Step inside the home and dinner party of Stephanie Ockenden as the mum-of-three shows us how she manages her ever-growing career and family life.

Words Zoe Rice | Photographs Brad Griffin

If Stephanie Ockenden wasn’t throwing a beautiful dinner party for eight tonight at her eastern suburbs home, she’d be in the Barossa Valley on her family vineyard for the first day of harvest.

The marketing and public relations professional spent so much of her childhood in the famous wine region and her parents still own the same Seppeltsfield Road property where she’d have endless fun, riding her motorbike around.

“Grapes have been a big part of our life,” Steph says. “In honour of harvest starting for my family today, I’ve gone with a bit of a grape theme tonight.”

Sitting on the spacious kitchen island bench is a vanilla mud cake, iced in deep burgundy colour and adorned with red grapes and an elegant velvet bow.

On the table, Steph has decorated cleverly with meaningful table centrepieces, including green grapes splayed in Michell Ceramics, crafted by Meg Michell.

Striped napkins and tablecloths from Luxe & Beau Designs in soft peach and white adorn the table, as well as plates from the Canberra-based label.

As a nod to her Italian heritage on her dad’s side, bunches of basil and cavolo nero (Italian kale) provide contrasting colour.

But she hasn’t neglected her mum’s side tonight, and has used her Greek heritage as inspiration for the menu.

Steph’s mum’s yemista (stuffed tomatoes and capsicums) is a family favourite, and it will be served alongside a slow-cooked lamb shoulder with salsa verde.

To drink, it’s a suite of drops from Steph’s aunt and uncle’s cellar door, Paulmara Estate, which is next to her parents’ property in the Barossa.

Before her guests arrive, Steph exudes calm and confidence. The food is all prepped and she and husband Andrew are just putting on the finishing touches.

“I can cook,” Andrew assures us, “but Steph’s such a weapon in the kitchen that I’m benched to sous chef.”

Steph and Andrew met in 2004 when they were both working at Burnside Village – Steph at Nine West and Andrew across from her at Gazman.

“We met and we’d wave to each other across the Vine Mall,” Steph reminisces. “We’d lock up our stores at the same time and then go to the pub together.”

The pair realised they had some of the same lectures at university – Steph was studying commerce and media and Andrew was doing law and media.

“He just didn’t show up for the media lectures so I got him more involved and he started going. We’ll have been together for 20 years this October and we’re best friends. We’re on the same page and he’s a really hands-on dad.”

The couple has three children – Annabelle, 7, Madeline, 4 and Oliver, 2. Steph’s used to high pressure at home and at work, building a career on her highly organised and bubbly personality, having spent nearly a decade with Channel Seven, both here in Adelaide and Sydney, working on marketing and public relations.

“It was such a fun time,” Steph says. “Seven had some exceptional local productions in Australia then and I’d work on shoots for The X Factor, providing creative direction for talent including Guy Sebastian and Iggy Azalea, and I worked on Rock Star: INXS, Sunrise, My Kitchen Rules and the Rio Olympics.”

Steph poured endless care into her job, including building the profile of presenters and managing sponsorships with major companies and events.

Steph was in Sydney for three years and moved home a year earlier than Andrew, who commuted back and forth between the cities in the meantime.

“He’d come back every weekend, but he’d sometimes call me from the airport and it was 10pm and the weather was so bad he couldn’t get out,” Steph recalls. “He found it really hard not seeing Annabelle. We lived in an apartment in Sydney, but being from Adelaide, I’m used to living in houses and I wanted to raise my kids in a house.

“We’d bought this property and I was desperate to get stuck in and renovate or build.”

Steph returned to work in an area she’s always been passionate about – art. She held leadership positions at the Art Gallery of South Australia across communications and development. One of her favourite projects was activating the city and creating Frida-fever for the highly-popular exhibition, Frida & Diego: Love & Revolution last year.

Steph and Andrew built their home with Heritage Building Group in 2021 and having enjoyed the process so much, Steph now works on the interior design arm of the business.

On top of it all, she’s also spent time on boards, including the Adelaide Central School of Art and Flinders Foundation.

“Give a busy person a job and they’ll get it done,” Steph laughs.

In addition to starting her own consultancy, one of her latest projects is creating her own art. She started with a soft blue painting adorned with tiny contemporary hearts to sit in her own lounge room because she couldn’t find anything she liked to sit there. She posted a photograph to social media and the requests flooded in – one of her pieces even sits in the home of Adelaide Crows player Taylor Walker and wife Ellie – and the demand has grown so much that she’s now selling her art through Contemporary Co.

While Steph was at Channel Seven, she says she never wanted to step in front of the camera – she loved what she was doing too much. But her varied career has led her to more and more projects that are pushing her into the spotlight and she’s starting to take on more MC gigs.

“I love being busy, I go to a lot of events and sometimes I push it. But I don’t get that tired, I think it’s an adrenaline thing.”

Tonight, Steph has invited a few of her friends who, much like Steph, have built very successful careers. But the other thing that binds them together is the rather romantic fact that Steph has played cupid with all of them.

First to arrive is former Adelaide Thunderbird and current Seven presenter Emily Beaton and her partner Josh Ingall. Steph explains: “Em and I met through her ex-husband, whom I worked with at Seven”.

When one of the dads at Annabelle’s school became single, Steph knew he and Emily would be a great match.

“Em’s super sporty and Josh is too – her dream was to be able to go on runs with her partner and that’s what he loves too. We’d gone out with a bunch of girlfriends and I told her there was a dad at school she might like. Another friend started rattling off some football players whom they knew were single and I was like, ‘That’s not going to work’ and after he asked a couple of times, she said yes to a date.

“The moment she opened her front door and saw him, she thought, ‘Steph, you’re amazing’.”

Next is Lucy Day and husband Aaron, who are visiting from Sydney. Steph and Lucy met while they were both at Channel Seven in Adelaide and immediately became best work friends.

Steph and Lucy had seen Aaron while they were out one night and he caught Lucy’s eye. “I went up and told him he needed to meet Lucy.”

Years later, they were married and Steph was a bridesmaid – four days after she gave birth to Annabelle.

“I left the hospital and went straight to the wedding in my bridesmaid’s dress,” Steph recalls. “I wore really high shoes and gave myself a fake tan in the hospital. The wedding cars were Range Rovers and I didn’t have any core muscle left, so I had to get everyone to lift me up into the cars.”

Steph’s milk had just come in and she was running back and forth between the reception and bathroom to pump, while Andrew was waiting to deliver it back to Steph’s mum, who had flown in to help look after the baby.

Today, Lucy looks back on that day in awe of Steph. “I feel like the worst friend, but I hadn’t had a baby yet so I didn’t know,” Lucy says. “I put her in a light peach backless dress and she still walked down the aisle and did all the things a bridesmaid does and she looked incredible. Everyone still talks about it.”

Lastly, it’s Seven presenter Amelia Mulcahy and husband Matt, who Steph knows through Andrew, so she set up a catch-up at The Lion and the pair have been together ever since.

“Steph is the life of the party,” Amelia says. “She always lifts
me up and when I spend time around her, I always feel positive and happy.”

Emily mirrors the sentiment: “She’s intensely loyal and loves hard; she’s such a passionate person.

“She’s just a wonder woman – how does she do all she does, and with three kids? She can make everyone feel seen and valued and it comes so easy to her.

 

This article first appeared in the April 2024 issue of SALIFE magazine.