An intimate glimpse at Olympian Peter Bol and Mahtut Yaynu’s garden wedding

Growing up, Peter Bol knew the kind of love and life he wanted to create for himself.

It was a future he often discussed with his neighbour Michael Maguang, who would later become his best man who, as fate would have it, moved to Australia from Egypt a week apart from Bol.

The two would dream about lives filled with family and comfort — a far cry from the war-torn beginnings of Bol’s childhood in Sudan.

The vision has now become a reality for the Olympian, shared with his wife Mahtut Yaynu, and their smiley 16-month-old daughter Reyna.

It wasn’t until Maguang shared his best man speech, reflecting on the dreams of their past, though, that Bol realised how far they’d come.

“A really caring, supportive partner to share life with and a beautiful kid,” Bol recalls of their conversations, adding he found it in Yaynu.

“And we have Reyna now. Education is really important to us, and to have that healthy stable home, especially being a professional athlete. It’s not that you’re not stable, but you’re always in different places . . . I used to just get up and leave because I was competing in Europe for half the year and now when you have a wife, it’s actually home, and you can call it home.”

While home is now Melbourne, Bol and Yaynu held their wedding at Masonmill — a serene setting in Perth’s hills reminiscent of an elegant English countryside manor. With most of their family in Perth, and close to where the couple grew up, the venue was the perfect spot to host their 100 guests.

“The greenery, open air and quiet surroundings created a sense of stillness, which is exactly how I wanted the day to feel. It kept the focus on the people and the moment, and it felt intimate,” Yaynu says.

Mahtut and Bol’s love was a slow burn, orbiting around each other’s worlds in Perth for close to a decade before Bol happened to move into the apartment next to Yaynu in Melbourne.

Between Bol’s record-breaking efforts and travel across the globe, and Yaynu’s studies (she has a bachelor degree in psychology, criminology and a masters in business administration), their love blossomed. Bol proposed at a rooftop restaurant in Melbourne, flying his sister and mum from Perth for the occasion. Family means everything to the couple.

Slow is typically not a word associated with Bol, but the morning before the wedding was relaxed and quiet following a few weeks of festivities, including two traditional weddings reflecting Yaynu’s Ethiopian and Bol’s Sudanese cultures.

“Each event (a Henna night reflecting Sudanese tradition, and Habesha wedding honouring Ethiopian culture) had its own meaning, clothing, music and atmosphere,” says Yaynu.

“Instead of blending everything into one, we let each tradition stand on its own. It made the wedding feel less like a single event and more like a journey, celebrating heritage, identity and family across multiple days.”

The day of the November wedding was a toasty 34-degrees, yet Bol was pleasantly comfortable in his Hugo Boss tuxedo, though the bow tie was lost to the dance floor by the end of the evening.

Yaynu had fallen in love with her timeless custom gown from The Bridal Curator, a choice that surprised her.

“It had a dropped-waist bodice and a full, pleated, dramatic, voluminous skirt — much more structured and statement-making than I originally planned,” she says.

For the venue styling, Yaynu says she wanted something soft and calm rather than trendy, allowing the garden setting to shine.

“Instead of heavy styling, we kept things minimal and elegant — letting the greenery, light and atmosphere carry the look,” she says.

Music on the other hand played a central role across the celebrations, with the couple selecting songs that reflected their connected memories and cultural experiences with friends and family.

For their first dance they came together to Why I Love You by Major, the lyrics perfectly capturing how they feel about one another.

“It wasn’t just romantic; it felt reassuring and grounding, which reflects who we are as a couple,” Yaynu says.

“The moment itself was surprisingly calm; everything slowed down, and it felt like, for a few minutes, the entire day paused, and it was just us.”