 24 years before the couple split in 2018, struck a more dignified tone.

“All I want to say is I want to wish the happy couple all the best,” she said.

Father-in-law bites back

Peter Campion sensationally told this publication that his son-in-law’s daughters had to ‘suck it up’ and accept that their father had divorced their mother.

He claimed they had been invited and said they would have been “welcomed with open arms.”

“I would say to them, ‘You missed a beautiful afternoon when your father married the woman he is in love with, and you have to accept that he left your mother… a long time ago,'” Mr Campion said. .

On his drive home from the wedding, Mr Campion said the four sisters had to face “the truth”.

‘They were all invited, I saw it on the electronic invitation list that we all received. No one was not invited and if they did it was to attract attention,” he said.

“The girls should just stop letting themselves be bent out of shape on behalf of their mother, and suck it up and tell their mother… that they’re going to Barnaby’s wedding.”

‘They could have come on the day itself and would have been in the front row.

“I would have liked to have met them.”

Mr Campion also took a shot at Joyce’s first wife, Natalie, noting she “used to be the Queen of Tamworth” but is no longer.

The new father-in-law claimed he was referring to Barnaby’s daughters in his speech.

“They were not excluded and everyone would have liked them to be there,” he said.

“It is not true that they are excluded.”

Mr Campion also claimed he was mocking the EFT wing’s “obsession” with renewables and climate change.

“Everything I said was very well received,” he insisted.