'Waking up on my 30th birthday a wife.' Ella Ding just had the sweetest secret wedding.

Former Married At First Sight star Ella May Ding "surprised" fans (and... loved ones?) by announcing she had tied the knot with her fiancé just a month after their engagement.

Ella and her partner Guy Palermo got engaged at the tail end of February, after about a year of dating. And now, in a new Instagram post, she's revealed she simply couldn't wait to walk down the aisle, announcing the pair became "Mr and Mrs" during an intimate ceremony in Melbourne on Friday.

Watch the clip Ella May Ding played for her loved ones to announce her elopement to Guy Palermo. Post continues below.

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Ella shared a three-minute-long clip on social media, with a caption that simply read, "We said I do."

The clip first shows photos and footage of Ella as a child before cutting to snippets of her getting ready to walk down the aisle.

"I believe every experience we have been through in life has prepared us to be ready for each other now," she said during her vows to her now-husband.

"Guy, you are my best friend, and I love you so much. Thank you for choosing me and what I come with, quirks and all," she continued, adding: "I can't wait to do the rest of my life with you."

Guy's speech was just as moving, as he described his new bride as "the single most beautiful thing in the world".

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Ella surprised not only her followers (all 563,000 of them) with her wedding news, but also her friends and family —  including former MAFS co-star and Sit With Us co-host Domenica Calarco — who all thought they were gathering together to celebrate Ella's 30th birthday. 

They then were informed about the nuptials that had happened only hours earlier during an intimate elopement, as the video clip played.

"Pulled off the surprise of the century, I'm on such a high. What a night, what a couple and what a love story," Domenica commented on Instagram.

"The best surprise," former Miss Universe Australia Olivia Molly Rogers also wrote.

Ella and Guy got engaged during a run through a Sydney park and have been dating since January 2023 — although it wasn't until April when she announced she was officially off the market thanks to her "normie" boyfriend.

"Normie and I have known each other for about six years. We have been friends for a really long time and we did actually date... but the timing was never in our favour," she said in an Instagram Q&A.

They quickly moved in together and recently got a (super cute) dog named Yuki.

In a touching Instagram post announcing their engagement, Ella wrote: "The man of my actual dreams proposed to me with my friends and family. I love you. I love us."

Ella May Ding and Guy Palermo began dating in January 2023. Image: Instagram @ellamayding.

The pair dated briefly during lockdown, and had also gone on a date three years prior, with Ella writing on Instagram last year that they had "always had a little thing for each other". But nothing romantic ever sprouted... that is, until they bumped into each other at Beyond The Valley Festival over New Year's 2022, and reconnected on the spot. 

From there, love blossomed.

While Ella and Guy's love story has been nothing short of romantic, the new bride has had some pretty awkward dating experiences in the public eye. She appeared on the 2022 season of the popular dating show MAFS, where she was partnered with Mitch Eynaud. The pair went separate ways at the end of the experiment, leaving the on-screen bride "heartbroken". 

"Mitch has been the worst guy I've ever dated," she told the No Hard Feelings podcast in 2022. "The head f**kery… I've never experienced it before, and I'm still trying to figure it out."

Feature Image: Instagram @ellamayding.

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