Bindi Irwin reveals she was forced to abandon ‘dream’ venue on wedding day

It’s been well documented that Bindi Irwin and now-husband Chandler Powell were forced to abandon their lavish wedding plans and instead tie the knot in an intimate ceremony at Australia Zoo in March, as the spread of Covid-19 accelerated across the country causing lockdown restrictions to be implemented.

But now the 21-year-old has revealed it wasn’t just her wedding date that changed, as the couple were also forced to choose a new venue for their nuptials on their wedding day, after a paparazzi helicopter scared wildlife at the zoo rendering Bindi and Chandler’s original venue unsafe. As a result Bindi and Chandler, who both live and work at the family’s Australia Zoo, were left moving tables and flowers in their wedding outfits in a bid to create the perfect setting in which to say ‘I do’.

Bindi revealed the news in an emotional Instagram post on Monday as she shared her “favourite wedding day photograph”, which shows her sitting in her stunning gown while Chandler stands smiling down at her.

“This isn’t the fairytale image capturing the ‘perfect’ wedding day feeling,” she wrote. “In fact, it’s quite the opposite. This picture was taken after we had to change our entire wedding. We decided not to have wedding guests due to the global crisis for everyone’s health and safety. Our family and friends couldn’t be there to celebrate with us. However, they all encouraged us to continue on and get married. From their love and support, we felt love win.”

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Bindi went on: “We changed our wedding date the night before we got married but we were determined to let love win. Everything from the cake to the flowers were different. Thankfully, we worked with local businesses to make it happen. They helped love win. On our wedding day we were finally about to get married and the paparazzi flew over us in a helicopter scaring our wildlife. We had to leave our stunning wedding venue on the African Savannah for their safety.

“I said goodbye to the place I had dreamed of getting married for so many years. At that moment I remembered the filming barn where I’d spent much of my life with my family working on Crocodile Hunter and Bindi The Jungle Girl. I knew we could make it work and our zoo crew helped us to move everything inside. I watched love win. I was there in my wedding dress, husband-to-be by my side, moving tables and flowers and trying to make our day finally become a reality. At one point I sat on a chair in the corner doing my best not to think about how overwhelming things seemed. I missed the people who couldn’t be there, my dad, Chandler’s family, our dear friends, my family. Chandler stopped what he was doing and sat next to me. I asked him to list me happy things. He proceeded to remind me that love ALWAYS wins. That’s when this picture was taken.”

She added: “Despite everything, we got married and I’ll forever be grateful. Sure, things weren’t perfect but that’s life. Life is messy and beautiful and meant to be felt. We were overcoming great obstacles to prove that unconditional love is the most important foundation. Our wedding day wasn’t what we planned but it was an extraordinary starting point for our marriage to bloom.”

It comes just one day after Bindi revealed she had chosen not to take her husband’s surname. The 21-year-old conservationist, who tied the knot on March 25, told Entertainment Tonight she wanted to keep her surname to honour her later father Steve Irwin. Steve was killed in 2006 in the now-infamous incident at Batt Reef, near Port Douglas, Queensland, when he was pierced through the heart by a stingray barb while filming for TV series Ocean’s Deadliest.

“I’ve kept Bindi Irwin,” she told the publication. “I think that for me personally, after dad [Steve Irwin] passed away it was really important for me to feel close to him, and having his last name means so much to me.”