Romantic Summer Wedding at Athol Hall

On a golden summer afternoon, surrounded by friends and family, Rebecca and Nik celebrated their romantic summer wedding. They envisioned a celebration that was true to them: bright, full of love, and reflective of their story. Set against the stunning backdrop of Athol Hall and styled with colourful florals and personal touches, their wedding was equal parts emotional and fun! All captured by the talented James from Rose Photos – it’s a celebration they’ll never forget.

Rebecca and Nikhilesh met on the app designed to be deleted – Hinge! After chatting for a while, they met up at a bar in the city for their first date, which turned into dinner, which turned into forever! “Without an app, there is almost no way we would’ve met – living so far apart and working on opposite sides of the bridge. I’m so very lucky to have had this to bring us together!”

In the summer of 2022, Nik and Rebecca went on a round trip from Sydney to Adelaide and back. Nik had planned to propose on the first day of the trip but changed his mind when he saw how many people were there – knowing both he and Rebecca wanted an intimate setting. “He knew he wanted it to be just for us, so he tried to find a good moment over the next few days of the trip. He tried twice more, getting interrupted at both:

Mungo National Park, where we were having lunch in the boot of the car looking out at the view when a family settled in at the same spot.
Maclaren Vale looked out on NYE; we spent the day driving between wineries and tastings and had the best time! Nik decided to take us to a lookout, but I said I’d just look from the car. Once he finally convinced me to get out, another family pulled up at the lookout, with the father making a beeline for Nik and wanting to chat – lovely, but completely ill-timed lol.

In the end, we got back to the hotel room in Adelaide and Nik got down on one knee, explaining he’d been trying to perfect this all week and wanted to ask before the New Year started. It was lovely, and I said yes (through a lot of tears!).”

Nik thought long and hard about what he wanted to wear, and only set those plans into motion six weeks (!!) before the wedding. Luckily for him, everything he tried on at MJ Bale looked great and he found his tux pretty quickly – opting for a classic look with a dark look.

Rebecca had just finished looking for wedding dresses with her sister – so when it was her turn, she had a clearer idea of what she wanted. She chose this beautiful strapless Pronovias gown from Marry Me Bridal, with intricate detailing. “It was the part of the process I was most nervous to start, I can be quite self-conscious, so my Mum and I decided to rip the band-aid off quickly and go to this shop, one I’d driven past many, many times. We went in thinking I would try on a few just to get comfortable with the process before continuing with my sisters to look later, but within the hour of trying and with the last dress, I found the perfect one! We came back a few days with my sisters so I could have the experience of trying it on with them too, but I knew as soon as I put it on that it was the perfect dress for me, and I could completely envision the wedding from that point.”

Wanting to enhance the natural beauty of their venue, and stick to the summery, bright vibes of the day, Rebecca was overwhelmed with the vast choices available for florals. “The only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to have a hanging installation in the reception venue – one of the features that drew me to Athol Hall was how beautiful the floral arrangements could look hanging from the rafters, and I really wanted to have this for myself. I chose to work with Sisca because she had a vision for the venue and had previously gotten married there herself, so she really knew the venue in a way that most would not. She also showed us ways to incorporate artificial and fresh flowers – which became a godsend considering the heat of the day!”

As most summer days in Australia, it was still 35 degrees late in the afternoon as the party was getting ready to head off to the ceremony. Unfortunately for Rebecca and her bridesmaids, that meant that the car they were in decided it was actually too hot and stopped working three minutes away from the venue. “I was impressed that I didn’t panic; I think by that point, I was able to find the humour in it! Luckily, my husband had arrived much earlier, and they sent his car back to pick me and my parents up. A friend of mine later told me she drove past and saw us on the side of the road; she was running late for the wedding and thought we had stopped to take photos!” she shared.

Since they had plenty of guests travelling to attend their wedding, Nik and Rebecca wanted to have their summer wedding at one location. And the moment they pulled up to Athol Hall, they knew it was the one. “We saw a few places (both in Sydney and South Coast NSW) but were totally pulled in after we saw the view at Athol Hall. As we asked our questions, it became clear they would work with everything we wanted, and the process would be simple. They did not disappoint and made every step as simple as we needed.”

As guests entered the ceremony space, they were welcomed by all the summery florals, and the signage designed by Jacqui Sloan Designs, who also made all of the stationery for the reception.

To get from the start of the lawn to the altar was a LONG walk, so Rebecca was happy to have her dad on her arm for the journey. They walked as “Best Part” by Daniel Caesar and H.E.R. floated through the air. “Both Nik and I loved the song; we wanted something that felt more “us” but that most would not have heard before. It was the perfect choice for us,” she explained.

Rebecca admits she’s known for being open with her emotions, sharing them freely from the deep well of love in her soul. But she knew she didn’t want it to be too emotional for the wedding – she wanted to enjoy herself without crying her way through the ceremony. So when they stumbled across Leah Appleby from Married By Leah, Rebecca and Nik knew they’d found the one. “She totally understood that we wanted to have fun and make the ceremony sentimental without being over-emotional. She put together a ceremony that was representative of us. It was fun, with jokes and stories about our life so far, and really cemented who we are and what we want to be as a couple and future family.”

One of her favourite moments was when she and Nik shared their vows in front of their loved ones. “We wrote them ourselves, and it is really rare to stand in front of the person you love most to tell them what they mean to you, and doing it all in front of the people that love you too was really beautiful.”

The best advice Nik and Rebecca want to leave for other couples planning their weddings is this: “Time creeps up on you through this process; don’t put anything off until later! If you find a vendor you love, lock them in as soon as you have made a decision. Do the research early so you can be more relaxed in the lead-up to the wedding itself. I felt like things were a little frantic as I left many things until late.”

James from Rose Photos was the photographer for this romantic summer wedding and was one of the first vendors Nik and Rebecca came across in their planning journey. “I found him online, loved the way he shot his work and made it seem less forced, not staged. Once we had our first call with him, we knew he would be perfect for us, and he was so reassuring all the way through. He was confident and direct, easily wrangled our guests and gave us really clear instructions before and on the day. We knew he understood our focus was celebrating, and made sure to capture as much of it as possible.”

If you struggle with procrastination (guilty!), then you’ll understand how overwhelming planning is. And planning a wedding is a huge job, but Nik and Rebecca found it flowed so much easier once they worked together. “To be honest, we struggled with wedding planning. It’s such an important day, but we are both procrastinators with busy lives and jobs, so we put off decisions until the last minute a lot of the time. The thing I found best about planning was seeing how easily we were able to make decisions together – we were on the same page about themes, concepts and ideas for the wedding almost every time so making decisions was easier (even if they were late!).”

The top five things that made this romantic summer wedding so special were:

“1. Seeing all our people together for the first time, all in one space. We loved looking out as the ceremony started and seeing people sitting together who were important to us but had never met. We kept saying it felt so surreal!

2. The portraits – photos taken after the ceremony; it was nice to leave the noise for a bit and take some photos, talk about how our mornings had been, and what we had thought of the day so far.

3. We only had one lesson, so I was pretty nervous, but the moment we remembered what we had learnt, I could feel it – it was so nice to feel confident and comfortable while dancing to one of our favourite songs.

4. My dad loves to dance, but I am less confident. We chose a more upbeat song for the Father-Daughter dance so we could start the dance floor straight after it. We picked “Brown Eyed Girl”, and it was so fun getting spun around the floor with my dad and then getting the crowd up to join us.

5. We got home and were so wired and excited from the day we stayed up until 3am just talking through the whole day! It was so much fun and a great way to end it together, in our house.”

To honour both of their families and backgrounds, Rebecca and Nik gave out two bonbonnieres to their guests – a Mauritian sweet called Napolitaines and some Italian sugared almonds. “We had to package and prepare all the bags of almonds ourselves.”

Rebecca had two favourite shots from their summer wedding – the first was the group shot after the ceremony, where James had brought everyone together. But her other favourite is this one just here. They were soaking in the heat of the day during the portraits and suddenly soaking in the rain that came through! “It was such a cool change, though we just kept going with the photos. There are a few I love where we are just laughing and hugging – we were having such a fun day and were looking forward to the rest of the evening.”

For Nik, he was most grateful for how many friends and family travelled to celebrate their romantic wedding. “There were heaps of happy faces in the room and the great welcome my dad got from everyone when he went up to do his speech. It was such an incredible “once in a lifetime” moment, and I will remember vividly every second of it.”

Leon Bridges “Beyond” soundtracked their first dance. While Nik and Rebecca aren’t shy by any means, they didn’t want to look silly in front of all their guests, so they roped her sister into giving them dance lessons. “It was only two weeks before the wedding, but we picked it up and were able to fake it through the song which was great!”