Ten acres near Morpeth, the whole place to yourselves for the weekend, and four fig trees out front that are roughly two centuries old. Wallalong House is a grand old country home with beds for 19 of your people and a permanent Indian tent standing ready for the reception.
We’ve photographed and filmed weddings here, and this is what we’d want to know if we were the ones booking a wedding at Wallalong House. See how we work as Hunter Valley wedding photographers.
Quick Facts
Ceremony Spaces
Wallalong’s Manicured Gardens
Wallalong House is known for its homestead feel and beautiful gardens, where ceremonies can happen at the front of the homestead, beneath two of the property’s four fig trees, and with green fields and farmland running out behind.
The wedding party comes out of the house and down the front steps to get there. The venue and a celebrant who works here regularly both call that entrance the moment of the day, and the grand front door at the start of the aisle really sells the picture.
The figs throw plenty of natural shade, which a summer ceremony will be grateful for. The venue supplies wooden bench seating, or you can bring your own, and the backdrop is elevated country as far as you can see.
Confetti is allowed, as long as it’s dried-petal eco-confetti, so if you’ve pictured walking back up the aisle through a shower of petals, this is one of the places you can actually have it.
The fig-tree lawn is the most popular choice, and ceremonies can be set up across the English-style cottage gardens to really get the most out of those country views. Some couples marry at a church elsewhere in the Hunter and bring everyone here for the reception.
If it rains, the Indian tent becomes the ceremony and cocktail-hour space. Winter is covered too, with an outdoor fire pit, gas heaters and throws through the tent and pool area.
Reception Space
The Indian Tent
The reception happens in a permanent Indian tent that stays up all year. The main tent seats 170, with the pool on one side and farmland views on the other. An adjoining second tent becomes the dance floor or opens up alongside the first to seat up to 300.
The fit-out does a lot of the styling for you, and wedding planning gets a lot easier here. There’s a five-metre concrete bar lined with old French shutters, polished concrete floors, reclaimed timber trestle tables and industrial chairs, and antique wooden daybeds scattered through the verandahs, the pool area and the gardens.
It suits a cocktail-style night as well as a seated dinner, and some couples choose it for exactly that reason: guests mingle instead of staying put. Cocktail hour runs on the lawn in front of the house, under the figs, at the stone bar, with canapés and lawn games on the grass while the sun goes down over the fields.
Want to make your wedding day last longer? Good news: Wallalong House accommodation sleeps 19 across the house and stables, which means the wedding party can stay with you, and you can add a welcome dinner or a recovery party (the recovery party needs a third night).
Couples who book that third night keep saying it was the best decision they made. One recent couple described the whole thing as feeling like getting married in a home.
What a Wedding at Wallalong House Costs
Wallalong House doesn’t publish its prices. The figures below come from public pricing guides, not the venue.
- Publicly available pricing guides indicate venue hire starts from around $14,000, with a two-night onsite stay for up to 19 guests costing approximately $7,000.
- Weekend bookings typically start at around $21,000 for venue hire and accommodation, before catering and beverages.
- Catering packages are reported at approximately $200 to $283 per guest.
- Prices and inclusions may change, so couples should confirm current packages directly with Wallalong House.
The venue hire covers exclusive use, the ceremony and the tent reception, with no ceremony fee on top. The accommodation is charged on its own, and the two-night minimum is required. Catering and drinks are then priced per guest.
For a 100-guest wedding, the venue side looks roughly like this:
Cost | Approximate amount |
Venue hire (weekend) | $14,000 |
Two-night stay for up to 19 guests | $7,000 |
Catering and drinks, 100 guests | $20,000 to $28,300 |
Venue-side total | $41,000 to $49,300 |
That’s before flowers, music and everything else. An independent budget guide puts a 100-guest wedding here at around $40,000, including accommodation, just under this range. Treat any Wallalong House wedding price you find online, ours included, as a starting point.
The biggest lever you have is the day of the week. Mid-week dates are discounted, and some guides cite up to 50% off. After that, the number moves with your catering tier, your guest count, a third night for a recovery party and whether you host a welcome dinner.
There’s no outside caterer option. James and Tess Borg own the property and also founded Fennel & Co. Catering, the multi-award-winning business they’ve run for more than ten years.
The venue and the kitchen are one family business. It’s also why coordination comes included: the people who own the place cook the food and build the run sheet with you at a tasting and planning meeting.
When you enquire, have your date (or a few options), a rough guest count and whether you want the accommodation nights. You’ll get a far more useful answer back.
Photographer’s Notes
Best Shooting Spots
Everything here is on the property.
One party usually gets ready in the Honeymoon Suite, in the converted sandstone stables. The original cobblestone floor is still there, along with decorative iron rails reportedly came from the 1854 Crystal Palace Exhibition in London, plus an open fireplace and a stone bath.
The homestead is single-level and L-shaped, with five verandahs, wrought-iron columns and iron lace along the cornice, in a mix of Georgian and Victorian styles. The cut sandstone facing is Balmain sandstone, reportedly shipped up from Sydney as ship ballast. The wedding party makes its entrance down the front steps, the first frame of the ceremony.
Under the figs, the ceremony sits in shade with the fields behind it. With petal confetti allowed, you get a genuine walk back up the aisle, a frame plenty of venues can’t give you.
Ten acres of garden give you English rose beds, antique daybeds and French-style settings on the lawns, plus the in-ground pool with its outdoor shower and bath. The poolside daybeds are the spot couples mention by name. The roses are seasonal, and what’s flowering depends on your date.
From the homestead, the view runs west-south-west over the flood plains towards Largs and Maitland. In summer, the sun sets almost exactly along that line. In winter it sets much further round to the north-west.
Lighting Notes
Golden hour here is short, 32 to 36 minutes at any time of year, and the usable part ends 10 to 20 minutes before the official sunset time because the sun drops behind the tree line first.
The date changes everything. In June, golden hour runs from 4.17pm to 4.53pm, so the ceremony needs to be done by about 4pm if you want portraits in that light. In January it runs from 7.29pm to 8.04pm, well into the reception. Daylight saving moves the evening light by an hour in April and again in October.
In summer the sun sets west-south-west over the Maitland and Largs flats, and in winter it swings around to the north-west. The view towards Morpeth faces south-south-west. It’s a lovely daytime view, and the sun never sets there.
If you want Wallalong House photos in the last light, that western view is where the sun will be.
Inside the homestead, most rooms open straight onto a verandah. The light comes in sideways through the doorways. The ceremony sits under the fig canopy in shade. The tent is open-sided, and after dark it runs on Edison bulbs and chandeliers.
Golden hour at Wallalong House, by month:
Month | Golden hour | Sunset | Sun sets towards |
January | 7.29pm to 8.04pm | 8.04pm | West-south-west |
February | 7.12pm to 7.44pm | 7.44pm | West-south-west |
March | 6.40pm to 7.11pm | 7.11pm | Almost due west |
April | 4.59pm to 5.32pm | 5.32pm | West-north-west |
May | 4.28pm to 5.03pm | 5.03pm | West-north-west |
June | 4.17pm to 4.53pm | 4.53pm | North-west |
July | 4.29pm to 5.04pm | 5.04pm | North-west |
August | 4.51pm to 5.24pm | 5.24pm | West-north-west |
September | 5.12pm to 5.44pm | 5.44pm | Just north of west |
October | 6.33pm to 7.04pm | 7.04pm | West-south-west |
November | 6.57pm to 7.31pm | 7.31pm | West-south-west |
December | 7.21pm to 7.56pm | 7.56pm | West-south-west |
What Makes the Homestead Unique
The estate stayed in one family for 172 years, from the first land grant in 1823 until 1995, and much of what they built is still standing: the brick homestead with its stone quoins, the verandahs, the stables.
The whole property is yours, from 2pm the day before to 10am the day after, with 19 of your people sleeping on site.
The owners run the kitchen. That’s why reviews talk about the food as much as the setting, and why Tess comes up by name in almost every recent one.
The venue also lists appearances in Vogue, ELLE and The Wed and filming for Home and Away and Married At First Sight.
Wedding Day Challenges and Tips
Music stops at 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 10pm mid-week. A cheaper mid-week date comes with an earlier finish. Weigh that against the saving.
Nineteen beds fill quickly once you count both families and the wedding party. Decide early who gets them.
There’s plenty of parking, but the venue itself suggests booking guest buses. After a night at the bar, that’s the better plan anyway.
Pack insect repellent. This is farmland with a pool and gardens, and at least one recent bride spent the night before her wedding awake over the mosquitoes in her room.
The pear trees along the driveway are bare in winter and the roses have a season. The garden you toured in spring can look quite different on a winter date.
Morpeth’s heritage main street and the river are about 10 minutes away each direction.
What Couples Say about Wallalong House
Similar Hunter Valley Wedding Venues
Given the Wallalong House wedding venue format of exclusive use and staying on site, couples often also look at these Hunter Valley venues.
Adams Peak Country Estate
The closest match on how it works: a flat venue fee, the whole property to yourselves and two nights' accommodation included, with 150 seated in a barn.
Peterson House
Room for up to 300 guests puts it at the same big-party scale. It's priced per head and has no accommodation, though, which means the night ends when the reception does.
Peppers Creek
Guests can stay on site here too, in three cottages that sleep 26, with a sandstone chapel as the centrepiece and dinner for up to 250 on a winery property.
Circa 1876
The other historic option in the region, with hotel rooms attached, for up to 150 guests. It suits a noticeably smaller list.
White Barn Pokolbin
Exclusive use of a private estate with a modern barn and chapel, for up to 150 guests, and a guest house that sleeps six.
Planning a Wallalong House Wedding
Wallalong House suits couples who want the whole weekend: the wedding party staying on site, the food done properly and one family business running the day. Couples here tend to judge it by what their guests say afterwards, and on that measure it does very well.
It’s a harder fit if you want a fully indoor wedding, or if your guest list is small enough to feel lost in a tent built for 170.
Planning a Wallalong House wedding and want it photographed the way it actually felt? Please fill out the below form and we will get back to you with our availability and more package details.
Jeffrey Wang, a seasoned wedding expert with over a decade of experience, leads a thriving photography business. His team captures couples’ precious moments with a keen eye for detail and storytelling. Jeffrey’s work has been featured on prestigious platforms like Martha Stewart Weddings and Polka Dot Wedding.
Combining technical mastery with emotional understanding, Jeffrey creates a comfortable experience for couples, ensuring their personalities shine through in every image. His approach guarantees that cherished wedding memories are beautifully preserved for generations.