Real Wedding - Alinta & Rafael, Red Hill VIC

January 8, 2025 In Latest Posts, Luxe, Real Weddings, Victoria, White, Winery By Jemma Ryan

Real Wedding – Alinta & Rafael, Red Hill VIC

Alinta and Rafael’s Red Hill nuptials had an effortlessly elevated, ‘old money’ aesthetic.

The black-tie affair began with a traditional church ceremony followed by fancy fare and a memorable dance floor at Port Phillip Estate.

From the monochromatic tones to the sounds of a string trio, the two-tier cake and a top shelf champagne tower – their celebrations oozed style and sophistication at every turn.

Alinta’s bridal looks boasted global and local labels befitting the most luxurious of occasions; Manolo Blahnik, Marianna Hardwick and Rachel Gilbert, to name a few.

See how photographer Jeremy Blode captured all the key moments, as well as the quiet ones, below.

The meeting.

It was a long-distance romance; I was living in Melbourne and Rafael is from Sydney. We met in Sydney when I was visiting for work. One Saturday night, I found myself out at Rafael’s local pub in Paddington, where Rafael approached me on the dance floor. When I found out that Rafael was a potential client, I promptly gave him my business card. While Rafael didn’t send me any work, he did use that business card to ask me on a date. A year of long distance ensued before I moved to Sydney in late 2023. Another 12 months after that was our wedding!

Planning process.

We wanted to create an experience that made our friends and family feel like they were at a fabulous dinner party. To us, this meant: (a) amazing food; (b) champagne and great wine; (c) a venue that operated as a restaurant on a day-to-day basis; (d) great views; and (e) a fun DJ and dance floor. Port Phillip Estate was an easy choice as we knew the venue as a winery and a restaurant and had received great reports from other couples who had been married there. Once we had booked the venue, we engaged Bow Creative to help us with the planning process as we had less than five months between booking the venue and the date of the wedding. They were fantastic and made the planning process fun and easy.

Style inspiration.

We wanted something simple and sophisticated that also facilitated guests having a lot of fun. Since the wedding, others have described it to us as having an ‘old money aesthetic’ – which is quite the compliment! Because we had Bow Creative, what was key for us was finding inspiration both through real weddings on wedding blogs and styled shoots. We relied on Bow Creative to give us recommendations for the specific supplier options in the Mornington Peninsula. Having someone who has worked with a number of suppliers and who has good supplier relationships gave us a lot of confidence.

The ceremony.

It was really important to me to have a religious ceremony and we found a gorgeous quaint Anglican Church, St John’s Flinders, which was established in 1892. The red brick church has cherry blossom trees lining the path up to the entry, gorgeous stained-glass windows and a historical fresco at the back of the church. Reverend Keiron Jones was very supportive and easy to work with. The church fits about 100 people which was perfect for us and made for a very intimate ceremony.

The outfit.

I wore a custom Marianna Hardwick gown. I tried on a number of wedding dresses in Sydney but didn’t find the one until I visited Marianna Hardwick in South Melbourne with my bridesmaids. One of the many great things about Marianna Hardwick is that I was able to make changes to the design to suit my body shape and the wedding aesthetic. I loved an off-the-shoulder style but was concerned that it wasn’t practical for the reception, so Marianna Hardwick made the ‘sleeves’ detachable so that I had them on for the ceremony and photos but could remove them for a different look for the reception. I also had a shorter, Rachel Gilbert dress complete with sequins and feathers for the dance floor. The hardest part of my outfit was finding the right shoes as I wanted a heel 8cm or lower. I fell in love with the iconic Manolo Blahnik Hangisi but it was difficult to find the right colour and size combination in Australia. I managed to secure them just six weeks before the wedding after extensive searching online.

Rafael wore a bespoke tuxedo with a black velvet jacket and black trousers made by P Johnson in Sydney. The choice of a velvet jacket and cummerbund was made to create a point of differentiation with our guests given the wedding was a black-tie dress code.

Favourite moments.

Other than the ceremony, it was looking up from the lawn at Port Philip Estate where we were having photos taken to see our guests standing on the deck in the sunshine, drinking champagne, eating oysters while being entertained by a string trio.

For more black-tie, old-money aesthetic, browse Hayley & James’ real wedding.

ALINTA & RAFAEL’S SUPPLIERS:

Our suppliers were absolutely fantastic and we would recommend them to other couples. In particular Bow Creative as our wedding planner and stylist, Jeremy Blode our photographer, BLANC photography for a pop up photo booth which our guests loved and Andrea Takagi for hair and makeup who is absolutely divine.

Ceremony location: St John’s Anglican Church, Flinders

Reception venue: Port Philip Estate,

Officiant: Reverend Keiron Jones

Photography: Jeremy Blode Photography

Styling & Planning: Bow Creative

Florist: Clover Flowers

Hair & makeup: Andrea Takagi

Content Creation: On the Day Socials

The dresses: Marianna Hardwick & Rachel Gilbert

Veil / headwear: Lola Knight

Shoes: Manolo Blahnik

Rings: Baivina