Sofitel Melbourne on Collins Wedding Photos

A gown against the atrium

Our first morning at the Sofitel started at a window that looks inward, not out. The bride’s gown hung in front of the hotel’s atrium, with its glittering strands falling past floor after floor, while a loved one smoothed the skirt. We kept the room dark and let the atrium do the lighting, so the gown glowed and everything else dropped away. Her pointed white heels went on the outside windowsill, the city towers softened into a blur below, and a bottle of perfume sat in a small pool of lamplight.

Ring light, quiet face

Makeup happened in front of a ring light, and we used its bright circle as a frame of its own, shooting past it so the bride sat just inside the glow. A few of these we kept in black and white, because the light was so clean: eyes closed, chin lifted, nothing to do but sit still. Then the gold flower earrings went in, and she gave herself a last spritz of perfume beside the window. Small rituals like these take seconds, so we stay close and quiet and let them happen.

Gold on white

Her gown was sleeveless with a high neck, the white skirt scattered with gold appliqué that caught every bit of window light. She settled into a cream armchair beside a tall lamp, and we stepped back to show the whole room around her. Then we moved in, with the background melted away, as she glanced over her shoulder. Hotel rooms on the high floors are full of soft, even light from tall windows, which is kind to skin and to fabric. She finished with a bouquet of white roses cupped in her lap.

Under the Collins Place roof

Downstairs, she walked out arm in arm with a loved one in a grey suit, beaming, towards a silver sedan waiting in the plaza. Collins Place has a huge glazed space frame over its open spaces, so the light down there is bright but filtered, with trees on one side and the white lattice overhead. We framed wide to get the roof into the picture, because it tells you exactly where you are. It is also the best kind of arrival spot in Melbourne: covered, light and only a lift ride from the room.

Two gowns and a brooch bouquet

Our second Sofitel morning began with two dresses hanging in a tall window: a full tulle ball gown and a short, sparkling second look beside it. On an ottoman sat her bouquet, a dome of silver brooches and pearls edged with deep red petals. We photographed it with the gown soft behind it, so one frame holds both. The bride, still in a grey hoodie with her veil already in, leaned against the wall under her dresses and could not stop laughing. That frame is one of our favourites of the day.

Two loved ones at the window

Two loved ones were ready early: an older man in a black tuxedo and bow tie, and a woman in a dark strapless gown with a ruffle across the bodice. They stood either side of a pair of tall windows, and we let the bright sky behind them turn the room into simple shapes in black and white. He buttoned his jacket and straightened up, she turned to him with a wide smile, and for a moment they just looked at each other. Strong backlight like this suits a quiet portrait rather than a group photo.

A corner suite of windows

The bride’s room was a corner suite with four tall windows and the city right outside. We climbed up high and shot down across the room to show it all: the curved armchairs, the patterned sofa and a bridesmaid in a black dress leaning in to touch up the bride’s face while she sat in her hoodie and veil. Then we came in close for the last swipe of lip gloss. High rooms give you so much window light that you rarely need anything else, as long as you keep faces turned towards the glass.

Red roses and laughter

Then the gown went on and the bridesmaids crowded round. They wore strapless black dresses patterned in white and carried bouquets of red roses strung with pearls, and the bride stood in the middle with her brooch bouquet, laughing at something nobody would explain. We shot from above, beside the window, so their faces turned up into the light and the red roses popped against all that black and white. A minute later they were cheek to cheek in a tight huddle, and the laughter just kept going.

Atrium corridor, black Hummer

On the way down we stopped in a guest corridor that opens onto the atrium, all mirrored glass and sweeping strands, with the bride small at the rail holding her red bouquet. Sofitel Melbourne on Collins wedding photos often happen in these corridors, because the atrium gives a big city frame without ever leaving the hotel. Then she swept down to the plaza under the glass roof, a helping hand lifted her long tulle train, the bridesmaids gathered with their roses, and a black Hummer stood waiting with its doors open.