My objective view is that both the person (skill) as well as the camera (equipment) count towards the final product.
Extreme examples of giving a monkey a D3x or Ansel Adams a pinhole camera may not assist the TS in understanding this. Also, I would say that an absolute "The man matters, the camera does not" may not be helpful either.
It will be a sliding scale in between the extreme ranges, and whether the person matters
more (note the use of the word "more", being a relative comparison) than the equipment is of course, a never-ending debatable point. My own view is that the person matters
more but
both the equipment
AND the person matters.
To illustrate using the F1 driver analogy that is being bandied around; if you take say, Schumacher in a cardboard flinstones car; vs a non-licensed driver in a F1 car; both will probably run into trouble and its hard to tell who will reach the finish line; will Schumacher in his flintstones car win (walking and carrying the car) or will the unlicensed driver crash? Or will the unlicensed driver drive at 10km/h cautiously (and still win because that's faster than Schumacher's walking pace)? Again it may not be so clear.
If you then move towards the centre of the scale, say ask a normal F1 driver (ABC driver, not of Schumacher's standard) to drive say, an budget everyday car, say the Kia Piccanto vs say, a Singaporean race car hobbyist (ie he goes to Sepang to race with his friends for fun) in a F1 car; now who will win? Again it is not so clear now is it? Can we say "its the man, not the machine"? THe race car hobbyist may actually win even though he's of a lower skill level, simply because the Piccanto can never match up to the F1 car in terms of speed. All the hobbiyst needs to do is to ensure he doesn't crash, and hence instead of going to 300km/h in normal F1 races, he just needs to go around 150km/h and he will probably win the Piccanto (which for the purposes of discussion, say can go up to 100km/h).
In my view, the key when making comparisons is to realise that actually both man and machine matter; although perhaps to varying degrees. And that is the crux of the discussion.
To answer the TS, in my personal view, the D5000 or the like, will be sufficient for you to
start off taking wedding photos; maybe for your friends, or as a tag-along 2nd photographer.
As you grow into this area of photography and get more experienced, like many others before you; you will realise that your equipment may be limited in certain areas; and then you will then consider if you need the additional features and then you start to source for a camera with those features and yet at a price point that you can manage with your business model.
I hope this is useful
