Wedding: Kierra + Andrew

Even with a squad of fabulous ladies behind her, nothing could have prepared Kierra for the emotional rollercoaster that was The Search For The Dress. It all seemed so easy at first: she was in Myer and fell head over heels for an Alex Perry creation. But when she went to buy it, the design had completely sold out. Crushed, she put down a deposit on a lovely alternative and tried to put her dream dress out of her mind. But fate intervened a few weeks later when Kierra was shopping online for a friend: “There it was – my dress… in my size… and on sale! It was destiny!”

Um, apparently not. Myer later contacted Kierra to tell her that her order had been cancelled due to insufficient stock. “I was devastated,” she recalls. But then someone who can only be described as a wedding-dress angel got in touch. A Melbourne-based personal shopper at Myer heard about Kierra’s situation when the disappointed bride-to-be messaged the store through Facebook. “She found my dream dress – in my size and on sale – and asked if I wanted to buy it right there and then over the phone!“ says Kierra. “It was the nicest thing a stranger could have done. She even took the dress to Australia Post herself and mailed it to me – Express Post!” Stories like these give us faith in humanity.

With wedding plans sorted and Kierra’s dream dress finally in her grateful hands, she and Andrew were all set for their big day, on 18 May, 2017. But the bride had someone very special to see before walking down the aisle. “My nan, who I am very close to, was too unwell to attend the wedding and I was devastated she wouldn’t be there to share the day with us,” says Kierra. “So before the photographers arrived, I put on my dress and my uncle drove me over to her house so we could spend some time together. No photos, no crowds, no tears – just lots of hugs and hand-holding.” There might have been no tears on the day, but Kierra wells up now as she recalls this precious moment.

Blessed to come from such a close-knit family, the bride’s dad, stepfather and uncle all walked her down the aisle (“with my papa watching closely”) at a touching ceremony, held at one of the couple’s favourite locations. “We chose Orleigh Park in West End because we settled in the suburb when we moved down from Townsville,” says Kierra. “We still live in South Brisbane, so it was nice to get married in our ‘backyard’.”