Merrimu Receptions Wedding, Murrumbeena

Merrimu Receptions is on Dandenong Road at Murrumbeena, in Melbourne’s south-east opposite Chadstone. The site began as a colonial homestead built in 1882 and was converted into a reception venue in 1955; that original house is now the Merrimu Room, seating up to 140, and the Grand Ballroom, seating up to 400, was added about twelve years later. The interiors are traditional: wool carpets, ornate ceilings, gilded mirrors and a grand staircase. The name is said to be a local Koori word for meeting place.

Veri has photographed two weddings that finished at Merrimu, both with portraits at Carlton Gardens on the way, and one that also took in St Dominic’s. That is the usual shape of a Merrimu day: a church or garden ceremony elsewhere in the south-east, a run into the city or a park for portraits, then the ballroom for the evening. The staircase and the mirrors give the indoor portraits and the entrance shots.