Singer/songwriter Joshua Radin was elated to serenade Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi on Saturday during their private nuptials.

“I cannot imagine topping that experience,” Radin told PEOPLE exclusively of his performance for DeGeneres, 50, and de Rossi, 35. “I’ve never played a wedding before, and I probably won’t again until it’s my own.”

For his performance, Radin - who was hand-picked by DeGeneres as a surprise for de Rossi - sang acoustic renditions of several new tracks, including the ballad “They Bring Me To You.”

But Radin isn’t the only one to share his happiness for the newlyweds: Congratulations have started flooding in. “I wish her all the best, all the happiness, all the joy that comes with that certificate in hand,” Katherine Heigl, a self-proclaimed fan of DeGeneres, said upon hearing the news.

Grey’s Anatomy star T.R. Knight also sent his congrats along with his relief that same-sex marriage is now legal in California. “I happy that they’re happy,” said Knight. “I’m happy that they’re allowed to get married.”

For more on Ellen and Portia’s wedding and exclusive personal photos, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE on newsstands Friday

Ring the wedding bells!

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have tied the knot.

“Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi were married tonight in an intimate ceremony at their home in Los Angeles,” their spokesperson tells PEOPLE exclusively.

DeGeneres, 50, and de Rossi, 35, both wore Zac Posen and exchanged rings by Neil Lane during the Saturday ceremony. Their big day also featured arrangements by L.A. florist Mark’s Garden.

The intimate ceremony was attended by 19 guests, including DeGeneres’s mom Betty and de Rossi’s mother Margaret Rogers (who flew in from Australia for the occasion), who witnessed the couple exchange handwritten vows.

The following month de Rossi showed off a 3-carat diamond ring set on a pink pavé band DeGeneres presented to her for their upcoming nuptials when the pair attended the Daytime Emmy Awards together.

“She’s taught me lessons about myself, and I feel like I’ve taught her,” the TV host said of de Rossi last year. “We’ve both changed and grown, and we just feel like, ‘Oh, okay, this is completion.’”

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Ellen DeGeneres gave Portia de Rossi a glittering ring with pink diamonds for their upcoming wedding that will air in part on DeGeneres’s talk show.

“Yes, we have set a wedding date,” said DeGeneres, who walked the red carpet with de Rossi at Friday night’s 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.

De Rossi wore a green satin Lanvin gown and a Neil Lane ring on her wedding finger. The ring was a marquis cut diamond set with pink diamonds.

DeGeneres, 50, who won an Emmy for outstanding talk-show host for the fourth year in a row, announced her plans to wed longtime girlfriend de Rossi, on her show back in May, shortly after California’s Supreme Court ruled the previous ban on gay marriages as unconstitutional.

The two stars are in the midst of preparations for what DeGeneres calls “the dream wedding.”

“Planning a wedding is very stressful,” says DeGeneres. “It is crazy. My gardener is now invited.”

The comedienne remained tight-lipped on the major details of her upcoming nuptials to de Rossi, 35, only revealing that “incredible people” would be performing, and that she would air part of the ceremony on her show.

But there are no signs of any pre-wedding jitters for DeGeneres.

“I can’t wait to be married. I feel like it is long overdue,” she said. “And I think someday people will look back on this like women not having the right to vote and segregation and anything else that seems ridiculous like we all don’t have the same rights.”

The two stars began dating in December 2004

Ellen DeGeneres did it again - claiming the title of outstanding talk-show host, for the fourth year in a row - at Friday night’s 35th annual Daytime Emmy Awards, where a jubilant Tyra Banks and Rachael Ray also ended up in the winner’s circle.

“I never take this for granted,” said DeGeneres, clutching her shiny statuette. “I know every single year people joke about it.” Besides acknowledging her show staff and partner Portia de Rossi, DeGeneres also thanked her show’s fans, “amazing, amazing people.”

In something of a surprise, however, instead of Ellen’s winning a fifth consecutive Emmy as best talk show (entertainment), the accolade went to Rachael Ray. “Holy cat. That is exciting,” said the cooking host. “I really can’t breathe.”

The supermodel, whose Tyra Banks Show won in the new category of informative program, was first shown in a clip delivering her TV tirade about her shape and size, which ended with her telling her detractors to kiss her behind.

In her thank-you, she reprised the message, saying that no one should ever listen to naysayers.

Banks also thanked her mother (”My mama is crying like a baby,” she exclaimed on the podium) and Oprah Winfrey, “for being the queen.”

Daytime Drama Awards

The night’s first winner was supporting actress in a drama series Gina Tognoni, of The Guiding Light, who noted the show is 71 years old this year. “I am proud of daytime,” Tognoni said, “and I pray it goes on for a million more years.”

The top drama series Emmy went to General Hospital, which also claimed Emmys for its lead actor Anthony Geary - his sixth Emmy.

Other winners included The Young and the Restless’s lead actress Jeanne Cooper (a first-time winner) and its supporting actor, Kristoff St. John (his second Emmy); Guiding Light’s Tom Pelphrey, as best younger actor (his second Emmy); and As the World Turns’s Jennifer Landon, as younger actress (her third consecutive Emmy).

Regis Recognized

Regis Philbin received a lifetime achievement award, introduced by Jimmy Kimmel, who referred to Kelly Ripa as Regis’s granddaughter. Diane Sawyer, Anderson Cooper, Don Rickles and Pat Sajak also chimed in with sentiments.

Cristina’s Court was honored as the best show with a gavel-pounding judge, another new category.

John McCain may disapprove of Ellen DeGeneres and partner Portia DeRossi’s intentions to marry, but there’s another Republican who is only too happy to help with the upcoming nuptials: Jenna Hager.

The first daughter, who herself got hitched May 10 at the Bush family spread in Crawford, Texas, appears with her mother, Laura Bush, on next Wednesday’s The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Among Jenna’s topics with the host (the show was taped Thursday) is the wedding at the ranch, with the bride even showing off snapshots from the reception.

Observes DeGeneres: “So, the ranch was a great place to get married - it looked like nobody could fly over and get pictures or bother you, really.”

“Yeah,” concurs Hager, “that was really nice” - which prompts DeGeneres to ask, “So, can we borrow it for our wedding, can we get the ranch?”

“Sure,” replies an obliging Hager.

In terms of advice, Hager said that when it comes to actually getting married, “It’s a good idea to do it somewhere private because, to us, it was a really special day to be with family.”

Keeping the guest list limited to those in your immediate circle is another wise move, Hager said, because, “I definitely didn’t want to introduce myself to somebody at my own wedding.”

Yep, he’s against it.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain was politically polite with Ellen DeGeneres on Thursday, but he made his feelings clear about gay marriage.

“I just believe in the unique status of marriage between man and woman,” McCain, 71, said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “And I know that we have a respectful disagreement on that issue. ”

DeGeneres, 50, who plans to marry Portia DeRossi, 35, now that the state Supreme Court has overturned California’s gay marriage law, responded: “It just feels like there is this old way of thinking that we are not all the same. We are all the same people, all of us. You’re no different than I am. Our love is the same.”

“I, along with many, many others, wish you every happiness,” McCain said.

Ellen DeGeneres plans to wed longtime girlfriend Portia de Rossi, she announced during a taping of her show Thursday.

In the episode, airing Friday (the news was first reported by TMZ), DeGeneres revealed the big news and told the crowd, “I’m very excited.” The announcement immediately followed the news that California’s Supreme Court struck down a law banning gay marriage.

In what’s sure to be a controversial decision, the California’s Supreme Court ruled that people have a fundamental “right to marry” the partner of their choosing - therefore the previous ban on gay marriage was ruled unconstitutional.

The two stars began dating in December 2004, as de Rossi was appearing on the FOX sitcom Arrested Development.

One key to their happiness, DeGeneres said last year, is that they learn from one another. “She’s taught me lessons about myself, and I feel like I’ve taught her,” said the TV host. “We’ve both changed and grown, and we just feel like, ‘Oh, okay, this is completion.’ ”

Mariah Carey, who recently wed Nick Cannon in a small ceremony in the Caribbean, says the pair plan to get married again.

“Instead of trying to be like, ‘you’re invited, but, shhh, don’t tell anybody,’ we’re just going to have another %26#91;wedding%26#93; next year,” Carey told Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show Tuesday. “%26#91;Nick’s%26#93; plan is to have one every year.”

Those who attended the first beachside ceremony, she continues, were, “mainly people there to do my hair and help me with the dress.” Both Carey and Cannon only brought along three friends each because, “we wanted to be on the beach and we didn’t want other people taking pictures,” said Carey.

Looking to the future, Carey said she’s found the man she wants to have kids with. “My parents divorced when I was three and I didn’t have many examples of what was the ‘norm,’ ” she says. But with Cannon, she says, “I found the right person.”