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These aren't your average vacation happy snaps. Pre-wedding photography is taking off in a big way, with couples jetting in from Asia to pose in front of Melbourne's most iconic landmarks.
PT0M58S 620 349In the warmer months, when the leaves are green and the sunlight shines through them and falls on the grass just so, Andrew Noble is very busy.
Nearly every day a bride and groom will jet into Melbourne – usually from China, often from Hong Kong, sometimes from Malaysia or Indonesia. She will don her second wedding dress – she always has two – and they will spend a good part of the day taking pre-wedding photos.
Flinders Street Station is a popular location for pre-wedding photos. Photo: Alan Woo/Finessence
Noble is one of the operators in a seriously high-net-value industry that you've never heard of: Chinese pre-wedding photography.
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Wealthy couples – they are almost all wealthy – come to Australia for photos in front of the city's landmarks. Most popular destinations: Carlton Gardens, Parliament House, St Patricks Cathedral, Flinders Street Station.
Cost: starting at $1200, with packages way up to $5000, plus travel (and travel for the camera crew).
Royal Arcade is another popular location. Photo: Alan Woo/Finessence
Most of Noble's clients will fly in for a holiday in Australia, and spend part of it getting photos shot. But plenty fly in just for the photos, landing at Tullamarine, staying a single night, and then jetting back home.
Why is Carlton Gardens so popular? Actually, the answer has little to do with the grass and lighting. Many Asians coming back for photos studied at the University of Melbourne – who host their end-of-year exams at the Royal Exhibition Building in the gardens.
Augustine and Su San Kong flew from Singapore to Melbourne to have their shots taken.
Andrew Noble (left) from Noble Photography grabs a snap of the bride and groom. Photo: http://noblephotography.com.au/
"We both studied in the University of Melbourne and that was where we met and and eventually fell in love," Augustine says.
"That's also why many of our photos were actually taken in the university grounds itself."
Pre-wedding photography may be rare in Australia, but it's a key part of the wedding tradition in many Asian countries. In China it's a multi-billion dollar industry. The shots are displayed prominently at a couple's wedding or reception – sometimes in the form of a gallery for guests to walk through, or as life-size cut-outs.
Su San and Augustine fell in love in Melbourne. Photo: Alan Woo/Finessence
In Australia wedding shots are often done on the day. Not so in China, where wedding days are so crowded with parties, traditional games, feasts and receptions that there is never any time to sneak away for posed photos. Hence the need for the pre-wedding photo.
In a country with a new generation of rich, an old tradition is now finding a new role: as a status symbol. This is where Australia comes in.
Most couples of average means will do their pre-wedding photos in their home town.
The couple flew from Singapore to Melbourne to have photos taken. Photo: Alan Woo/Finessence
DeGraves Street provides a scenic backdrop for Su San and Augustine. Photo: Alan Woo/Finessence
Wealth enables and bride and groom to seek out exotic locations: London and Paris are obviously popular, but Australia is starting to become a key site for couples keen to get a photo no one else has.
"It means they are very rich, so people are jealous of them," says Neil Neo, director at Love Journal Photography, Melbourne's biggest pre-wedding photography company.
Neo has a Hong Kong couple arriving in May. Their plan is to take to the skies in a pre-dawn hot air balloon. The bride will have to do her makeup at 4am, Neo laughs.
Most popular locationsSource: Fly in, take picture, go home: Melbourne becoming a key destination for booming Asian pre-wedding photography
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