Bride makes a dramatic entrance to her wedding in a crane with Sydney Harbour Bridge as the backdrop

Hanging high above Sydney Harbor in a wind-ravaged crane may not seem like the ideal antidote to pre-wedding jitters.

But for bride Ruth Thomas, it was the perfect entrance to her wedding ceremony to fellow opera enthusiast Tahou Matheson.

The couple tied the knot in front of 80 friends and family on the floating stage for Madama Butterfly’s Handa Opera which anchored at the Botanical Gardens on Sunday afternoon.

Mr. Matheson, Opera Australia’s head of music, knew they would be married on the floating stage.

But he was surprised by the entry of his wife and her maid of honor on the crane, which is usually used to move and change set pieces in the opera.

“I had arranged some soft, elegant slow music, Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll for her to walk down the aisle to… and suddenly the dramatic March of the Valkyries from the ring cycle begins to play and I see her floating above us in a crane “I was shocked,” Mr Matheson told the The Sydney Morning Herald.

“It was pretty windy up there, we were all getting a little giggly and nervous,” he added.

The crane’s cage, which was decorated with flowers and fabric, hoisted the bride and her three bridesmaids over the wedding party, then lowered them to the feet of the stunned groom.

Siobhan Keely, a bridesmaid, joked about overcoming her fear of heights for the stunt.

“For someone who suffers from vertigo, it is absolute proof of my love for this woman that I agreed to join her in this spectacular entrance,” she told 9News.

In Madama Butterfly, a young geisha marries an American naval officer who then abandons her, and the story ends in tragedy.

“I hope this story will be quite different,” joked Mr Matheson.

The newlyweds, who live in Rockdale in southern Sydney, have been together for about ten years and have a seven-year-old son.