Foreign minister Penny Wong ties the knot to long-term partner

“We are delighted that so many of our family and friends could share this special day with us,” the Foreign Minister said in a statement.

Senator Wong wore a fire-engine red suit to the wedding, a traditional symbol of good luck, happiness, and beginning a good life free from evil spirits for brides at Chinese weddings.

Her partner Sophie Allouache wore a white satin gown with lace sleeves with the couple releasing a single photograph to the media capturing their big day.

The high profile Labor frontbencher shares two daughters with Ms Allouache, who she met nearly 20 years ago in 2006.

After years of hard-fought reforms to legalise gay marriage, Senator Wong celebrated last night at a Woodside winery, The Bird in Hand.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who jetted into Adelaide on his RAAF VIP plane on Friday for a speaking engagement ahead of the wedding, attended the festivities with his fiancee Jodie Haydon. Other attendees included the Health Minister Mark Butler and former SA premier Jay Weatherill.

The intensely private Senator Wong had not previously publicly acknowledged the wedding or the fact that the couple were engaged.

Senator Wong announced last month that she would miss the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Brazil as she remained in Adelaide caring for her mother, Jane Chapman who has been seriously unwell.

She paid tribute to her mother at an International Women’s Day event noting that “my mother would usually be with us at this breakfast, but today she cannot be.”

“And as I pay tribute to great women, who have inspired and shaped me, there is none more than Jane Chapman,’’ she said.

“Jane married my father, a Malaysian man, at a time when the White Australia policy was still in place.

“Jane is a woman of arresting, penetrating intellect; of mischievous wit; of deep compassion and principle.

“And she gives expression to her compassion through unsurpassed courage and determination for justice, qualities that have steeled me through all my life’s challenges.”

“Through her work, her choices, her courage and her deeds, she showed me a path, and she showed me that my destiny was mine to shape.”

The weekend wedding marks a celebratory end of a long and sometimes painful journey towards marriage equality and an evolution of Senator Wong’s views on the subject.

Senator Wong famously wept in 2017 when she learned Australians had votes Yes to legalising same-sex marriage, as she was embraced by campaigners and colleagues.

“I hope that everyone in this parliament has heard the resounding voice of the Australian people today, a mandate for change, a mandate for equality,” she said. “Because it is time.

“Thank you for standing up for fairness, thank you for standing up for equality. Thank you for standing up for our families.”

That same year, she delivered an impassioned speech opposing the same-sex marriage plebiscite as an “expensive stunt”.

“They simply cannot countenance people like me and others being equal – simple as that,” she told parliament.

“I wouldn’t mind so much if you were prepared to speak out on it. If the Prime Minister was prepared to stand up and say ‘that is wrong’.

“Maybe he can stand up for some people who don’t have a voice. Because we know the sort of debate that is already there. Let me say, for many children in same-sex couple families and for many young LGBTI kids, this ain’t a respectful debate already.”

She condemned the Australian Christian Lobby for referring to the children of parents in a same-sex relationship as a “stolen generation”

“We love our children,’’ she said.

“And I object, as do every person who cares about children, and as do all those couples in this country, same-sex couples who have kids, to be told our children are a stolen generation. You talk about unifying moments? It is not a unifying moment. It is exposing our children to that kind of hatred.”

But just seven years earlier, Senator Wong had sparked controversy when she stuck to the party line and declared she respected Labor’s view of marriage as an institution between a man and a woman.

‘‘On the issue of marriage I think the reality is there is a cultural, religious, historical view around that which we have to respect,” she said.

The remarks sparked a major backlash within the same sex marriage movement given Senator Wong’s status as a lesbian political leader and role model.

Senator Wong first confirmed she was gay in The Advertiser in August, 2002, shortly after she was elected to the Senate.

However, her sexuality had never been a secret to her friends, colleagues and supporters with Senator Wong telling her biographer that given she was never “in the closet” there was no need to “come out.”

The couple’s first child, Alexandra, who was given Ms Allouache’s middle name, was born in 2011 at Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

Senator Wong declared the birth at the time as a life-changing experience: “She’s wonderful, just wonderful,’’ she said.

“Sophie and I are delighted beyond words. Like all new parents know, there’s nothing like this.”

The couple’s second daughter, Hannah, was born in 2015.