THE lure of a televised wedding, replete with reception and all the trimmings, paid for by a television station, proved too strong for Port Macquarie civil marriage celebrant Kerrie Phillips.

She and her long-time partner Kerry Coyte will now put their case to the viewers of channel seven's 9am Morning Show this Friday, along with four other couples, and awaiting their verdict via SMS the following week.

Ms Phillips and Mr Coyte, who have been together for 30 years, said they had planned to get married all along, but they had "put it off for a while", "postponed it again", then they had children and couldn't afford it, and almost before they knew it three decades had passed.

Then Ms Phillips saw a segment on the Morning Show program inviting viewers to say in 25 words or less why they should receive the all-expenses-paid wedding, and she felt it was an "opportunity to grab".

About 1000 couples from across Australia entered the competition. The station whittled these down to 100 and, finally, to five couples, including the Port pair.

All five are now scheduled to appear on the program, hosted by Kylie Gillies and Larry Emdur, to put their case.

Asked what they thought were their chances of success, "one in five", the Port News was told.

However, to nudge it a bit higher the couple would like local people to support their bid by voting for them after the show.

Ms Phillips, whose day job is working at a Port Macquarie hospital, and Mr Coyte, a spraypainter, have lived in Port Macquarie for about nine years.

The part-time civil celebrant thinks they have made it into the final five couples because of the originality or her reasons for wanting to win the wedding package: As a marriage celebrant whose experience has been officiating at weddings, she finally "wanted to be on the other side" of the event, she said.