news

Their wedding almost didn't happen, thanks to Australia Post.

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t been on hold with Australia Post attempting to track down a missing parcel. But this story has to take the (wedding) cake.

Bride-to-be Michelle Cominos says her wedding day was almost ruined completely after Australia Post sent vital documents intended for her priest to an entirely different state.

It is a legal requirement in Australia that a couple needs to lodge an ‘Intended Marriage’ Form no later than one month and one day before they intend to wed. Mr Cominos knew this and arranged for his paperwork to be sent via the Postal Express Platinum service well before the due date to his priest so it could be lodged.

Michelle and Con had decided to fly in their priest from Brisbane to perform the Orthodox ceremony as there were no priests of the same denomination living near them in their home of Emerald in Central Queensland.

ADVERTISEMENT

Image via iStock. 

By October, the couple were contacted by the priest who advised them that he had not received the documentation in time and was therefore unable to legally perform the marriage ceremony. Understandably upset, Michelle and Con began investigating where their letter was. For reasons as yet still unknown, the paperwork was indeed found, two days before the wedding was due to take place- in an entirely different state and some 1500 km from where it was meant to be.

Having paid for and arranged a wedding costing in excess of $25,000, delaying the ceremony was not a viable option as over 70 guests had made arrangements to attend the nuptials. The couple stood to lose significant amounts of money on vendor payments, venue hire, hotel rooms and flights.

“It caused my wife a lot of trauma,” Mr Cominos told Perth Now. “She broke down and just cried and cried you’ve got these a***holes denying everything and then they add insult to injury to only give me a lousy $13 to make up for it.”

ADVERTISEMENT

With no priest, and the law telling them they could no longer marry, Con and Michelle had to think fast. They approached a local magistrate to explain their situation and were granted special consideration to marry due to the missing documentation.

ADVERTISEMENT

They then found a local priest, who was of a different denomination, and requested he perform the ceremony for the couple. Because of the different traditions, the priest had his work to do. “A local pastor did some quick homework, had a look at YouTube, got the gist of how to do the Orthodox service and just worked it out,” Mr Cominos said.

Amazingly, Con says he is well aware of the rate of missing parcels Australia Post deals with having been previously employed by the service but says that he is dumbfounded as to how a letter destined for his priest ended up in a Greek church in Parramatta in Sydney's Western Suburbs.

A spokesperson for Australia Post told News.com.au that investigations are still underway to determine how the error occurred by said that it was unlikely due to system automation which is being blamed for large amounts of service errors. According to the spokesperson, at least four Australia Post employees would have seen the address on the letter during it's journey to Sydney.

Watch the video below... 

00:00 / ???