Higgins makes bold choice for wedding day
Brittany Higgins is set to tie the knot with her partner David Sharaz. Exclusive photos from their hotel reveal she has made a bold choice.
Entertainment
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Brittany Higgins is set to tie the knot with her fiancee David Sharaz in a stunning couture gown by Australian designer Paolo Sebastian.
The grinning bride-to-be was photographed this morning leaving her hotel with Mr Sharaz and her friend and maid of honour Emma Webster wearing pink silk pyjamas.
A couture wedding dress was contained in a suit bag marked Paolo Sebastian’s logo, a designer that has featured at the Met Gala and beloved of celebrities including Katy Perry and actor Poppy Delevingne.
Bridesmaid Emma Webster was carrying a Bianca Spender suit bag containing her gown ahead of the short drive to the wedding venue.
Head of the Kardashian clan, Kris Jenner, previously opted for a Paolo Sebastian in 2015 and the designer has also provided red carpet event dresses for Katy Perry and Carrie Bickmore.
Designer Paul Vasileff is the founder of the Adelaide-based couture label, which features 50s silhouettes with a fairytale-twist, and gowns adorned with duchess satin, corded lace, intricate embellishments.
The brand has previously debuted at Paris Fashion Week and been worn by Anthony Albanese’s partner Jodie Haydon at a state dinner hosted in the couple’s honour by US President Joe Biden and Jill Biden at the White House.
For that event, Jodie Haydon selected a smoky-grey ball gown with subtle Australian motifs woven into the dress.
Ms Higgins is set to wed at The Valley Estate described on its website, it’s the ‘epitome of luxury’.
“A bespoke, one-off space crafted to inspire celebration and reflection with loved ones,” the site says.
The happy couple are set to celebrate on Saturday with a small group of close friends and family only in Queensland. There are no politicians or celebrity guests in attendance.
Lisa Wilkinson, who interviewed her for The Project before being sued for defamation over the broadcast, is not on the guest list.
David Sharaz first met Brittany Higgins in 2020, when he was working as a producer for Karl Stefanovic’s brother Pete on his Sky News breakfast program.
Mr Sharaz has described watching the “beautiful” Ms Higgins walk through the door of a Parliament House television studio, a fateful moment that changed the course of both of their lives.
Seven months after that first date, Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz recounted the story in a room with Lisa Wilkinson and her producer Angus Llewellyn, who recorded the discussion on his iPhone as a pre-interview for The Project.
“Yeah it happened quickly. Yeah. It’s all good,” Ms Higgins tells Ms Wilkinson of their relationship in a recording transcript published by the Federal Court.
“Just between you and me, all the best ones do,” Ms Wilkinson replied.
Their first date was May 31, 2020.
By the end of the year, the busy media adviser and her TV producer boyfriend were sharing an apartment.
The story of how the couple first ran into each other at Parliament House is recounted in a five-hour ‘pre interview’ recording that would later come back to haunt Ms Wilkinson because it featured her views that former Defence Minister Linda Reynolds was “a nobody” that she regarded as “cheap and uneducated.”
Later, the recording would be handed over under subpoena as part of the criminal trial, leaked to the Spotlight program and the subject of questions in parliament after Mr Sharaz suggested he was “friends” with Labor’s Katy Gallagher.
“He used to harass me,” Higgins jokingly responded when asked how they met. Before she could tell the story, Mr Sharaz finished her sentence.
Mr Sharaz knew Ms Higgins’ boss Michaelia Cash was unlikely to ever come on the Sky program given the time difference in Perth, but the calls kept coming. Ms Higgins laughed that she would be like, “Oh God, David Sharaz.”
“And then Covid happened and I was like, as most people during Covid, I got drunk and I was talking to a friend on Zoom and I said ‘Oh there’s this girl, she’s way out of my league’,” Mr Sharaz said.
“I screen captured her Instagram and sent it to my friend but Britt was on my mind so I sent Britt a photo of Britt.”
“Gee that made things pretty clear,” Ms Wilkinson replied.
But instead, Ms Higgins thought he was “negging” her because she took a photograph right in front of Budget Tree.
But far from poking fun at her, he thought it was “a beautiful photo.”
“And then, I was like ‘full disclosure, I think you’re really cute, have a wonderful life, I’ll see you later’,” Mr Sharaz told her.
“Here I am, I loved you when I saw you for the first time,” Mr Sharaz said.
David Vaughan Sharaz was born in 1991, in Wrexham, north Wales, to a Welsh mother and Indian father.
Throughout their relationship, the former television producer has remained a fan of big, romantic gestures.
This year, he was on Instagram throwing rose petals in the shape of a love heart, over their bed in a five-star hotel. There were matching jumpers last Christmas.
And after she received a $2.445 million settlement from the Commonwealth, there were trips to the Maldives, Paris, Geneva. Sometimes there were business class flights.
When Mr Sharaz proposed at the top of the Byron Bay lighthouse on New Year’s Eve last year, photos of the couple lined the staircase to the top, where they were photographed by paparazzi.
“I didn’t want to enter another year without you knowing that I want to spend all my years with you … I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” he said on Instagram.
“I’m just a guy, kneeling in front of a girl, asking her to marry him.”
Originally published as Higgins makes bold choice for wedding day
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