- Ceremony
- A country house in Summertown, Adelaide Hills
- City
- Adelaide
- Coverage
- Photography, Videography
- Edit
- Warm, rich colour with deep greens, and black and white for the quieter moments
- Team
- Jay and Sofia
Joanna and Krish didn't want a venue. They rented a country house in Summertown, high in the Adelaide Hills, and married in its garden on a soft, grey spring afternoon in November 2025, with a handful of guests, a flute player under the trees and the hills rolling away on every side. Jay and Sofia photographed and filmed it.
It was a short day and a full one. The two of them got ready in the house, said their vows under a big old tree, signed at a little round table on the gravel, changed into white robes and jumped in the pool, then changed again for portraits in the lavender with a glass of champagne.
Getting ready in the house
The house did a lot of the work for us. The lounge room was dark and moody, all leather and timber, and the bedrooms had big windows full of soft light. Joanna's lace gown hung in a timber doorway, and a pink fabric rose sat on the table beside her pearls. A hairstylist pinned white roses into her hair in front of a ring light, while a grazing table of pretzels, bread and cured meats waited in the window light. The rings sat in their boxes beside a pen covered in little hearts. Joanna spent most of the morning in a white robe, laughing.
Krish, and then the dress
Krish got ready at the other end of the house. He did up his cuffs by a window, then stood for a while in an open doorway looking out over the lavender to the green hills. A white rose buttonhole went onto his jacket, and he laughed his way through it.
Back in the bedroom, Joanna stepped into her first gown, strapless and simple, and had it fastened by a sliding barn door. She took a glass of champagne to a dark green wall for a few quiet minutes, then sat by the window with her bouquet on her knee. Her roses were red and white, tied with a long red ribbon that she let trail almost to the floor.
Out to the garden
A flute player set up a music stand under the trees, and the garden went quiet. At the door Joanna stopped for a long hug, then walked down the gravel path beside the house towards the tree where Krish was waiting. He didn't wait for the ceremony to start before holding her: the first thing they did when she reached him was hug, for a long time, under the branches.
Vows under the tree
The ceremony was small and close. Krish, Joanna and their celebrant stood under the old tree with the hills behind them, and the guests stood near enough to hear every word. Krish wiped away a tear before he'd said anything, then read his vows from a sheet of paper. Joanna read hers and laughed most of the way through them. Then the rings went on.
Signed and married
They signed at a small round table set out on the gravel, the celebrant leaning in to show them where. When they stood up, a guest threw an arm in the air, Krish kissed Joanna, and she threw her arms around him. A few photographs with the celebrant on the lawn, the hills behind them, and then the hugs began: a guest in a red dress wrapped Joanna in a hug, roses and all.
Under the tree with everyone
The photographs with family and friends happened under the same tree. Joanna and Krish with each guest in turn, a lot of laughing, then everyone together on the gravel, with one guest cheering. Afterwards we walked the two of them across the lawn and through the trees, the breeze catching her gown.
Into the pool
Then came the pool. Joanna and Krish changed into white robes, walked to the end of the pool, threw their arms in the air and jumped in. A wedding at a house means the house is yours for the day, and they used all of it.
The lavender and the hills
Dried off and changed, Krish came back in a cream jacket and Joanna in the lace gown that had hung in the doorway that morning. The lavender beside the house was out, and we spent the last of our time there and on the terrace, where two black chairs looked straight out over the hills. They laughed in their chairs, kissed between them, and stood above the green paddocks of Summertown for a few wide frames. Krish dipped Joanna on the lawn in front of the lavender, someone cheered from the far side of it, and they finished the way the afternoon deserved, raising a glass of champagne by the stone steps.
The film
Jay and Sofia filmed the day as well as photographing it, and their wedding film is below.
