Picture this: a charming love story that spans continents, a surprise proposal overlooking lush vineyards in Napa Valley, and a stunning outdoor wedding ceremony set against the backdrop of Sydney Harbour. This is exactly what Jo and Nikhil’s radiant, peachy wedding was all about. With joyful pink, white, and peachy tones and a whole lot of love, their celebration was as delightful and radiant as the couple themselves. With a team of talented photographers from Birch & Wattle Photography and cinematographers at RZ Weddings on their side, we now get to see this beautiful celebration through the camera lens.

Jo and Nikhil met in 2014 in Lund, Sweden, where they were both doing a semester abroad for their undergraduate degrees at Lund University. Nikhil is from Canada, and Jo is from Australia. They finally crossed paths when they were put in the same dorm. “I was on the same floor as Nikhil’s best friend (Russell) from uni, and we started hanging out in the same friendship group, and then we eventually started dating!” Jo explained.

After six long years of their long-distance relationship, Jo finally decided to make the leap across the globe and moved to the U.S. For Nikhil, this was the perfect time to pop that almighty question. In August of 2021, he booked and planned for Jo and himself to go on a mini holiday to the beautiful Napa Valley in California. A chance for both of them to unwind after a stressful few weeks moving across the world. “He had actually been planning the engagement since May! He found a beautiful winery called Chateau Montelena and contacted them to arrange a tasting and to propose afterwards in the wineries’ gardens. Nikhil also invited his best friends, Suril and Jasmeet, to come to share in the moment and also to throw me off from sensing that this was a very couple-y trip,” she described.

On the day, they enjoyed their wine tasting and readied themselves for a walk around the picturesque winery – and Nikhil had a strict schedule to stick to and kept steering Jo towards their destination. He led Jo down to the gardens where the proposal was set up, across a gorgeous little bridge in front of a pagoda. Jo was completely unaware, and crossed the bridge, saw the ring of flowers set up and thought, “Aw! Someone’s going to propose here today!” and just kept walking. Nikhil pulled her back and told her to wait, and FINALLY, the penny dropped, and she realised what was happening.

Two days before the wedding, the couple held a traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony at Jo’s childhood home in Sydney to receive blessings from the elders in their families. “It was a moving and meaningful part of our wedding celebrations, which was at the home that Jo grew up in, with our closest family and friends in attendance.”

Nikhil wore a dashing suit custom-made in India paired with a navy bowtie. His wedding party wore similar navy suits with light peachy-coloured ties to match the wedding theme.

Dressed in this stunning Evie Young gown, Jo looked simple, elegant and most of all – radiant. After browsing a few stores, including U.S. boutiques, she found nothing she absolutely loved until she put this gown on.

She had three of her closest friends in her wedding party, all dressed in beautiful peachy, pink and burnt orange shades.

Jo’s wedding party put together a photo and message book addressed to her as a surprise for her to read while getting ready. It was brimming with messages from her family and Jo’s best friends, with photos from all their memories and shared moments – it was an instant tear-jerker.

For their florals, Jo and Nikhil chose a mixture of pinks, white and peachy tones with a pop of yellow from Japonica. “I wanted the colours to be bright, colourful and happy to match the atmosphere that we wanted to create. Once I saw a bouquet on Japonica’s (Megan’s) Instagram – I instantly knew that that was what I wanted.”

The location for their peachy wedding was incredibly important to Jo – she loved the idea of an outdoor wedding, but it needed to be somewhere convenient for guests to travel to. Their perfect location ended up being the Botanic Gardens with the Sydney Harbour. 

Their beautiful outdoor ceremony at Harbour View Lawn in the Botanic Gardens was full of peachy tones and luscious grass. The melody of “Air” by Johann Sebastian Bach floated through the air as Jo walked down the aisle with her mum and dad by her side.

They wanted the ceremony to be cheerful, personal and a little funny – and overall to tell their story. Their celebrant, Robyn Pattison, was the perfect celebrant (and MC later in the night) for Jo and Nikhil! “She did such a wonderful job getting to know us, making sure we were comfortable and telling our story.”

When it came to Robyn, Jo and Nikhil knew they were in great hands. “She had such a wealth of knowledge and took every effort to get to know us. Robyn was fantastic prioritising our guests having a great time, and we knew that we had nothing to worry about on the day.”

Their photographers for the day were Yana, Pavel, and Andy from Birch & Wattle Photography. “We instantly loved the bright, happy photos in their portfolio, and Yana, in particular, was so patient and wonderful to work with. Her experience really shone through, and she went above and beyond just taking great photos—she made every effort to make sure we were having a great time and gave us so much guidance as well. We are super grateful!”

The top five things that made their peachy wedding so special were:

“1. Our family and friends had come from all over the world to attend, and it meant so much to us.

2. We were finally getting married and could celebrate our relationship—after six years of long-distance and a move across the world.

3. Everyone, our friends, family, and all our vendors, just wanted the best of us.

4. It was just part 1 of 2 – a couple of days later, we flew to India and had a huge celebration there as well.

5. Getting married in Sydney, where Jo was born and raised, was extra special, especially after Jo moved to NYC.”

Their reception was inside the beautiful Botanic House in the Sydney Botanic Gardens, which followed the same peachy tones of the ceremony.

Instead of a guestbook, Nikhil and Jo created personalised postcards for each guest since many travelled internationally to join the celebrants. One side of the postcard was a photo of Nikhil and/or Jo and the guest, and the other side had space for a message. “We provided two postcards for each guest – one with a message from us and a blank one for the guests to write us a message. They were very special to us and covered many memories.”

Their first dance was a three-in-one, with the first being a waltz to the Merrygo Round of Life from the soundtrack of one of Jo’s favourite movies. “We then transitioned into a Bollywood dance, Maaangalyam, from a popular rom-com Bollywood Movie from Southern India, where Nikhil is from. Finally, we had a fast-paced group Bollywood dance with a couple of our friends to a song called Dippam Dappam to get the energy up in the room.”

Both Jo and Nikhil credit the wonderful vibe of their reception to Robyn and Damus from D.J. Dumplings entirely! “Damus was fantastic. He created such an awesome setlist, knew how to work a room, cut our ceremony music and wedding dance songs precisely to what we wanted, and was just so much fun!”

Please join us in congratulating Jo and Nikhil on their beautiful peachy wedding! And thanks to Birch & Wattle for capturing this incredible celebration.