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Rebecca Hobbs’ beautiful wedding day

It was a family affair for the Shorty star’s beach wedding ceremony.
Rebecca Hobbs wedding

When UK-based businessman Ollie Harry married former Shortland Street star Rebecca Hobbs, he knew he wasn’t joining your average family. Or, as he puts it, “You don’t just marry a Hobbs, you really join this big cast and crew!”

Rebecca, one of seven children, several of whom are well-known faces, wed her love of four years surrounded by family and friends at west Auckland beach Muriwai, just days before Christmas.

Rebecca (46), who along with her role as nurse Annie Flynn on Shorty has also played roles on Water Rats and Burying Brian, was joined by all her siblings, including actors Katrina, Chris and Tom – and sister Jess, who has just finished directing the second season of hit drama Broadchurch in the UK.

Rebecca wed Ollie surrounded by family and friends.

Now also based in London, Rebecca has turned her hand to scriptwriting after working for four years at Disney and recently completing her MA in screenwriting.

It was through a work acquaintance that she met half Welsh, half Norwegian Ollie, who over small talk mentioned that he was the founder of UK music festival Love Box.

Rebecca is now based in London with Ollie, and has turned her hand to scriptwriting.

Rebecca had already planned to go and, despite a crowd of 35,000 at the event, the pair ran into one another. Rebecca gave Ollie her number, but it wasn’t until eight months later that the two were reunited.

When Ollie joined Rebecca on a trip out to NZ for her father’s 70th birthday, he met the entire family. “They’re typical actors. Four of them had arrived from overseas as a surprise, but of course they all wanted to make their own entrances,” he laughs. He eventually asked Rebecca’s father for her hand whilst playing a round on the Muriwai golf course – and after a beach proposal, there was only one clear choice for their wedding venue.

Rebecca’s brother Tom flew from Australia to read the tear-jerker The Velveteen Rabbit.

The service, on a friend’s private property overlooking vast Muriwai beach, fringed with cabbage trees and pohutukawa, was a blend of their different cultures. It included a Maori powhiri, Norwegian poems, a Welsh lullaby sung by Rebecca’s sisters and mother, and several readings – including one from The Velveteen Rabbit, which makes Rebecca well up with tears just thinking about it.

“Essentially, it’s about how you inevitably become a bit scruffy and loose in the joints over time, but you can’t be ugly,” she says. “It’s about the longevity of love and how Ollie now takes all of me, not just my good bits.”

They finished the ceremony, at which Rebecca was barefoot, with a rendition of Life’s a Happy Song, written for The Muppets movie by Bret McKenzie. “We gave everyone the words and had different groups singing each line. It was marvellous.”

It was then off to the surf club for a first dance, which almost didn’t happen!

Family and friends banded together to fill the ceremony with song.

The couple both love dancing – Rebecca came third in the second season of Dancing with the Stars – but Ollie was secretly nursing a badly sprained ankle after an accident playing golf the day before.

He’d hidden his injury until the morning of the wedding, when he discovered he couldn’t walk. “My seven-year-old niece came tearing into the room where I was getting ready with Katrina, saying “Trina, Trina, shall we tell Bex about Ollie?” recalls Rebecca. “To which Katrina replied, ‘Noooo!'”

Chris Hobbs congratulates his sister and new husband Ollie.

Katrina convinced her sister that the secrecy was all due to a “happy surprise”, until the next morning when Ollie showed her his injury. So now, Rebecca smiles, she is playing nurse again in readiness for their honeymoon in Thailand.

“We’re very lucky,” says Rebecca, adding that they are a couple very excited to live out their vows “to love each other with all our hearts, and to cherish one another as long as we both shall live”.

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