Emergency room visit for newlyweds on wedding day

After exchanging vows and a few quick family photos at the Botanic Gardens, Alicia and her new husband Jacob took a detour to the emergency room before the reception.

With the official photographer, Josh Beames in tow, the newlyweds stopped by Warrnambool Base Hospital for some snaps with 85-year-old Dawn Drake. It was an emotional visit.

"I just had tears flowing down my face. It was so special," Alicia said. "Grandma means a lot to me."

Dawn had been heading out to get her hair done for the wedding about 9am on Saturday, February 10, 2024 when she fell.

Alicia Hinkley (nee Gibb) was also getting ready for the big day with the hairdresser and make-up artist having just arrived when she got the call.

"My mum was getting her hair done when the phone started to ring," she said.

Alicia and Jacob Hinkley visit her grandma Dawn Drake in Warrnambool hospital on their wedding day. She had had a fall on the morning of the wedding and couldn't be there.

Alicia answered the call from her uncle who delivered the news that her much-loved grandma had had a fall, was bleeding from her head and an ambulance was on its way.

"They were trying to get her out of hospital to come to the ceremony," she said.

But Alicia told them: "Don't stress. If she doesn't come, I'll go see her. Not seeing her is not an option for me. I will make it work. I will do what I have to do".

Alicia wore her grandma's broach in her hair as her "something old", and had visited her at her home the day before the wedding.

"When I walked into her house she was holding the wedding invite looking at it," she said. "She's been so excited for this day."

When they found out Dawn couldn't go to the ceremony or the reception, a good friend of the family went and sat with her at the hospital so she wasn't alone.

"We got our family photos. We hurried them on a bit and we went to see her at the hospital in the emergency room," Alicia said.

Taking wedding photos at the hospital was a first for the photographer, she said.

"Everyone at the hospital was so accommodating," Alicia said. "Nurses were coming to look saying 'we've never had this before'."

Grandma missing the wedding wasn't the only hiccup on the big day.

"We also had vintage cars in the wedding and one of them broke down Saturday morning. My father-in-law had to go out and fix that," Alicia said.

Despite it all, Alicia said it was a special day. "It was amazing...I can't thank everyone enough," she said.

The couple - who have two children, Ella, 3, and Harry, 1, - had a "mini-moon" in Geelong and will head to Thailand and Singapore for their honeymoon in April.

This article first appeared in the Warrnambool Standard.