Nervous Kidman prepares for own special love story

SYDNEY, June 25 (Reuters) Happy but nervous Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman made final preparations today for her wedding to country music singer Keith Urban, a match described by a close friend as her own special love story.

Secrecy and security surround the ceremony, a traditional Catholic service set to take place later today in a small sandstone chapel in sweeping grounds overlooking Sydney Harbour and the Pacific Ocean.

Kidman, who won a 2002 Academy Award for her role in the film ''The Hours'', had a very public divorce from actor Tom Cruise in 2001, ending a 10-year marriage. They have remained friends, sharing custody of their two adopted children.

''It's a very special love story,'' Australian film director Baz Luhrmann said of the wedding.

''They're feeling great,'' Luhrmann, with whom Kidman worked on the Oscar-winning movie ''Moulin Rouge'', told The un-Herald newspaper.

Father Paul Coleman, a Jesuit priest who will perform the ceremony, has said Kidman, 39, and Urban, 38, have a ''mature love'' which has impressed him.

Coleman met the couple this week to discuss their marriage and said he had told them to ''make time for each other, do romantic things together and never part without kissing''.

Antonia Kidman, who will reportedly be Kidman's matron of honour, said her sister was nervous, while other family and friends said she was excited but happy.

Kidman and Urban, both Australians but born overseas, met in January 2005 at an awards dinner held by the Australian government in Los Angeles honouring the two of them.

They have tried to keep a low profile over the past week but the media have tracked their every move, with paparazzi camped outside Kidman's ritzy harbourside home.

''I'm so happy,'' Kidman told reporters as she left to see her parents before a quiet dinner yesterday.

Local and international media have speculated wildly about details of the wedding.

The Sun-Herald said a guest list of 230 could include Oscar winner Renee Zellwegger, Kidman's ''Cold Mountain'' co-star. Other guests include Naomi Watts, star of ''King Kong'' and long-time Kidman friend, ''X-Men'' star Hugh Jackman's wife Deborra-Lee Furness, and possibly Russell Crowe. News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch is also reportedly on the guest list.

Kidman's children, Isabella, 13, and Connor, 11, will be bridesmaid and usher. Local newspapers have speculated that the statuesque Kidman would wear a dress described as ''minimalist, white, with a hint of old-world romance'', possibly by French fashion house Balenciaga.

Australia's remarkable run at the World Cup soccer finals pushed the wedding off the front page of Sydney's Sunday Telegraph, but the tabloid devoted four inside pages to ''Sydney's Hollywood Wedding''.

It said guests would travel by limousine from a luxury city hotel late on Sunday afternoon for the 5.30 p.m. ceremony 1300 hrs Ist at the Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel, in the grounds of a former seminary.

Urban, who won a Grammy in 2005 for best male country vocal performance on the song ''You'll Think of Me'', spent what has been described as a ''sedate'' buck's night at a trendy city bar.

Media have speculated he will serenade Kidman with his hit ''I Want to Be Your Everything'' at their wedding.

REUTERS VJ BST0754