Debbie downer! Couple refuse to let cyclone ruin wedding as bride hitchhikes and groom gets police escort
A Gold Coast bride wasn't going to let Cyclone Debbie stop her big day, even if it meant hitchhiking straight to the aisle while the groom had his own police escort.
Carissa Kolkka’s big day was going to happen come hell or high water and it’s safe to say the bride-to-be had her fair share of both.
“Well if we can overcome this we can overcome anything, I hope,” Carissa told 7 News on her wedding day.
After planning her dream wedding at a Kingscliff resort in Queensland, flooded roads left the Gold Coast couple stranded.
Like most excited brides, she had planned the day down to the final detail, however that plan did not include using a helicopter to arrive.
With the overflowing Tweed River forcing the closure of the Pacific Highway bridge, the Gold Coast bride said she had no choice but to hitchhike her way to the venue.
“We landed in the middle of a paddock and had to hitchhike to the resort," she laughed.
“We started to walk and then this guy pulled over and he’s like okay ‘I can take you’ and we said ‘alright let’s do it’.”
Meanwhile the groom, Tyson Kolkka, and his family had problems of their own, being stranded in Queensland until a police officer stepped in to save the day.
They piled into four-wheel-drives that could navigate the floodwaters and slowly made their way in.
The drama didn’t stop there either, with the bride’s parents also stranded with a rather important piece of cargo – the wedding dress.
“I don’t have my dress… I seem crazy right?” Carissa laughed.
With the dress in hand, her parents received a helicopter escort of their own, but the florist was not so lucky, leaving the groom and groomsmen to pick up the slack and grab their own flowers on the way.
The men managed to pull together an arrangement that would do any bride proud.
The day of drama was sealed with a kiss, thanks to a kind-hearted cop, a bloke with a ute and a wedding party that refused to be stopped.
“I’m sure we'll look back on this in 30 years and it’ll be the best story,” Tyson said.
