St Andrews Beach Recreation Hall Wedding Photos
A member-run hall on Bass Meadows Boulevard, minutes from the surf and a long way from a function centre
St Andrews Beach Recreation Hall is the hall of the St Andrews Beach Recreation Club, on Bass Meadows Boulevard in the beach township of St Andrews Beach on the southern Mornington Peninsula. The club has been owned and run by its members since 1963, and the hall sits among the holiday houses and dune-country golf courses that grew up after the area was subdivided in 1959. Rye is about 5 kilometres away, Melbourne roughly 70, and the ocean beach is a short drive.
This is a hall wedding in the old sense: a plain room the couple dress themselves, friends doing the set-up, and the surf beach down the road for photographs. Veri photographed Simone and Sam’s reception here after their ceremony at Rye Ocean Beach and portraits on St Andrews Beach, a full day of 440 frames that never left the back-beach end of the peninsula.
Photographing a wedding at St Andrews Beach Recreation Hall
A community hall hands you control of the lighting, which is the point: bring festoon or fairy lights and have the overheads off before the couple walk in. Photograph the room dressed and empty before guests arrive, then work the doorway for the entrance. The beach is minutes away, so a sunset break for the couple fits easily between courses. Rain changes nothing for the reception, and the hall doorway covers the group photographs. The gallery above is Simone and Sam’s wedding, with the reception at the hall.