Australia’s dessert king has found his queen. - by Phillip Koch
Despite the dreary forecast, getting married proved to be a piece of cake for dessert king Adriano Zumbo and his bride, Nelly Riggio, with a beautiful rainbow emerging right as the couple exchanged vows in a romantic clifftop chapel.
WATCH:Adriano Zumbo appears on MasterChef Australia 2018
“The weather just held out after looking like rain, and the sky opened up into blue and there was a rainbow,” smiles Adriano, as he gazes lovingly at the woman he wed, six years after they met when she applied for a job with him.
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Adriano, 40, and former My Kitchen Rules star Nelly, 31, were overcome with emotion as they exchanged the loving vows they wrote themselves, in front of 127 members of their extended Italian-Australian families.
With Queensland’s stunning Glass House Mountains as a backdrop, the couple opted for a traditional Catholic service.
Nelly looked stunning in an off-the-shoulder gown by Noosa designer Erin Clare.
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“I was amazed when Nelly walked in,” gushes Adriano, who scrubbed up just as good in his dapper white suit.
Despite their culinary pedigree, the newlyweds kept the menu simple, happily leaving the cooking to the team at Tiffany’s Maleny. Adriano even resisted the urge to make his own wedding cake, opting for a two-tiered creation by The Sweet Society Co.
“I’ve been to many weddings and the quality of food was 10/10,” says Adriano – although he did make some of his famous macarons for Nelly, who chose her favourite dirty chai flavour.
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The May 6 nuptials came just 12 months after Adriano, who is famed for his difficult and elaborate MasterChef ‘Pressure Tests’, put himself under his own pressure test when he proposed.
“I forgot to bend the knee until she told me too!” he says.
Nelly says Adriano also chased her father, Mario, around the backyard while he was mowing to ask his permission.
“It was very romantic and a big surprise!”
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