Sydney couple Phoebe Cox and Charity Turner were in love and wanted to get married. But since marriage equality is still not legal in their native Australia, the women had to tie the knot in New Zealand.

If that wasn't sad enough, while they were there, Cox's grandfather—who was too frail to make the trip—passed away.

"We chose New Zealand because it was the closest country that has legal same-sex marriage ceremonies," Turner, 33, told the Daily Mail. "My father is actually Kiwi but all of my relatives are in Australia."

Seventy of their closest friends and family attended the garden ceremony in Kapiti, which was by all accounts beautiful. But hearing about her grandpa's death meant Cox and Turner had to postpone their honeymoon and quickly return home for the funeral.

"It was incredible the amount of support we did receive," Turner said, "but having an overseas wedding meant my elderly grandparents couldn't make it. Phoebe's grandfather actually passed away while we were at the wedding."

In the weeks leading up to their nuptials, the couple was profiled on the reality show Bride and Prejudice, which Turner says had been pitched to them as "a documentary series on diverse relationships."

"Even though it required us to make our private life public to show some of the struggles a same-sex couple can have when the topic of marriage is broached, we just want to continue the dialogue," she told the Mail. "We wanted to be that healthy, normal lesbian couple on TV other same-sex relationships could look at for support and encouragement."

Two-thirds of Australians support marriage equality, but a national vote on the issue was blocked by Parliament last fall.