Palladium at Crown · Southbank, Melbourne, VIC
Ballroom Wedding · Church & Cathedral Wedding · Cultural & Traditional Wedding · Garden Wedding · Region: VIC - Melbourne CBD · City: Melbourne · Venues: Carlton Gardens · Crown Towers Melbourne · Palladium at Crown · St Aphrem Syrian Orthodox Church
Danielle and Michael got ready at their private homes before we joined them at St Aphrem Syrian Orthodox Church in Preston. We photographed the quiet expressions beneath Danielle’s gold wedding crown, then followed them out into the daylight. Carlton Gardens gave us shade and room for the wedding party to move together; the Crown Towers rooftop opened the view towards Melbourne’s CBD. By the time the zaffe drummers welcomed them into Palladium at Crown in Southbank, the pace had changed completely. Swords were raised, drums were going and the ballroom was ready to dance.
Cards and cigars with the groomsmen · Ceremony at St Aphrem · Carlton Gardens portraits · Crown Towers rooftop · Drummers and swords · Dancing at Palladium at Crown
Michael’s morning looked like a scene from an old film. The groomsmen pulled up chairs around a card table, someone lit his cigar, and the smoke curled across the table while he studied his cards. Smoke is a gift for a photographer: it catches side light and turns a plain room into something moody, so we stayed low and shot a few frames in black and white. A last twist of the ring beside his cravat and boutonniere, then Michael took his seat in a white convertible, with a groomsman grinning in the wing mirror.
Danielle’s lace gown hung in a doorway with its ruffled skirt spread out below like a fan, and we knew the stairs would be her moment. Once she was in it, she stood on the landing beside a chandelier, then lifted that ruffled skirt and came down the timber steps. A staircase gives us height and layers in one go, and the chandelier added a little sparkle above her. Down at floor level, hands fastened her glittering shoe strap under all that tulle, and Danielle reached up to straighten an older man’s neckwear with a laugh.
Then the bridesmaids took over. The three of them held Danielle’s veil out wide around her, which turns the veil into a soft frame and gives everyone something to do with their hands. Bouquets went up for a wedding-party shot, two loved ones kissed her cheeks at once, and she could not stop smiling. We finished with Danielle standing between two cream sofas, her train spread across the floor, and a quiet close portrait of her looking down beneath the veil. Light colours in a room bounce light back into a face, so we used every one of them.
At St Aphrem Syrian Orthodox Church, Michael walked down the aisle with an older man beside him, clasped a groomsman’s hand at the front and waited, all smiles. Outside, Danielle stepped out of the wedding car with her veil over her face while a bridesmaid gathered the ruffles of her skirt off the ground. Guests held up their phones as she came down the aisle, and we kept one eye on Michael the whole way. The look on a groom’s face as the doors open is the frame couples ask us for most, and he did not disappoint.
The ceremony was full of light of the softest kind. A tall candle burned beside Danielle and Michael as they held hands, the bridesmaids stood close with their bouquets, and guests watched from pews dressed with flowers. Then the gold wedding crowns were placed over their heads, Danielle’s sitting right on top of her veil, and her smile underneath it was the best thing in the room. Churches can be dim, so we worked close and quiet, letting the candle glow and the window light do the work, and we caught the clergy standing with them as the service came together.
Michael waved to the room as they walked back down the aisle, and then the two of them paused in the church doorway and leaned in towards each other. A doorway is one of our favourite frames on a wedding day: the bright light outside wraps around the couple while the dark church behind them falls away. Out on the steps, white birds flew up over the wedding party, and we tipped the camera to the sky to catch them above everyone’s heads. It was the perfect full stop before the city portraits.
Carlton Gardens gave us shade and room to play. The wedding party walked arm in arm down a tree-lined path, the bridesmaids raised their bouquets beside the groomsmen, and the boys strolled across the lawn like they owned it. Danielle laughed with her three bridesmaids, then we took the two of them aside among the broad-leaved plants, her veil trailing across the garden. Dappled tree light can be tricky, so we moved them until their faces sat in even shade, and finished with the pair holding hands in front of the Royal Exhibition Building.
From the gardens we headed across the river to Southbank and up to the Crown Towers rooftop. The wedding party lined up against a geometric wall that gave the frame a bold graphic edge, and then it was just Danielle and Michael with the Melbourne CBD skyline behind them. The sun was behind them for some of these, so we exposed for their faces and let the light rim her veil and the edges of the bouquet. A rooftop is a quick way to say “Melbourne” in a single frame, without a long drive between stops.
Inside Palladium at Crown, a tall cake with red roses stood ready, and then the zaffe drummers struck up. Danielle and Michael danced in with swords raised among the drums, and we pulled back wide to fit the chandeliers, the drummers and the crowd into one frame. Their first dance was spotlit and close. Then the party began: guests lifted the couple onto their shoulders, held Danielle’s ruffled skirt up in the air and threw Michael towards the ceiling. Our Crown Palladium wedding photos from that hour are full of light trails, because we dragged the shutter with flash to freeze faces in the swirl.
Palladium at Crown is the grand ballroom inside Crown Melbourne, the hotel and entertainment complex at 8 Whiteman Street, Southbank, on the south bank of the Yarra River just across from the city centre. The permanent Crown complex opened in the late 1990s, and Crown describes the Palladium as the largest hotel ballroom in Australia. It is pillarless, with ceilings around seven metres high, and it has hosted big nights such as the Brownlow Medal and the Logie Awards. For a wedding, that means a room big enough for a full drum-and-dance entrance and a clear view from every table.
The full Palladium measures about 41 by 50 metres, roughly 2,050 square metres. Crown’s factsheet lists a wedding set-up for up to about 1,100 guests in the full room, or up to about 1,500 for a banquet. The room divides into three sections, Palladium A, B and C, each set for up to about 360 wedding guests, and Crown’s wedding page also lists smaller set-ups for about 220 to 360 or 360 to 650 guests. Crown Towers, a five-star hotel with 481 rooms and villas over 38 floors, sits in the same complex, which makes it an easy base for getting ready.
We paired this ballroom with two city stops. Carlton Gardens, north of the CBD, surrounds the Royal Exhibition Building, designed by Joseph Reed for the Melbourne International Exhibition in the 1880s and World Heritage listed with the gardens in the mid-2000s. Its central avenue of plane trees is about 24 metres wide, and the Hochgurtel Fountain stands where the paths meet the Great Hall’s entrance. Under the trees you get even shade at almost any hour, so it works well for early-afternoon portraits. A rooftop or terrace at Crown is a quick second stop for the skyline, and golden hour behind the city is the best time for it.
Plan the ceremony, the gardens, the skyline and the ballroom entrance as separate blocks, and allow travel time across the city for each one. We like 60 to 90 minutes for two portrait stops, including the drive. In Melbourne the sun sets around 8.40pm in midsummer, about 7.15pm at the end of March and around 5.10pm in midwinter, so a winter wedding may need its outdoor portraits straight after the ceremony. Inside the Palladium, the chandeliers and moving party lights look best once the room goes dark. If it rains, the gardens can wait and Crown’s indoor spaces carry the portraits.
Planning a Palladium at Crown or Southbank wedding? We can help shape a city portrait route around the light and leave you ready for the ballroom entrance.
