Venues: Town Halls

On Fridays I am going to be posting about some venues in Western Australia. It is hard sifting through hundreds of different websites when you are looking for a wedding venue, so hopefully this will help someone out there! Let me know if you are hunting for something specific and I will try to help out.

This week we are looking at town halls! These venues are often underrated and with a little bit of sprucing up they can look magical. I think town halls suit a couple who want a very personalised wedding - let's face it, town halls are a bit of a blank canvas! The key to getting a town hall ready for an event is lighting, lighting, lighting - whether it's soft candlelight or a huge rig to light up a dance floor it doesn't matter, but fluorescent lights never did anyone any good! The best part about town halls is that they are generally cheap to hire.

North Perth Town Hall

This is a quaint town hall in the trendy area of North Perth. I have fond memories of a friend's 30th party here where she had one loooooooooong banquet table covered in butchers paper and candles, with a saxophone busker on the stage with a single spotlight on him as he played. Baileys, donuts, cigars and dessert were served, it was the last stop of a walking-multi-venue-party and it was amazing. My friends throw the best parties!

Via Google Maps

Website: http://www.vincent.wa.gov.au/1/6/1/facilities.pm

Leederville Town Hall

This town hall is another historic venue and much like North Perth, you can make it suit whatever style you want.

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Cost: from $66/hour

Website: http://www.cambridge.wa.gov.au/content/Public/Leisure/What_can_I_do/Leederville_Town_Hall.aspx

Perth Town Hall

This venue is HUGE and has several areas fit for a party. I would love to see someone use one half of this space for a ceremony and then move into the second area for the reception.

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Cost: 6am-6pm $130/hour, 6pm-12am $160/hour

Website: http://www.cityofperth.wa.gov.au/web/Living/Community-Services-and-Facilities/Perth-Town-Hall/Hiring-the-Perth-Town-Hall/

Guildford Town Hall

Gorgeous Art Deco building in Guildford that can hold 200 people.

Image 1 via, Image 2 via

website: http://www.swan.wa.gov.au/docs/documents/1214/Guildford_Town_Hall_421032.pdf

Fremantle Town Hall

Victorian-era hall with beautiful main area, foyer staircase and gallery seating. How cool would it be to have a gospel choir singing in the gallery as guests arrive?

Image 1 via, Image 2 and 3 via

Cost: 8am-5pm $80/hour, 5-2pm $140/hour, 8am-2am $1050

Website: http://www2.freofocus.com/services/html/halls_town_hall.cfm

Venues: Outdoors

On Fridays I am going to be posting about some venues in Western Australia. It is hard sifting through hundreds of different websites when you are looking for a wedding venue, so hopefully this will help someone out there! Let me know if you are hunting for something specific and I will try to help out.

This week we are looking at outdoor venues in Perth, we'll focus on gardens later on, so these are just venues for hire with a killer outdoor space.

Camelot Theatre

This is such a great art deco theatre in Mosman Park. It has a great outdoor cinema area that is lined by pencil pines and I always imagine a gatsby-style party here, with exposed light bulb string and champagne coupes flowing around. Maybe you could show some classic black and white films throughout your party... I think there are tonnes of options for this space.

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Website: www://camelot.com.au

Quarry Amphitheatre

This Quarry is used for ballet and theatre performances and is in a central-ish location in City Beach. It has an inherent beauty and is such a unique and special venue! I can imagine the side rock lit up and a clear-span marquee at the bottom so you could admire the venue all night.

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Website: www.quarryamphitheatre.com.au

Point Walter Recreation

So there aren't many pictures of this venue, but it has the most incredible outlook over the river and beyond to the city. It's perched on top of some limestone cliffs (near where I used to jump off into the river as a kid). You can just see through the buildings to make out the river... I think this would suit a more casual wedding where you had people stay overnight or for a whole weekend of fun.

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Website: www.dsr.wa.gov.au/pointwalter

Venues: Wineries

On Fridays I am going to be posting about some venues in Western Australia. It is hard sifting through hundreds of different websites when you are looking for a wedding venue, so hopefully this will help someone out there! Let me know if you are hunting for something specific and I will try to help out.

Today we're going to look at some sweet wineries around the Perth metropolitan area. I have been trying to find another one that is more than a shed-with-vines, but it's too draining to trawl the internet - so without further ado:-

Sandalford Winery

Sandalford winery is HUGE and they have a few different options for wedding ceremonies and receptions. My favourite is the Oak Room, which has walls lined with oak barrels. I know in the US, there is a 'barn wedding' craze but we don't have many barns in Australia and I think this would make such a nice alternative for a rustic/chic wedding.

Photos via Sandalford Winery website and here.

The Sandalford website has 360 panoramic views of each of their spaces, so I won't double up -here are my top picks:

Durack Room: On the second level, with french doors, balcony and rustic styling. 80 seated guests.

Underground Cellar: Similar to the oak room, but less wood around the place - I could see a more modern celebration happening here. Seats up to 250 guests.

Of course, there are also the lawns (Merlot and Verdelho), so expansive and beautiful.

Website: www.sandalford.com.au

Millbrook Winery

Millbrook Winery has a gorgeous function room on their 2nd floor that has a deck overlooking their lake and vines. The function room can cater for 100 people (seated) or 150 (standing) and is decorated really nicely, wooden floors, stone detailing, high ceilings and a fireplace - really light and airy.

Photos from Millbrook Winery website and The Wedding Network.

Website: www.millbrookwinery.com.au

New Series.

On Fridays I am going to be posting about some venues in Western Australia. I enquired about so many venues when I was looking for somewhere to get married and it was hard because there weren't many places that you could just google that had a huge list of contemporary or nicely styled venues. It is hard sifting through hundreds of different websites, so hopefully this will help someone out there! Let me know if you are hunting for something specific and I will try to help out!

So without further ado - here are some venues that I think would suit someone looking for old-world charm, with some modern sensibilities. These particular venues have both a lovely outdoor garden area and charming inside rooms for other functions.

Peel Manor House

Located outside of the metropolitan area, this venue has a lovely garden area and a nice driveway to arrive in. The inside of the house is a little old fashioned, but it's finished in neutral colours and you could decorate it really nicely. You can book accommodation at Peel Manor House and there is a beautiful lake area that would be nice for an outdoor ceremony.

Website: www.peelmanorhouse.com.au

photos via Peel Manor House

Cottesloe Civic Centre

Another popular wedding venue, because golly, look at that view!! The huge grass area overlooking the Indian Ocean is gorgeous, the ceremony staircase is romantically styled (Zac and I even explored there just before we got engaged!) the formal gardens offer a whole bunch of outdoor reception areas, marquee areas and there are indoor rooms if you prefer (or if you think it will be cold at night). The whole complex is style, style, style... I love the Civic Centre, even if no one else is around and you're just exploring with your honey :)

Website: Cottesloe local government

photos via (1) (2) (3)

Caversham House

One of the more popular wedding locations in Perth, but of course, there is a reason for that reputation. Beautifully maintained limestone walled formal gardens and a beautiful french-styled interior in the reception area. Did I mention this place has it's own boat and dock if you want to use it? Oh, did I also mention it has a massive waterfall you can walk behind? So beautiful...

Website: www.cavershamhouse.com.au

All photos from Caversham House

Our Venue.

We have changed our venues. Having a cocktail reception at Zac's family home was going to be too much stress, so we reviewed our decision making paradigms.

The original logic being: we wanted

• A beautiful space
• That didn't charge for food
• And was sheltered in case of rain.

Good luck with that in Perth. Unless you want a dingy town hall, but we chose a church instead.

New logic:

• We can go somewhere that charges for food
• Because we now require it.

Brilliant.

So for a week there we were in limbo. We canceled the church and the caterers. Officially getting married no-where, scary.

But we ended up finding a great venue that fits exactly what we wanted...

Let me introduce you to The Old Brewery.

A bit of a regular on the Perth Wedding Scene, but for good reason. It is a beautiful, old building that is in good repair (rare in Perth), separate function area, it has in-house caterers (award winning!) and a view to knock your socks off.

We decided that we are going to have both the ceremony and our reception at The Old Brewery, dividing up the space in the function area. The ceremony will be in the glass-walled foyer area, the reception further back into the room. We will be going straight from the ceremony into lunch.

The only down side is that because of this new transition between ceremony and reception is that we had to cut our guest list. It was the lesser of two evils - invite more people to the ceremony and be rude by asking them to leave when a whole bunch of people would obviously stay around for lunch or be rude by inviting less people than we did to our engagement party.

The latter option won out.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Old Brewery:

all photos from The Old Brewery

Change.

Change is a beautiful thing.

I'm glad I think that way, or this week would have been hell!

New ceremony venue.

New reception venue.

New feel and styling ideas.

New budget. Dear God.

But I picked up my dress and Zac tried on a suit (and a bow-tie just for me) so I think it balanced out in the end. I snuck a photo, which is why he isn't wearing shoes. Hee hee :)

Amazing how new clothes can make you feel!

St Andrews.

Zac and I stumbled across St Andrews Anglican while hiking up Rockeby Road in Subiaco one afternoon. The church was open, but no one was inside so we got to explore this beautiful building by ourselves.

photo from NKPhotography.com.au

photo from St Andrew's website

We love:

The newly renovated feel.

That it is light and airy, not dark and dingy!

The simplicity in the decor.

The new stained-glass windows, they are so beautiful!

After a few emails, some phone calls and a meeting with Diana (the wedding coordinator) and Father Peter (the priest, who is hilarious) we finally booked the church!

We know you'll like it just as much as we do.