Bianca & Mark - Scots’ Church Wedding, Melbourne

Scots’ Church is the Presbyterian church on the corner of Collins and Russell Streets in the Melbourne CBD. The congregation goes back to 1836; this building, by Reed & Barnes, opened in November 1874 in decorated Gothic Revival, in Barrabool freestone with cream Kakanui stone dressings. The spire was the highest point in the city for years; lightning took the top off it in 1963 and it was rebuilt in 1989. The builder was David Mitchell, Nellie Melba’s father.

Inside there are basalt aisle columns, a timber-beamed roof, stained glass by Ferguson & Urie among others, blackwood panelling added from 1928 and a Rieger organ from the late 1990s. Veri has photographed two ceremonies here: Bianca and Mark, who went on to the Stokehouse at St Kilda, and Helen and Jonathan, whose reception was at Stones of the Yarra Valley in Coldstream. Both were city-church days: vows on Collins Street, then a drive to the water or the vines.