Most brides wear their wedding dress once but not Zoe Aust.
Zoe and her husband Nick travelled to 33 countries where she was photographed wearing her wedding dress in some of the world’s biggest landmarks, including the Taj Mahal in India and the Great Wall of China.
NORTH.
A few days after their New Year’s Eve wedding in 2017, the couple embarked on a honeymoon of a lifetime. “We quit our 9-5 jobs, said goodbye to our families, and set off for a journey that we will never forget. The one item we had to pack was our wedding outfits.
“We wanted this trip to be unique, so we had the crazy idea of wearing our wedding outfits to every country we visited,” said Nick.
Zoe said their shared love for travel brought them together.
“We are similar in many ways. We believe we were what the other person was waiting for,” she said.
The pair spent two years saving up for their journey - and took extra jobs to make enough money. Zoe was in charge of planning their wedding and Nick planned the first four months of their 10-month long honeymoon.
“He would spend hours in search of the cheapest flights, the best time to go to a country, the weather and attractions of the destination. Nick figured out the easiest and cheapest way for us to fly around for four months to 16 different countries. We kind of went with the flow for the rest of the six months and booked as we travelled,” said Zoe.
From flying over Mount Everest, catching up with cousins in Italy and seeing more than 150 hot air balloons take off every morning in Cappadocia, Turkey, the pair immersed themselves in the destinations.
While the pictures of the trip look like a luxury honeymoon, the couple made sure they spent responsibly.
“We told ourselves that once the money we had saved ran out, we’d go home. We tried to be smart with our money by staying in cheaper Airbnbs, walked instead of taking taxis, cooked as much as we could and skipped on buying souvenirs,” said Nick.
The honeymoon taught them to be grateful. “We’re thankful for every minute of the trip. We were able to experience 33 countries with just two suitcases for 10 months. We loved the people we met and all the memories.”
Nick and Zoe have just come back from Morocco and volunteered in Sierra Leone. They will move to Brooklyn, New York to show people how to get around and stay in the Big Apple.
They will partner with a company called STOOP that offers fully furnished apartments in the city.