The Real Reason Bindi Irwin's Wedding Was Ruined

Fans of Bindi Irwin have watched the young wildlife conservationist grow up on television, so it was only logical that the former Jungle Girl and husband Chandler Powell would want to share their wedding day with the Crikey! It's the Irwins audience. However, more than two months after the pair exchanged vows, Bindi revealed on Instagram that, despite their happy ending, the event was not what she'd dream of her whole life. Bindi and Powell initially decided against guests for health and safety reasons, but Australia's sudden lockdown measures also forced the couple to change their wedding date the evening before they were set to tie the knot. Still, they were, quote, "determined to let love win." Making matters even worse, the couple had to alter their plans once again when some uninvited guests arrived. She wrote: "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." As the helicopters began to swarm the airspace above the Australian Zoo, Bindi Irwin knew they couldn't get married among the beloved animals as expected. She explained to Entertainment Tonight: "We had to entirely shift our wedding ceremony as we were about to get married. And I remember I was in my wedding dress and we found this beautiful, old — it's like a barn where we filmed Crocodile Hunter and Bindi the Jungle Girl — and I went, 'This is gonna work!'" After that, the zoo's crew helped them move inside. While Bindi admitted the wedding wasn't quite what they planned, Bindi deemed it a, quote, "extraordinary starting point" for their marriage to "bloom." She added: "We didn't have any of the fancy frills or anything. And it's great if you do when you get married, but for us it was about being together no matter what happened." It's clear that, together, these two can overcome any unforeseen obstacle that comes their way, and it certainly seems to have helped that her new hubby kept a cool head and optimistic outlook through the whole thing. As Bindi told Entertainment Tonight, Powell's "calming presence" soothed her when she felt like she was "going crazy" amid the chaos. She recalled on Instagram: "At one point I sat on a chair in the corner doing my best not to think about how overwhelming things seemed. [...] 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." Bindi added: "[Sometimes] it is so hard to find happiness, and that's why we have to have people who love us and support us around always. During the hardest times in your life, those are the people that are gonna lift you up and remind you that the meaning of life is unconditional love." They're right — love won that day. And even as the newlyweds built the foundations for their own future together, neither forgot the memory of Bindi's father, the late Steve Irwin. In fact, while it's customary for brides to adopt the grooms' last name after they say "I do," Bindi Irwin chose to keep her name to honor her father. Talking to Entertainment Tonight, she explained: "I think that for me personally, after dad passed away it was really important for me to feel close to him, and having his last name means so much to me." Her husband Chandler Powell explained that, although they discussed her potential name change, they both agreed that she's, quote, "an Irwin through and through" at the end of the day. And while Bindi hinted that Powell could assume her surname, he's just thankful that the Crocodile Hunter essentially brought them together. After all, Powell grew up watching Steve's wildlife documentaries. He told ET: "[It] made me really fall in love with all forms of wildlife. So in a way, he brought us together because when I came to Australia after watching his documentaries, I wanted to come visit Australia Zoo and that was when we met... if it weren't for him, I don't know how we would have met." Crikey! Now that's a love story for the ages. Watch the video to learn The Real Reason Bindi Irwin's Wedding Was Ruined! #BindiIrwin #ChandlerPowell