The best Wedding Venues Melbourne has to offer:

1. Newport Substation
2. Rupert on Rupert
3. Half Acre
4. Panama Dining Room
5. State Library Victoria
6. Longsong
7. Gather and Tailor
8. The Deck At Circa
9. Quat Quatta
10. Luminare
11. Brunswick Mess Hall
12. Fortyfive Downstairs
13. Glasshaus
14. George Ballroom
15. Altar Electric
16. Fyansford Paper Mill
17. The Line
18. Reine and La Rue

Melbourne is full to the brim with interesting, quirky, and Unique Wedding Venues to appeal to every design sensibility under the sun. Our city is kinda like an egg – ask 5 people for their favourite way to consume it, and you’ll get 4 different answers (and one, probably the film wedding photographer, who’d prefer a nut-based alternative). So if anywhere is gonna be able to cater to a wild range of vibes within a small radius, it’s Melbourne.

What weddings are going to look like in Victoria is a little different in the short to mid-term, so this is a list for folks with alternative and unique sensibilities (head this way if you’re specifically looking for small wedding venues, also included are some more brilliant art deco reception venues).

When we made this list, we essentially made it for ourselves: there’s plenty of lists on regular wedding venues out there, but these are the best wedding venues in Melbourne that have a little bit of sass and quirk to them, and cover a range of wedding venue styles, from industrial warehouse, to art deco: these are wedding venues for large weddings, small weddings, and everything in between.

Melbourne wedding venue comparison chart

Wedding Venues	Venue Style	Venue location	Venue capacity	You might also like	Sample gallery
Newport Substation	Warehouse	Footscray	300	Half Acre	Coming Soon
Rupert on Rupert	Small Warehouse	Collingwood	200	Panama Dining Room	Rupert on Rupert
Half Acre	Warehouse	South Melbourne	400	Gather and Tailor	Food and Desire
Panama Dining Room	New York Loft	Fitzroy	220	Rupert on Rupert	Coming Soon
State Library Victoria	Stylish modern	Melbourne CBD	500	Gather and Tailor	Coming Soon
Longsong	Modern Warehouse	Melbourne CBD	200	Brunswick Mess Hall	Coming Soon
Gather and Tailor	Warehouse	Footscray	450	Half Acre	Gather and Tailor
The Deck at Circa	Modern	St Kilda	500	Luminare	The Deck at Circa
Quat Quatta	Art Deco	Ripponlea	450	State Library Victoria	Quat Quatta
Luminare	Rooftop	South Melbourne	500	State Library Victoria	Luminare Wedding
Brunswick Mess Hall	Warehouse	Brunswick	200	Half Acre	Coming Soon
Fortyfive Downstairs	Art Gallery	Melbourne CBD	300	Altar Electric	Coming Soon
Glasshaus	Jungle Warehouse	Richmond	125	George Ballroom	Glasshaus
George Ballroom	Rustic Ballroom	St Kilda	200	Glasshaus	Coming Soon
Altar Electric	Vegas Chapel	Collingwood	70	Glasshaus	The Altar Electric
Fyansford Paper Mill	Heritage	Geelong	200	Half Acre	Fyansford Paper Mill
The Line	Warehouse	Footscray	200	Half Acre	Coming Soon

1. Newport Substation – Warehouse Wedding Venue

What do an obscure German electronic artist, experiential-theatre zombie-apocalypse, and majestic high-end wedding all have in common? They all found a home at the unique, towering Substation in Newport – in no small way thanks to a philanthropic strategy of intertwinement with the local & international arts community.

The Substation has this classic “we’ve just casually repurposed an industrial Brooklyn warehouse” vibe written all over it, with staggering floor-to-ceiling windows (this criteria would be less staggering if, for example, the windows were in a hobbit-sized home but we’re talking a less vertically-challenged structure here), red statement curtains, and one end lined with more secret little rooms than you can poke a stick at.

With plenty of space to spare both in the main atrium and the rooms below, Melbournes unique wedding venue queen Newport Substation can be mapped to nearly any configuration, including any furniture layout you can imagine, and an on-site burrito stand for guests to tuck into (or the most epic grazing table you can imagine).

Set up a band in one corner, quirky photobooth in the other, hire a leading progressive Melbourne wedding florist like Good Grace & Humour or Georgie Boy to dress up another end with an impossibly wild installation (or leave it in all it’s all bare glory), and you’ve got a space that’ll be on the tips of the guests tongues for weeks. After they recover from their hangovers.

Check out Nicole and Dan’s incredible unique wedding at Newport Substation. One of my favourite things about Newport Substation, not to take away anything from it as a brilliant Melbourne venue, is that it takes me back to any number of the incredible and enormous New York Warehouse venues i’ve had the good fortune of being in.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
Newport Substation website: www.thesubstation.org.au
Newport Substation wedding gallery: Nicole & Dan
Venue size: Enormous. 250 seated, 300 cocktail

2. Rupert on Rupert – Collingwood Wedding Venues

Rupert is kinda like the Tesla flying in outer space with an astronaut next to it and David Bowie blaring from the stereo as it flies towards Jupiter: it probably shouldn’t exist at all, much less where it does, but – it does.

And thankful for it existing, we are. Separated into a Main Dining Hall, Conservatory, and Cocktail Lounge, alternative wedding venue in Melbourne king Rupert on Rupert takes the crown for classic modern New York bar vibes in Melbourne, and wouldn’t be out of place in any of the more recently gentrified areas of inner-Brooklyn: which is also code-word for gorgeously designed, thoughtfully laid out, with a level of subtle considered genius by a design team that makes the space grow on you like the third album from that previously favourite artist of yours.

Geographically tucked neatly away into the “local knowledge” category, pop into the unique Rupert on Rupert on a weekend, and it’s jam-packed with folks who know it’s one of the most unique venues Melbourne has to offer with it’s incredible food and quirky interiors in a classy casual setting.

Rupert on Rupert has three thoughtfully designed areas, each of which can be repurposed as you need, and the menu is produced by a crack-team of friendly maestros who can cater incredibly for vegetarians and vegans alike (I know, because I was guest at an incredible vegan wedding there of a dear mate).

I’m not saying to just get Aunt Jenny on her iPad taking the photos for the day, but I will say that with every inch of the interior so thoughtfully considered at Rupert on Rupert, you could probably point your 2002 Nokia at the urinal and still get an incredible image.

But don’t do that, because it’s extraordinarily weird that you’re still using that phone.

For more inspiration check out Alix and Tim’s Rupert on Rupert Wedding. If you’re going to hire out such an iconic space, also be sure to bring a Melbourne wedding videographer along for the ride.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
Rupert on Rupert website: www.rupertonrupert.com.au
Rupert on Rupert wedding gallery: Alix & Tim’s wedding at Rupert on Rupert
Venue size: Cosy & compartmentalised.  (85 seated, 220 cocktail)

3. Half Acre – Best wedding venue Melbourne

South Melbourne’s Half Acre, helmed by the catering mad-hatters at Food and Desire, is a giant secret dropped right in the middle of the wide streets of South Melbourne. Occupying a corner of the suburb that mostly is home to industry, it is – apart from the majestic cacophany of matrimony on a weekend – a gloriously quiet dead-zone of a weekend.

In line with this play on contrasts, it’s actually pretty near impossible to tell what the hell the place even is, unless you’re in the know, or a loaded up wedding guest finds themselves playing horizontal on the nature strip outside.

With all the new wedding venues Melbourne has on offer, Half Acre are a giant, well-oiled diamond (if that’s a thing). Half Acre itself was previously an industrial complex, and retains a lot of that gritty charm in it’s warehouse interior. Half Acre is split into several different areas, giving an enormous range of opportunity for a smaller ceremony indoors, over to their large, high-roofed reception hall.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
Half Acre website: https://www.halfacre.com.au/
Half Acre Wedding gallery: Food and Desire
Venue size: Seated: 264, Cocktail: 400

4. Fitzroy wedding venue: Panama Dining Room (New York Style Wedding Venue)
Wedding Venue Location: Collingwood

The grand-master of unique, alternative wedding venues in Melbourne. Beer-soaked carpets, wistful homages to Dave the hot bassist etched into the bathroom walls, and the shady corner where your insouciant friend got lucky.

These are a few things that you definitely won’t find at Panama Dining room anymore.

When stepping into this cavernous room filled with giant arch windows you might be forgiven that in it’s past-life as a music venue in the heartland of the pub-scene, the majestic gateways of Panama Dining Room looking into and around the city were completely covered up.

Since being exposed in all their glory, Panama Dining Room has staked its claim as one of Melbournes best open-bar, dining-hybrid venues, and if you gently squint, it’s easy to imagine yourself in the warehouse-loft of a pre-crash Wall St tycoon in the 80s.

So squint, dear friend, bring that cigar to the lips, and inhale that sweet, sweet smell of pre-2007 venue tobacco laws, while you imagine yourself in that steamy machine of systemic exploitation known as wall st.

Fortunately for those of the stamina variety, Panama did carry one little thing over from it’s days as a live music venue: a 1am liquor license.

So party on, dear aspirational Gordon Gecko.

The Panama Dining Room is located in the heart of Smith St, which places it in beautiful proximity to some of the most iconic and historical parts of Melbournes oldest suburb, Fitzroy. That puts it at arms length away from an incredible lot of great portrait opportunities that can be had even with just a quick little sprint away from the Panama.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
Panama Dining Room website: www.thepanama.com.au
Venue size: 160 guests seated, 220 standing

5. State Library of Victoria – Melbourne City Wedding Venue

Wedding Venue Location: Melbourne CBD

Bookworms by day, dancefloor worms by night: State Library Victoria is the poster-child for a venues ability to play Jekyll, Hyde, and all their far-removed cousins, and might just be our cities most slumbering giant gem.

There’s much to be said for nostalgia. It is after all, the reason why we fought tooth and nail for an (ill-fated, but I digress) Hey Hey it’s Saturday revival wayback when, and why the the whiff of a can of Lynx can suddenly remove two decades of time and space for those in the mid-30’s bracket.

The savvy folk at Showtime events and caretakers of State Library Victoria know the value of nostalgia, and so they know that once the lukewarm memories of higher education and it’s study pressures have faded into memory, there’s nothing more appealing than inhaling an Espresso Martini and double-stack of canapes in one of the worlds most extravagantly beautiful study halls.

Enter the unusual wedding venue, State Library Victoria.

Thankfully to the mad hatters at SLV, there are a total of five separate, incredibly distinct spaces in which to host your wedding, that can cater from the intimate to over 500 guests. So whether you’ve spent your days as a cave dwelling misanthrope or have as many friends as Tom from Myspace, you’re probably covered.

The lay of the land at State Library Victoria starts at the obviously decadent La Trobe Reading Room, throws a curveball of art via the Cowen Gallery, and ends at the recently revitalised Ian Potter Queens Hall, with the glorious North Rotunda and Isabelle Fraser room in between, taking the crown as one of the more unusual wedding venues we have going.

The State Library of Victoria, as well as having a variety of rooms that would be the envy of a Labrynth-trotting Bowie, is smack in the heart of the CBD – lending itself to plenty of beautiful portrait opportunities, classic Melbourne laneways and beyond, and is one of the more left of centre alternative wedding venues in Melbourne.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
State Library of Victoria website: https://venues.slv.vic.gov.au/wedding/
Venue size:
Isabelle Fraser Room: 156 Banquet 220 Cocktail
Ian Potter Queens Hall: 290 Banquet 500 Cocktail
La Trobe Reading Room: 520 Cocktail
North Rotunda: 60 Banquet 90 Cocktail
Cowen Gallery: 220 Banquet 350 Cocktail

 

6. Longsong – Warehouse Wedding Venue

Wedding Venue Location: Melbourne CBD

Longsong is what happens when a collective of design-centred mavens pair with culinary master David Moyle, and point their magic towards an historic old Melbourne horse stable in the middle of chinatown.

Majestic tall ceilings, a wave of paper lanterns above and original brick floors from this converted 1900s space, JCB Architects added another space to a growing list of venues in Melbourne keeping as many sympathetic roots to the original uses of the structure as possible, while allowing it to stand alone as progressive and stylish. Add a dash of quirky photographic genius on entry and you have yourselves one serve of Longsong.

Longsong is the benchmark in subtle, sprawling classy alternative vibes in Melbourne, with a 2-tier open space that lets you know exactly what it’s all about as soon as you walk in.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
Longsong website: https://longrainmelbourne.com/
Longsong Wedding Gallery: Together Journal
Venue size: Up to 200 people

7. Gather & Tailor – Warehouse Wedding Venue

Wedding Venue Location: West Melbourne

Gather and Tailor takes an old inner-city warehouse, and puts it in the hands of the genius, quirky captains of wedding hospitality, Nudo.

5km out of the CBD, smack-against a bunch of shipping containers and an old-school automotive garage, it initially feels like you aren’t quite allowed to have all that room and calm all to yourself – but then you lean into it, and in return are gifted with one of the most unassumingly mighty warehouse experiences in Melbourne, and a small nod to a classic New York warehouse.

With the seasoned hands of the Nudo team and their hospitality empire at your fingertips, Gather and Tailor is a modular set of spaces, and the perfect blank canvas where you can call in as much or as little of the in-house styling as you need.

Check out Ash and Karan’s glorious Gather and Tailor wedding, at one of my favourite wedding venues near me.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
Gather & Tailor website: www.gatherandtailor.com.au
Gather & Tailor wedding gallery: Gather and Tailor wedding
Venue size: Pretty damn big, mate. 300 seated, 450 standing (Across two physical spaces).

8. The Deck at Circa – Classy Wedding Venue

The Deck at Circa is nested on the rooftop of the Prince Hotel, in sun-drenched St Kilda. The Deck itself is an expansive, as you’d imagine, deck, with a large covered interior space, and access to some of the other incredible events and wedding spaces inside the Prince Hotel.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
The Deck website: https://theprince.com.au/prince-deck/
The Deck wedding gallery: The Deck Circa Wedding
Venue size: Sit down – 120 guests. Cocktail – 500 guests

9. Quat Quatta – Art Deco Wedding Venues Ripponlea

Quat Quatta contains some of the most jaw-droppingly beautiful interiors and exteriors around (check out Burnham Beeches for another), and the breadth of portrait opportunities on-site both inside and outside are unbeatable. A festooned outdoor area makes for a glorious intimate ceremony space, before the party is carried inside, making the combination of these things raise Quat Quatta as one of the most incredibly unique art deco wedding venues Melbourne has going.

But, let’s just hold off on all the adjectives and hyperbole for a hot damn minute, though: because something about this venue in particular isn’t talked about nearly enough: the bridal suites.

These old heritage rooms at the wings of Quat Quatta, apart from being a pretty splendid place to get all that bridal-suite stuff done (application of bandaids, eating of cupcakes, necking of champagne, and whatever else goes on in there), are totally gorgeous and a way under-appreciated part of the venues makeup, and one of my favourite areas of the building to take portraits on the day.

If art deco is your vibe, Quat Quatta is a place of wild charm and a more traditional-looking outpost that holds more than it’s own with plenty of variety. Check out this Quat Quatta wedding for a lay of the land. One of the most majestic art deco reception venues Melbourne has on offer.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
Quat Quatta website: www.quatquatta.com.au
Quat Quatta wedding gallery: Quat Quatta wedding
Venue size: Pretty big, mate. 300 seated, 450 standing (Across two physical spaces)

10. Luminare – Rooftop Wedding Venue

Luminare is a wedding venue in Melbourne that has become something of a go-to for all things lush and grand, and I find that folks who are drawn to Luminare are also drawn to The Deck (up above) and The George Ballroom (further down this page).

Luminare is a giant, high-roofed events and wedding space, with an enormous deck that runs the full length of the floor, set against their iconic view of the city. This boutique wedding venue is located just a stones throw from the Melbourne CBD, and for folks considering Metropolis Events, this is a brilliant alternative with a similar feel, and including unmatched views of Melbourne via it’s rooftop.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
Luminare website: https://luminare.net.au/
Luminare Wedding gallery: Luminare Wedding
Venue size: 250 guests seated, 500 guests cocktail

11. Brunswick Mess Hall – Quirky Wedding Venue

Brunswick mess hall is one of the more unique, casual wedding venues Melbourne has to offer, with a warehouse vibe set in the heart of Brunswick. Somewhat akin in functionality to it’s spiritual cousin Revolver in Prahran, the Brunswick Mess Hall is a restaurant by day, and party-space by night when a wedding is on. Minus the next new thing in electro-dubstep resetting everyones resting heart-rate, or coke-buzzed charlitans in the urinal offering you the key to manifesting abundance.

Brunswick Mess Hall has some of the most gorgeous natural light coming through later in the day, and some brilliant portrait locations in the surrounding streets that make a quick quest out into this quirky neighbourhood at sunset deliver an abundance of opportunities without dragging you away from the party for too long.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
Brunswick Mess Hall website: https://thebrunswickmesshall.com.au/
Brunswick Mess Hall Wedding Gallery: On Polka Dot Bride
Venue size: 130 guests seated, 200 guests cocktail

12. Fortyfive Downstairs – Small Warehouse Wedding Venues

Fortyfive Downstairs is Melbournes best Art Gallery Wedding Venue, and one of the most unique venues Melbourne has on offer. At first glance, for the parents out there, it might bring up the hairs on the back of the neck in the same way that letting toddlers loose around fine china does, but the reality of the space is quite the opposite.

Fortyfive Downstairs is a warming, welcoming space with unique beautiful rotating art on it’s walls, sat a few floors up from it’s incredible, cavernous warehouse space in the basement.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
Fortyfive Downstairs website: https://www.fortyfivedownstairs.com/
Fortyfive Downstairs Wedding Gallery: Fortyfive Downstairs wedding
Venue size: 160 guests seated, 300 guests cocktail

13. Glasshaus – Casual Wedding Venues

Glasshaus has two distinct wedding event spaces: Glasshaus Inside, and Glasshaus Outside.

Fun fact: Glasshaus inside has an outside outside of Inside’s inside, and inside Glasshaus Outside Glasshaus Inside could probably fit.

Etc.

Glasshaus is something of a beautiful aviary in a jungle, and nearly tucked inside a front that doesn’t lend you any idea of it being there. A brilliantly unique wedding venue just a stones throw from the city.

Glasshaus Inside is a warehouse jungle, and no other descriptors will do any justice to the space. If you’re looking for venues similar to Rupert on Rupert, this is the answer south of the river.

See more at this Glasshaus Wedding

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
Glasshaus website: https://www.fortyfivedownstairs.com/
Venue size: 88 guests seated, 125 guests cocktail

14. George Ballroom – Unique Wedding Venues Victoria

The George Ballroom is one of the most decadent wedding venues going, and a brilliant example of just how incredible and modular a single room can be. Iconic textured, distressed walls and fixtures, and much like Rupert, the kind of place you can just point a phone camera at in any direction and come out with art. This unique wedding venue is in St Kilda, just a short jaunt from the Melbourne CBD.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
The George Ballroom website: https://www.thegeorgeballroom.com.au/
Venue size: 150 guests seated, 200 guests cocktail

15. Collingwood Wedding Venues: Altar Electric (Eclectic Wedding Venue)

Before pandemics and global disarray, The Altar Electric were ahead of the curve before flattening it was a thing, serving up small (see here for why small wedding venues are the best), funky, intimate weddings in their brilliant chapel in Collingwood, designed by the genius event and wedding stylists over at Good Day Club. There are always new wedding venues Melbourne has popping up, but these folk stand out from the rest, and Altar Electric takes the crown as one of the more unusual, alternative wedding venues in town.

The Altar Electric is a wedding chapel for three kinds of folks:

1 – Couples who were probably going to book a registry wedding, but wanted a little bit more sass to the occasion (and still prefer to find more reasonably priced wedding venues)

2 – Couples who want Australias answer to the Vegas Chapel wedding

3 – Couples who want to get in, get it done in an incredible and colourful way, and get out into enjoying their day together around Fitzroy and Collingwood

The Altar Electric is one of the most unique venues Melbourne has going and one of the most amazing places to get married in Melbourne, providing everything from intimate shotgun weddings, all the way up to options for a larger number of guests inside the peach-toned walls of their tiny chapel.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
The Altar Electric website: https://www.thealtarelectric.com.au/
The Altar Electric Wedding Gallery: The Altar Electric Wedding
Venue size: 30, to up to 70 if the outside area is used

16. Fyansford Paper Mill – Heritage Wedding Venue

I had to include this one for all the Lord of the Rings fans out there. This doesn’t quite fit the bill for Melbourne, as it’s just outside of it, but is something of a secret wedding venue worth checking out, and one of the best places to get married in Victoria.

Before I give the exact location as a potential turn-off, it’s worth saying that if you can stomach sitting in traffic on Punt Rd for an hour to move just 150 metres, then you can also put up with making your way over to Geelong to this beauty, and there’s no trip more worthy than to see this incredibly unique wedding venue just a short haul from Melbourne.

I still believe Fyansford Paper Mill is one of our real undiscovered gems that should be right at the top of any wedding venue consideration inside Victoria, and unfortunately it’s even tough to get a sense of how brilliant this place is from a proper google search, you almost have to just roll up and see it for yourself.

Cavernous interior, split into two distinct spaces joined by what is an iconic archway in between them, it’s impossible to think this place exists just a short roadie out of the city.

Fyansford Paper Mill – otherwise known ever so romantically as Site 3A – is run by prolific caterers and party-starters Truffleduck.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
Fyansford Paper Mill Website: Truffleduck
Fyansford Paper Mill Wedding Gallery: Fyansford Paper Mill Wedding
Venue size: 30, to up to 70 if the outside area is used

17. Footscray Wedding Venue The Line (Warehouse Venue)

The Line in Footscray takes all the grit, texture, and industrial charm of recently gentrifying Footscray and… leaves all it the hell alone.

Perfect.

Just as every developer with a string of graduate architects are discovering Fisher and Paykel My First Geometry lessons on exterior cladding in the suburb, the folks at The Line have kept the original spirit of the area alive in this rough around the edges gem of a space, and it’s one of the most moody wedding venues near me as a westsider.

The Line is a blank-canvas wedding venue, and you know you’re in good hands when the venue is run by a team that also see their space used regularly for community, arts, and market events, which is something of a rarity.

To see The Line in action, pick yourself up a copy of the September 2020 edition of Hello May, where you can see the gorgeous and colourful celebration of Pepe and Sam gracing it’s pages with this unique wedding venue set as their brilliant canvas.

Enquire about their Melbourne Wedding Packages
The Line Website: https://www.theline.melbourne/
The Line Wedding Gallery: Hello May Wedding Photographer
Venue size: Up to 200 people

18. French restaurant wedding venue: Reine and La Rue

An ambitious undertaking from the Nomad group, Reine and La Rue lives inside an iconic neo-gothic structure on Collins St, and you can expect to walk in to the cavernous cathedral room of Reine, and inside that find La Rue, an 8-seater speakesy nested inside.

Enquire about Reine and La Rue Melbourne Wedding Packages
Reine and La Rue Website: https://reineandlarue.melbourne/
Reine and La Rue Wedding Gallery: Reine and La Rue Wedding
Venue size: Up to 300 people

Hope you enjoyed checking out some of the best wedding venues Melbourne has on offer.

There. 18 (eighteen) of the best unique wedding venues in Melbourne, for lovers and anarchists.

Author and all photos by: Briars Atlas. Photos may be only used with a link back to this page.

This made the list a little late, but be sure to also check out this Two Ton Max wedding. For unique wedding venues in new South Wales, check out this beautiful Sydney Theatre Company wedding. For a unique Mornington Peninsula wedding venue (head here for Mornington Peninsula wedding photographer), you need to check out Tanglewood Estate or head here for some more great wedding venues on mornington peninsula. Make sure you also load up your day with an incredible Melbourne Wedding Videographer.

Hire me to photograph your Melbourne wedding (if you want)

Just whack this link – Melbourne wedding photographer

Going intimate? Looking for a small Melbourne wedding venue?

Check out the best 17 Small Wedding Venues in Melbourne, and a preview of ten of them below.

I am thrilled to share the Hello May wedding of Pepe and Sam as their photographer, featured in the September issue of HELLO MAY MAGAZINE on news-stands now! Is this the most colourful wedding ever? Grab yourself a copy of Hello May to find out. Hello May Wedding photographers / Briars Atlas

I was thrilled to be the Hello May wedding photographer for these two marvels, and their wedding was put on at the gritty Melbourne warehouse venue, The Line, with an all-star cast of the most incredibly talented vendors which doubled as their cheer-squad.

Let’s just say, this was a wedding of firsts.

The first wedding where nearly all the vendors got actual tattoos at the reception.

The first wedding where the caterer and the bride ended up in (in) the freezer. It was a hot day.

The first wedding with an inverse neon-crucifix gracing the centre of the reception, and the first wedding where the dance-floor was opened up by the screeching of Slayer, and half the bridal party ended up on a bed in the middle of the reception in a pasta-fight.

It, was, and had, everything, all for this beautiful couple and their intimate community (right before Covid made it cool).

I won’t show the whole shebang just yet, you’ll have to pick up a copy of Hello May on newsstands now.

Hello May Wedding Vendors: Pepe and Sam

Wedding Celebrant and Concept creator: Nat Sproal Celebrant
Wedding Photographer: Briars Atlas
Wedding Venue: @the_line_melbourne
Wedding Creative direction + Styling: Good Day Club
Wedding Florals: Babiana Botanic
Wedding Video: Lunar Red Films
Wedding Hair and Makeup: Killer Queen Creative
Wedding Catering: @fatandskinnycatering
Wedding Cake: Torte By Mirjana
Wedding Rings: @midnightkissjewellery
Wedding Ceiling Installs: Bangin Hangins
Wedding Tableware/ table styling: @bettymayvintagehire
Wedding LED crosses and bad jokes: The Arbourists
Wedding DJ: @dj_hot_wheels
Wedding Music: @justme_plusone
Wedding Wine: @minimwine
Wedding Beer: @moondogbrewing 

More Featured Hello May Weddings

I’m a Melbourne wedding photographer, and I photograph weddings all over Australia, New Zealand, Europe and beyond. Check out this wedding I photographed featured on Hello May – Amy and Bronson. On the hunt for a small wedding venue in Melbourne? See this post on small wedding venues.

Babiana Botanic makes incredible, unique floral designs, thanks to the fine-art background of it’s founder, Anna. We worked together on the wedding of Pepe and Sam at The Line (officiated by Nat Sproal), and we chat a little about her incredibly unique approach to Melbourne florals.

To see more of her impossibly innovative work, check out the wedding of Pepe and Sam featured here (Hello May Wedding Photographer), available on news stands today.

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So who are you, what do your friends think you do, and what do you actually do?

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I’m Anna of Babiana Botanic. Most people think working with flowers “must be so lovely and relaxing!”

And yeah, sure – I love what I do and it is at times, lovely and relaxing – but its also 3am wake-ups to get the best flowers at market, long days creating arrangements, carrying buckets up and down stairs of beautiful old venues that don’t have lift access, hands covered in cuts, 1am pack-downs – it can be a brutal job – which just shows you’ve got to really love it – and I do!

I have a Bachelor of Fine Art and have always loved flowers and nature.

My love of Art Nouveau inspired me into the floristry industry where I can create works of art with nature, for people on their wedding days or for other amazing events.

What excites you most about the culture of weddings in Melbourne?

I love doing weddings in Melbourne because it is such a melting pot of people. It means you get such a wide range of clients with a diverse set of needs. There are also so many creative people in Melbourne who want a wedding that stands out and is unique to them.

It means that I get to create amazing colourful weddings, weddings with nods to the couples cultures (Indian, Macedonian, etc), and contemporary weddings that are a little different.

What do you feel separates Babiana Botanic from those around you in your line of work?

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What makes Babiana Botanic special is that we are not afraid to use colour and create something unique. We like to think about flowers as an art form and creating works of art specific to each couple.

How have you kept your business healthy during Covid, and how might couples now benefit from it?

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We’ve been offering flower delivery to people’s homes during this time off so that we are still working with flowers and offering something to brighten people’s days. We’ve also been in contact and working with all of our couples who have had to postpone their weddings and events to ensure we can go ahead when all these restrictions ease.

How do you see the future of celebrations in our city and what mark do you want to leave on it?

I think post-covid, there will be a move towards more intimate weddings with just your closest family and friends, and a move away from feeling the need for a big wedding where you have to invite your third-cousin-twice-removed and that friend you haven’t seen since high-school.

I love colour and doing things differently – and that’s the mark I would like to leave. I want couples to come to me wanting beautiful, quirky, colourful and different designs.

Find Babiana Botanic

Babiana Botanic website: https://www.babianabotanic.com/

Head to this post for more incredible unique florists in Melbourne.

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More unique Melbourne wedding flowers: 10 awesome florists

The Fyansford Paper Mill (otherwise known as the Old Paper Mills or Site 3a by Truffleduck) hosts weddings and events just outside of Geelong in the historic corner of Fyansford at Provenance Wines, in what is an absolute little treasure of the area, just minutes from the Geelong city centre. Take a look at this Fyansford Paper Mill Wedding Pre-enactment with the inimitable Georgie Boy.

I spent half a day in it’s incredible stone walls with Melbourne florist Gina (Georgie Boy), making use of the space and each of us following our noses in our respective crafts, with no end-goal in mind but to make something together in the 3 hours spent there. More from this shoot and a little short-film we created at the papermill to be released soon.

Scroll to the bottom for information on hiring for a Fyansford Paper Mill Wedding (or epic battle, midnight ritual, the world’s your oyster).

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Book your Fyansford Paper Mill wedding

Fyansford Paper Mill Site 3a is managed by Truffleduck catering.

Fyansford Paper Mill is something of an internet enigma, and has less of a presence than you might expect for a venue that resembles an impossibly beautiful run-down italian castle, just sitting at the edge of Geelong.

Dating back to the precincts industrial era, the Fyansford Paper Mills look like something more likely to have been plucked from the minds of Peter Jacksons set-design team than a venue just outside of Melbourne that you can actually hire for your wedding: enormous wooden beams, an impossibly high entrance divider between the two main stone rooms and a unique blank canvas unlike anywhere else.

Anyhow, you don’t need me frothing over it’s incredible blue-stone walls and regurgitating information you can find readily available on the Truffleduck website, but I will say that outside of an old palace on the side of an Italian cliff, there aren’t any venues i’ve been to that feel anything quite like this.

Old Paper Mills Geelong Capacity

Lower Section – 200 guests 
Upper Section – 160 guests
Cocktail Style – 380 guests

Fyansford Papermill Site 3a – Truffleduck
Truffleduck instagram

For venues like the Paper Mill outside of Geelong, see Alternative Wedding Venues in Melbourne.

Need a photographer for your Paper Mill wedding?

Hire me to photograph your Old Paper Mill Wedding.

briarsatlas.com

Tanya and Ryan are Jiu-Jitsu diehards, who train together, and Mario-Kart together. These legends had their Two Ton Max wedding in Melbourne right at the 11th hour before Melbourne’s first Covid lockdown. In one of Melbournes most brilliant warehouse wedding venues, these two got it done in style with a crew of the best. I was lucky to be along for the ride with my dear old mate Michelle Grace Hunder, photographing this together for the first time in years (we started out as a wedding duo before going solo).

Enjoy this little peek into Tanya and Ryans Two Ton Max wedding, featuring Melbourne wedding celebrant Shannon Jeans running the show. For more beautiful warehouse, rustic, or alternative wedding venues in Melbourne, check out this post on unique Melbourne wedding venues, featuring Rupert on Rupert and Gather and Tailor.

Two Ton Max are also featured in this post on small wedding venues.

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Book Two Ton Max for your wedding

Two Ton Max website: http://twotonmax.com.au/

Visit the wedding venue

When Sam and Paul got married at their house in Thornbury, right up there as far as “level of importance” to the getting married bit, was a quest to local iconic culinary heroes, Kenny Lover Ice Cream. Just a few frames from a little stopover break between their ceremony and their reception at their Thornbury home. With some of the most incredible colour and light anywhere in Thornbury, take a look at their sort-of-nearly-but-mostly Kenny Lover Wedding (and while you’re here, see some of my nearby other favourite wedding photo locations in Melbourne, as well as these unique small wedding venues).

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Find Kenny Lover Ice Cream

Kenny Lover Ice Cream website: https://www.kennylover.com.au/

796 High St, Thornbury VIC 3071

Emily and Tony had a beautiful, stylish wedding at St Kilda’s iconic wedding venue, the Prince Hotel – the Deck at Circa. With a room full of their loved ones, floral styling by the mastermind Katie Marx florals and a ceremony run by the inimitable Gina Liano celebrant, this was an evening of colour and brilliant love.

Photographing a wedding at The Deck at Circa always means a wedding where no-one misses a beat: there’s a beautiful seamless transition from the ceremony (held either indoors our outdoors) into the reception, with the space morphing perfectly as you please between the two.

Emily had an iconic walk down a gauntlet of their family and friends, before respect was paid to loved ones passed, and a gently boisterous ceremony (in a way only Gina Liano can do) weaved their story through the room before they carried on the party into the evening.

The Deck Circa Wedding: Emily and Tony

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About The Deck at Circa

The Deck at Circa is a brilliant blank canvas, and a light filled space with an enormous deck area (as the name lets on) to host Melbourne wedding ceremonies indoors or out.

The area of St Kilda offers a tonne of beautiful wedding photo locations, from the foreshore nearby, all the way over to the beautiful heritage art-deco architecture of the area. Usually i’ll take couples out for a 15-20 minute loop, and in that time you can cover all the art-deco hotspots, spend some time on the foreshore, and also enjoy some of the gardens around where those two worlds meet.

The Prince Hotel is one of our more known rooftop wedding venues, and has seen every type of celebration under the sun. The expansive deck overlooks Fitzroy Street, and enjoys brilliant sunsets bursting through the steel cladding around the windows.

A 300 space carpark takes care of all the guests, the venue has plenty of accommodation, and the rest of the St Kilda surrounds take care of everyone for the next day.

Hire The Deck at Circa for your wedding

Get yourself a Melbourne wedding celebrant, Katie Marx (see her handiwork at the venue just up above), C2 films (Melbourne wedding videographers super experienced with The Deck at Circa), a Melbourne wedding band AND a Melbourne wedding planner and off we go.

For another beautiful Melbourne rooftop wedding venue, check out South Melbournes Luminare.

Looking abroad? Check out this Queenstown Helicopter Elopement, and otherwise check out this post for more unique Melbourne wedding venues.

Book me to photograph your wedding at The Prince Deck

Briars Atlas Wedding Photography: Enquire

I get a lot of the most beautiful enquiries for weddings, from all sorts of humans and all types of celebrations. But every now and then one stands out as something of a… unique first. An enquiry asking if i’d shoot their Albanian Rock n Roll Warehouse Rave Wedding stands out as one such enquiry. I teamed up with the brilliant Nat Sproal (also headlining my piece on the best Melbourne wedding celebrants here), for this incredible Fortyfive Downstairs wedding in Melbourne, which began with gentle calm and after the rave stuff, ended with Saranda putting a fire-hose on Brendan enthusiastically trying to corral some last portraits at the local Maccas.

Legends.

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Book a Fortyfive Downstairs wedding

Fortyfive Downstairs website: https://www.fortyfivedownstairs.com/wp2016/private-events/

Lauren and Nick had a Luminare Wedding at the iconic Melbourne rooftop wedding Venue, Luminare South Melbourne. These stylish legends had a wild and enormous day top to tail, with a Catholic ceremony nearby, before heading into the cavernous rooftop wedding event space of Luminare.

I tagged along with these maestros for the day, along with the marvels over at C2 Films.

Lauren and Nicks Luminare wedding South Melbourne

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Book your Luminare wedding:

Luminare website: https://luminare.net.au/

Luminare Wedding Venue Information

Luminare supports a maximum of 250 wedding guests. File this majestic joint under “decadent”, it’s a blank-canvas wedding venue that can be turned into anything you can imagine, but seems to have it’s spiritual ground in the opulent.

Take the iconic lift up and you feel like you’re entering Willy Wonkas great glass elevator.

Luminare Weddings Contact Information

Luminare location: Cnr Browns Lane & York St, South Melbourne, VIC 3205
Luminare Phone: (03) 8416 9791
Luminare Business Hours: Mon-Fri: 6pm – 1am, Sat and Sun: 7am – 1am.

Luminare Wedding Photo Locations

I’ve photographed so many beautiful weddings at Luminare and know a bunch of wonderful spots around the venue for your wedding portraits that don’t require you to tell your guests to have a 3 hour nap while you get your photos taken halfway across the country. South Melbourne has so many beautiful heritage homes, shopfronts, and unique gardens all within a short walk from Luminare itself.

To see some of these for yourself, head over to my post on the best Wedding Photo Locations in Melbourne, which also includes Google Maps pins and detailed location information.

Book me to photograph your Luminare Wedding

Briars Atlas Wedding Photography – Enquire

More beautiful modern wedding gowns:

Jaime Lee Major wedding gowns

Unique wedding dresses

Got the gowns sorted? Make sure you check out these amazing unique wedding dress designs.

If you like the look of a Luminare Wedding, you might also love these other Melbourne rooftop wedding venues:

The Deck at Circa wedding

Metropolis Events Melbourne – wedding venue

Other venues like Luminare weddings

If you like Luminare, you might also like Metropolis Events, or just a little further out to the east, the wedding reception and function venue Vogue Ballroom. Also be sure to check out these Unique Melbourne wedding venues.

Karishma and Ro’s incredible Indian wedding took place all across Melbourne, with their Mandap ceremony taking place in the suburbs before their evening reception at the shed in the Docklands. Looking for an indian wedding photographer? Take a look at their incredible wedding.

So many incredible colours, rituals, and precious moments between family and community happen at an Indian wedding, it’s like nothing else, and familiar and different every time I’m lucky to be photographing one.

After Ro’s incredible energetic Baraat, I leapt back to capture the Jai Mala to the Talumbralu and onwards, and it was an incredible, love filled day with these two legends.

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Book your Indian wedding photographer

To book me to photograph your Indian wedding and consult on how your coverage will work, reach out to me at my contact form.