Holly and Karl vowed to spend the rest of their lives together in front of their loved ones at the lovely Ginagin. Their day was filled with lots of fun and love, with photos capturing the smiling couple enjoying their day to the fullest.
Holly wowed in Prague by Forget Me Knot, a stunning textured satin A-line gown with a sexy split and structured petal peak bodice. Our Forget Me Knot range is fully customisable, and with the help of her stylist, Holly made several changes to her gown: she removed the mesh from the bodice, extended the plunge neckline, eliminated the waistband panel, and changed the split from the middle to the side.
Keep scrolling for pictures of their special day and some insight from Holly about finding her dream dress.
What was it that made this particular wedding dress catch your eye and fall in love?
I chose my particular gown because as soon as I put it on, even though it wasn’t my correct size, I felt like myself in it and felt like it was a true representation of my personality. Since my gown was a Forget Me Knot gown, Courtney was amazing at letting me know if there were things I disliked about the gown or any changes I wanted to make to it that they could do exactly that. Which they did. I had a vision in my head of the changes I wanted to make to the dress, which were lowering the deep V neck line and completely taking out the mesh, moving the split from the front to the side and extending it up further, and removing the thick waistband from the middle. Courtney completely understood my vision and transformed the dress, making me fall in love with it even more than before, which I didn’t think was even possible.
Tell us about your search for the dress and the experience at Astra Bridal.
I began the search for my dress by going to a 'Sip & See' night at Astra Bridal, thinking I knew exactly what I wanted. However, I quickly realised that I didn’t feel like myself in what I thought I liked. As we were nearing the end of the day and after trying on multiple different styles, I was beginning to lose hope. However, Courtney pulled out a brand new dress that hadn’t been put on the rack yet, and I decided to give it a try. Even though this dress, and a lot of the others I tried on, wasn’t in my correct size, the girls still encouraged me to try them all on and made me feel comfortable. The moment I put on this last dress, I knew I loved it and it was the one.
Tell us your story, how you both met, and the proposal.
Karl and I first met at school through mutual friends nearly 15 years ago. Despite Karl being two years younger than me, we had a connection that later blossomed. We started dating on the 2nd of March 2012, and from that moment on, we have been inseparable. We were lucky enough to celebrate our wedding 12 years later on the same day.
Throughout our journey together, we have shared many milestones, including purchasing our first home in 2018, which we later sold and bought a bigger home at the end of 2021, where we are still living with our two small dogs, Jake and Toby, who mean the absolute world to us.
At the beginning of 2023, we decided to book a spontaneous trip down to Queenstown after it had been cancelled multiple times due to Covid. Karl took the opportunity to organise a ring with the help of my sister, Emma, and Sister-in-law, Kaitlyn, all within three days. Despite the nerve wracking moments at customs where security scanned Karl's bag twice, Karl managed to keep it a secret until the very last day of our trip.
We had the Onsen hot pools booked in the evening, and Karl organised it to be the perfect moment to propose. As I turned around, I found Karl dropping to one knee and asking me to marry him through tears of joy. I was in shock, as I had started to believe after 12 years that it was never going to happen! I nodded and said yes as I began to cry and take in the beautiful scenery. We were both so excited and happy that we began calling our family and friends to share the news and looked forward to celebrating with them when we got home.
What was your favourite part of the day?
My favourite part of the day was finally being able to walk down the aisle and seeing Karl, and how happy and emotional he was.
Tell us about your wedding day as a whole.
In the days leading up to our special day, the weather had been slightly drizzly, which made me quite anxious as we didn’t have a backup plan. However, we woke up the morning of to a beautiful sunny day. My two bridesmaids and I had a very relaxed morning at home, getting ready together with good music, drinks, and snacks. Karl and his groomsmen enjoyed the morning with a few beers while getting ready just around the corner, which made it easy for our photographer.
Once I had met Karl at the altar and our beautiful, emotional ceremony was over, we managed to get a lot of great photos with our family and friends. Our beautiful venue was a located in the middle of a paddock so we had a lot of different locations for photos. We all snuck off after the ceremony to get some great photos of the bridal party and then just the two of us, while the sun was setting. Our wonderful day ended with speeches and toasts from our loved ones, and a party with great music.
Finally, what is your biggest piece of advice for brides to be?
Just relax, enjoy the day, and be sure to spend a second with just you and your new husband on the day for a toast. It all goes by so fast!
