A photographer’s guide
Couples ask me where they should get married far more often than they ask what camera I use. This is everything I would tell you over coffee, including which spots need a permit and which ones are not worth the drive.
“Couples ask me where they should get married far more often than they ask what lens I use. This is everything I would tell you over coffee, including which places are not worth the drive.”
A plain brick wall at the right hour will out photograph a famous lookout at the wrong one. Before you fall in love with a location, find out which way it faces and what time you will be standing in it.
Several of the loveliest spots around Melbourne need a permit for a ceremony, and some will move a group on without one. Council parks and botanic gardens almost always do. It is a form and a fee, not a drama, but it has to be done in advance.
Two locations is plenty. Three means you spend your wedding in a car. The couples who look most relaxed in their photographs are the ones who did not have to be anywhere else.
In the city
Everything here is within a short walk or a tram ride of the Victorian Marriage Registry, which is why so many city elopements never need a car at all.
Home of the Victorian Marriage Registry, and the best set of steps in the city. Wide bluestone, deep shade under the portico and a clean view down Collins Street. Late morning is kind here. Mid afternoon in summer puts the front of the building into hard sun.
Two minutes from the registry. The colonnade gives you shade, columns and a tiled floor that bounces light beautifully on a grey day. Melbourne overcast is genuinely an advantage here.
Elms, avenues and the conservatory, five minutes from the registry. A permit is required for a ceremony. The avenue of elms in autumn is worth planning a whole date around.
Fountains, wide lawns and the dome behind you. More open than Fitzroy, so it wants the softer end of the day rather than the middle of it.
Ten minutes of proper Melbourne between the ceremony and lunch. Good on a grey day, good in rain, and it puts something in the gallery that could not have been taken in any other city.
Out of town
Where couples go when they want the day to feel like a weekend away rather than an appointment.
Tree ferns, tall gums and mist that arrives without being asked. About an hour from the city. Light under that canopy is soft all day, which makes it one of the few places you can shoot comfortably at noon.
Coast and vineyards in the same afternoon. Back beaches for wind and drama, bay beaches for calm, wineries for the long lunch afterwards. The drive is the cost, so pick one end of the peninsula and stay there.
Rows of vines, wide skies and cellar doors that will happily seat thirty. Golden hour across the valley in autumn is the single most reliable light I shoot in all year.
The classic Victorian elopement weekend. Lake Daylesford, deep forest, and a town small enough that the whole day happens within a few streets. Best done as two nights rather than a day trip.
Enormous and worth it, but be honest about the driving. If you want the Twelve Apostles you are committing the whole day to the road. Closer stretches near Lorne and Aireys Inlet give you ocean without the marathon.
Still deciding? Tell me the two you are torn between.
I will tell you which one photographs better
Good to know
Usually yes. Council parks and the botanic gardens generally require a ceremony permit booked in advance, and Fitzroy Gardens is one of them. It is a form and a fee rather than a drama, but it does need doing before the day.
Melbourne being Melbourne, we plan for it. Grey light is genuinely good light and colonnades, verandahs, laneways and doorways all work beautifully in rain. I have never had a wedding ruined by weather, only by a plan with no wet option in it.
Two is plenty and one is often better. Three means spending your wedding in a car. The couples who look most relaxed in their photographs are the ones who never had to be anywhere else.
The hour after sunrise and the two hours before sunset, always. If your ceremony sits in the middle of the day, that is fine, we simply find shade and plan the portraits for later. Tell me your ceremony time and I will build the rest around it.
Keep reading
The Victorian Marriage Registry at the Old Treasury Building, photographed from the walk up to the lunch after.
Just the two of you, or a handful of favourite people, anywhere from the city to the coast.
Backyard ceremonies, restaurant takeovers and winery lunches for twenty to fifty guests.
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Tell me which two and I’ll tell you honestly which one photographs better, and why. No obligation at all.
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