Victorian Marriage Registry

The Victorian Marriage Registry is where Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria holds its wedding ceremonies, inside the Old Treasury Building at 20 Spring Street, at the top of Collins Street in East Melbourne. It is a busy place: the registry married more than 3,600 couples there in 2024. Couples choose it for a short, simple ceremony with the people closest to them, in a sandstone building with tall windows and warm timber rooms, and with Treasury Gardens beside it and Parliament House a few minutes up the road.

This guide follows the day in order, the way we photographed three weddings here: Martina and Diego's in November 2025, Cecile and Stefan's on Valentine's Day 2026 and Karina and Chris's legal-only ceremony in July 2026. It covers getting ready, the two ceremony rooms, the portrait spots around the building, where couples celebrate afterwards and what to do if it rains.

Getting ready nearby

The registry doesn't mention any getting ready rooms, and none of our couples used one, so plan to arrive dressed. Home is the simplest option, and for a room in the city, the Hotel Windsor on Spring Street and Park Hyatt Melbourne on Parliament Square are both a few minutes away. Martina and Diego walked past the Hotel Windsor on their way up to Parliament House after their ceremony.

The registry says a "party unseen" entry isn't available, so there is no separate way in for one of you to arrive without being seen. That is a good reason to do what all three of our couples did: meet early, have the portraits done before the ceremony, and arrive at the registry together. Cecile still had her walk down the aisle. Stefan and the guests went in first, and she followed once everyone was seated.

Ceremony at the Old Treasury Building

There are two ceremony rooms, and only registry celebrants marry couples in them:

• The Margaret Craig Room is the larger one, for up to 55 guests in rows on both sides of a central aisle.
• The Thomas Hyde Room is for up to 8 guests, with no aisle. It has a fireplace and mantel, which the registry suggests for photos.

Both rooms come with artificial flowers, and music is provided. A classic ceremony has a 30-minute booking slot on any day, and the ceremony itself runs about 10 to 20 minutes. A legal-only ceremony has a 15-minute slot, Monday to Thursday, lasts about 5 to 10 minutes and takes place in an office or room the registry chooses, with only the couple and two witnesses. You can add up to 150 words of your own vows and a reading of the same length, bring your own rings and play your own music from a Bluetooth speaker. Ceremonies are in English, and the registry doesn't supply witnesses: bring two, aged 18 or over.

Cecile and Stefan married in the Margaret Craig Room with about thirty guests on rows of timber balloon back chairs. It is a warm room: a timber registry desk with a dark leather top and green leather chairs, tall windows with timber blinds, framed botanical prints, a piano, chandeliers and a dark fireplace on the side wall. They read their own vows, one from a card and one from a phone, and walked out through a tunnel of their guests' arms and the timber doors with the room's name lettered on the glass. Martina and Diego's ceremony was in a room with all the same features, with about ten guests, and it showed us that a small wedding sits comfortably in the big room. Karina and Chris's legal-only ceremony was in a smaller room with a black fireplace, a big gilded mirror, a chandelier and flowers on the mantel. The Margaret Craig Room has a fireplace too, and nothing in our photos names the room they used, so for a legal-only ceremony, don't count on a particular room.

Guests may photograph and film at any time, as long as the doorways stay clear, and one professional photographer doesn't count towards your numbers. The ceremony is short, so we stay close and keep moving quietly around the edge of the room.

Portraits around the building and the gardens

The building and the gardens beside it give you a lot within a few minutes' walk. These are the spots we have used:

• The front steps. Wide stone steps with old lamp standards, and the city's towers and palms behind. The registry names them as a photo spot. Karina and Chris finished their portraits here, and Martina and Diego came down them from the balcony.
• The sandstone balcony. A balustrade above the gardens with a tall palm behind it, and a white statue at the far end with office towers beyond. Martina and Diego had their first portraits here before the ceremony.
• The side steps, the columns and the red door. A long flight of sandstone steps with a handrail beside the building, the columns and balustrade, and a tall red timber door with steps of its own.
• Treasury Gardens. Right next door. A sunny lawn in front of a tall hedge of white flowers, where Cecile and Stefan had their portraits and family photos; huge fig trees, a curving path and a long avenue of old trees; and a pond with two fountain jets, where Karina and Chris spent the longest.
• Treasury Place. A strip of lawn under the flags of the old government buildings, a few steps from the gardens.
• Parliament House. A few minutes up Spring Street: the wide steps, the columns, a long covered colonnade with patterned tiles and carved timber doors. Parliament's conditions of entry allow personal photography only in certain public areas, so check with Parliament before you plan on its steps.

Allow about 45 minutes for the building and the gardens with family photos, as Cecile and Stefan did, and an hour and a half if you add Parliament House, as Karina and Chris did. Martina and Diego did the balcony and the steps in about ten minutes before their ceremony, and Parliament House straight after it. In summer the midday sun here is hard and bright, so the figs and the hedge give you some shade. In winter the trees are bare and an overcast sky gives soft, even light on the stone.

Celebrating afterwards

There is no reception space at the registry, and food and drink aren't allowed in the building, so plan where everyone goes next, even if it is just a long lunch.

• Cecile and Stefan took about thirty guests to lunch at Studley Park Boathouse on the Yarra in Kew: a champagne tower, speeches on the verandah with handheld microphones and, in the afternoon, a rowing boat on the river.
• Martina and Diego walked up Spring Street to Parliament House for more portraits, then came back a week later for a sunset session at Brighton Beach.
• Karina and Chris kept it to their mums, with a few photos together inside the building and in front of its columns once the ceremony was done.

For a bigger party, the Plaza Ballroom beneath the Regent Theatre on Collins Street holds 150 to 450 guests. A directory lists the Hotel Windsor for receptions of 10 to 230 guests with in-house catering, which is worth confirming with the hotel. Wherever you go, give your guests the address and parking details before the day, because there is no parking at the registry.

A day at the Victorian Marriage Registry, hour by hour

Cecile and Stefan's camera clock may have been an hour out that day (it was on standard time during daylight saving), so here is their day counted from the moment Cecile walked into the ceremony room:

• About 70 minutes before: Cecile's first portraits on Treasury Place.
• An hour before: couple portraits in the garden beside the building, then family and group photos on the same lawn.
• Half an hour before: Treasury Place, then the sandstone steps and columns of the Old Treasury Building.
• 15 minutes before: guests take their seats in the Margaret Craig Room.
• The start: Cecile walks in.
• After 2 to 8 minutes: vows, then the rings and the kiss.
• After 9 to 11 minutes: the signing, with a witness.
• After 11 to 16 minutes: hugs around the room, a tunnel of arms and out the door.
• After about 20 minutes: photos on the footpath outside, then on to lunch.
• After about 1 hour 15: a champagne tower and drinks at Studley Park Boathouse.
• From about 1 hour 30 to 2 hours 10: speeches on the verandah.
• From about 2 hours 25: the riverbank, the jetty and a rowing boat, with the last frame at about 2 hours 50.

A legal-only ceremony is shorter again. Karina and Chris started their portraits at Parliament House at about ten past one, reached the registry's front steps by about twenty to three, and were married, signed and back out among the columns with their mums by ten past three.

If it rains

The ceremony is indoors, so rain only matters for the photos. The registry doesn't name an indoor area for photos outside your booked slot, so ask before you plan on one. Outside, the colonnade at Parliament House is covered, which is where we would start if the weather turned, and the stone and the bare trees of Treasury Gardens look good under a grey sky. Karina and Chris had a flat, overcast winter afternoon, and it gave us soft light all day. If it pours, keep the portraits short and close to the building, and take more of them at your lunch or dinner venue.

Practical notes

• The registry is in the Old Treasury Building, 20 Spring Street, East Melbourne, at the top of Collins Street.
• Book online through a Service Victoria account, at least a month ahead; the registry recommends three months, more for summer.
• Trams 11, 12, 48 and 109 stop at Collins and Spring Streets. The nearest station is Parliament (Collins Street exit).
• There is no parking on site. There are commercial car parks on Little Collins Street, Flinders Lane and St Andrew's Place, and a little street parking nearby.
• There is a wheelchair ramp at the rear of the building. Email the registry two weeks ahead if you need it.
• Inside the building: no food, drink, confetti, rice, rose petals, balloons or bubble blowers. Pets aren't allowed; assistance animals are.
• In City of Melbourne parks: no confetti or rice, real petals only if they are fully cleared, no wedding cars inside the parks, and drones need a filming permit. Reserving a lawn, or a ceremony of 50 or more guests in a park, needs a permit from the City of Melbourne. Photography in the Fitzroy Gardens Conservatory needs a permit and is only possible outside 9am to 5.30pm.