Catani Gardens Wedding Photos
Palm avenues on the St Kilda foreshore, the bay beyond them, and the Cenotaph lawn for the formals
Catani Gardens is a public garden on Beaconsfield Parade at St Kilda West, laid out on reclaimed foreshore between 1890 and about 1916 and named for Carlo Catani, the engineer who designed it. The palms are the point: avenues of Canary Island date palms, the largest concentration in any Victorian public garden. A lava-rock wall from 1910 encloses the west side; the Cook statue (1914) and the Cenotaph (1925) stand on the lawns. It is a portrait location, not a function venue.
For Georgia and Michael’s wedding at Prince Deck we used Catani Gardens and St Kilda Beach for portraits between the ceremony and the reception. Bright afternoon sun at the ceremony gave way to warm sunset light beside Port Phillip Bay. The gardens, the beach, the marina and Acland Street all sit in the same corner of St Kilda, so a portrait hour here covers garden, water and street without a car.
Photographing a wedding at Catani Gardens
Shoot the palm avenues with the sun low and behind the trunks, then cross Jacka Boulevard to the sand for the last light on the bay. The Cenotaph steps give a clean, symmetrical frame for family groups. Wind off the water is the constant here, so plan veils around it. Weekends fill the foreshore path; an early slot keeps the avenues clear. There is no cover in rain. The gallery above is Georgia and Michael’s Prince Deck day, with the Catani Gardens portraits in sequence.