Casey Donovan opens up about wedding plans as she prepares to tie the knot with fiancée Renee Sharples
Casey Donovan has opened up about her upcoming wedding to fiancée Renee Sharples.
The Australian Idol winner, 37, announced her engagement to her long-time partner in June last year.
During an appearance on The Project on Friday, Casey gave an insight into how the planning of the nuptials is progressing.
Appearing on the beleaguered Channel Ten show to promote her upcoming musical Kimberley Akimbo, it wasn't too long before Casey was pressed on details for the big day.
'If I wasn't already attracted to your hands with your incredible nails, there's also a very big rock on your finger,' panellist Susie Yussef said, which elicited a big laugh from Casey.
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The singer replied: 'This time last year, when I had my last two weeks off, I went to Tasmania and got engaged.'
'So, you're wedding prepping as well?' Susie asked, referencing Casey's current hectic schedule.
Casey offered a cheeky: 'Certainly not,' before revealing the lovebirds are still very much in the planning phase.
'We keep chatting about it and we're like: 'do we have something big? Do We have something small?'
'Do we just run away and do it ourselves and then throw a party? Which I haven't told Renee, I'm so sorry,' she said to her fiancée down the camera.
Host Max Rushden had a suggestion for the happy couple which seemed to pique Casey's interest.
'Do it on roller skates,' he said in a reference to Kimberley Akimbo in which cast members don the wheel augmented footwear to simulate ice skating.
'I mean, it's a moment,' she said.
'Do it on roller skates,' host Max Rushden said in a reference to Casey's upcoming turn in Kimberley Akimbo in which cast members don the wheel augmented footwear to simulate ice skating. 'I mean, it's a moment,' she said.
Casey revealed that she and Renee were planning to tie the knot in June last year.
Showing off her massive diamond ring, the theatre star cuddled up to her girlfriend as she shared in the caption the wholesome moment Renee got down on bended knee.
'21.06.24 on the strawberry moon of the winter solstice the love of my life asked me if I wanted to do this life together forever,' Casey wrote.
'"The day I met you, home was no longer a place it became a person and yes, you are a gypsy but there's nobody else I would rather attach my wagon to on this beautiful road trip called life" and with that, I said yes!'
Casey, who rose to fame at the age of 16 after winning Australian Idol in 2004, sparked rumours she was secretly engaged to girlfriend Renee back in September 2021 - one year after finding love during Victoria's Covid lockdown.
She sent the rumour mill ablaze after she uploaded an Instagram video of herself performing a cover of Stand By Me to promote R U OK? Day.
As Casey strummed a guitar, fans couldn't help but spy a huge diamond ring on her finger, leading some to question whether a wedding was on the cards.
Casey met Renee, a lecturer in paramedicine, on dating app Bumble and the pair set up video dates on Zoom during Covid lockdown in 2020.
'I was nervous and excited to make a connection with Renee, and when we finally connected her banter was great and she seemed very lovely,' Casey told Woman's Day.
'When I logged into our first Zoom date and saw that Renee had set it up in a café, it was so sweet... [It was] even better when she asked me what kind of coffee I wanted,' she added.
Renee admitted that she recognised Casey from Australian Idol but 'didn't have any preconceived ideas about who she was'.
'We didn't really see this in our near future; it was very unexpected. But we're having the best time doing life together and I could not be happier,' she said.
It's certainly been a busy time for Casey who has recently starred in successful runs of musicals & Juliet and Sister Act.
She also recently partnered with weight loss program Juniper to help to achieve her fitness goals.
'I've kind of been on, I guess, my own little journey through health and fitness in the last few months when they approached [me],' Casey told Daily Mail Australia in April.
She added that, with medication already a part of her weight loss regimen, she was looking for some extra help and direction.
'I kind of I sat with it and being already that I was already on a form of medication, I was kind of at that point where I needed that extra bit of help, she said.
'It kind of came at the perfect time, because I was trying to just bumble through life with all the other things that I knew that I picked up from other weight loss programs. Just kind of fumbling my way through.'
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