Before The Big Day

"We chose to do it on a Monday,” Bobbi Lombardo tells me. “It just felt so much more relaxed and unhurried.” Bobbi, along with her partner, Tanaka Hambira, had spent months coordinating a destination wedding in Cape Town's Cape Winelands, something the pair tells me was building up to be an expansive event, breathtaking in scale. That said, given that they had to make it (legally) official before travelling to South Africa, the pair chose to embark on a Sydney civil ceremony two months prior, which was intentionally its opposite: four witnesses, a park, champagne on the bonnet of a vintage Mercedes, and a tiramisu cake.

The morning began with room service. They got ready together, took their time, and made their way to McKell Park in Darling Point, where stylist Rychelle of Love Stoned Styling had transformed a corner of one of Sydney's quieter harbourside parks into something artistic and joyful. Earthy florals arranged in sandstone urns created an atmosphere that was warm and underrated but undeniably chic. "We were completely in awe of the beautiful set up," Bobbi recalls. The inspiration had come from a series of Pinterest images, and Bobbi tells me that what materialised on the day surpassed all their references.

The couple met back in 2017, the night of Bobbi's 21st birthday, through mutual friends over drinks. Both were living in the same student accommodation: Tanaka completing his Masters, Bobbi studying fashion. He jokes that she saw his shoe collection and was immediately persuaded. She maintains it was something less material — the ease of conversation, a shared sense of humour, the discovery that they wanted to spend their time in largely the same ways. Nearly a decade on, that original ease has deepened into something more durable. "As we've matured, we've become more secure in ourselves and in each other," Bobbi tells me. "The things that might have felt like friction in the early days simply don't hold the same weight anymore."

The proposal came in 2024, timed to their anniversary. Tanaka booked dinner at Hubert, a long-standing favourite, before suggesting cocktails at Eau de Vie, where they had their first date. The bar had since relocated — a detail Tanaka had quietly researched in advance, conducting an elaborate performance of consulting Google Maps to avoid raising suspicion. He was, in fact, already completely familiar with the new address, having coordinated with the staff earlier that day. The cocktails arrived beneath a smoke-filled glass dome. When it lifted, there was a ring box inside.

A placeholder ring had been used so that the pair could choose together. What they eventually selected was an oval diamond in a scallop setting by Olivia Bond Diamonds, a design Bobbi had already set her heart on. The Olivia Bond team brought it to life as a fully bespoke piece. "They were amazing and made the process so special," Bobbi explains.

For the ceremony itself, Bobbi had left her own outfit somewhat late, finally discovering a three-piece lace set from Deme by Gabriella that came with a lace head scarf. It was a more fashion-forward bridal choice than most, and exactly right for the occasion. She wore her hair in a full blow-out and had her makeup done at Mecca. Tanaka arrived in a custom chocolate-brown relaxed suit from Belancè tailors, paired with Morja loafers.

Celebrant Jade of Married by Jade officiated. Photographer Amy of Unseen documented the day across formats — digital alongside camcorder and flash film — producing images with a warmly nostalgic quality that suited the vintage-romance mood of the day. Much of that footage found its way into their digital wedding invitations, collapsing the distance between the Sydney ceremony and the Cape Town celebration into something continuous and personal. After the ceremony, everyone present — vendors included — shared a champagne toast. "It felt like they were more than just our vendors," Bobbi says, "through the process, they really had become friends."

“As we've matured, we've become more secure in ourselves and in each other. The things that might have felt like friction in the early days simply don't hold the same weight anymore.”

The Cape Town wedding was another matter entirely. Planning a large celebration across hemispheres, managing every detail at distance, tested them in ways a Monday morning in a Sydney park simply could not. "It was quite the contrary," Bobbi admits. "Being across every detail was definitely a challenge." But the Cape Winelands setting, the mountains, the gathering of everyone who mattered — it delivered. "We had poured everything we love into one celebration," she says.

Between the two occasions, a portrait of the relationship becomes clear: two people who plan carefully and enjoy the process, who know that intimacy and scale are not in competition, and who are, after nine years, still actively choosing one another. What makes it work, Bobbi thinks, is partly compatibility and partly something less quantifiable. They are both water signs, she notes (Pisces and a Scorpio) and they both make each other laugh everyday, they like the same things, and they are genuinely glad to be in the same room.

Tanaka is more direct. "She makes me a better person," he says. "And keeps me grounded. That's all I could ask for.”