Sarah & Jye - Strathvea Guesthouse Wedding, Healesville

Strathvea Guesthouse is an inter-war guesthouse on Myers Creek Road above Healesville, on the slopes of Mount St Leonard. The McVea family built it in 1921 and ran it until 1968; Deanne and Toby Eccles bought and restored it in 2007. The Victorian Heritage Database lists it as the only one still operating of the 70 guesthouses that flourished around Healesville between the wars: a cream fibro house with a green iron roof, reached by a drive through mountain ash and tree ferns.

We photographed Sarah and Jye’s wedding here, ceremony and reception both on the property. Strathvea sits high enough that the light goes soft early and stays kind all day, and their portraits wandered from the fern gully to the paddock fence, where the horses walked into frame on cue. Garden ceremonies take up to 200 guests, dinner inside seats 50, and couples book the whole house for one or two nights so the wedding becomes a stay.