By Tyler Wright
A beloved wedding venue in the Dandenong Ranges has closed and is being transformed into a cosy home with the owners cutting ties with the wedding industry after a difficult couple of years.
Wedding Celebrant Anne Aldridge and husband Steve Holmes have decided to save the popular wedding ceremony site, St Cuthbert’s Chapel, and sell their current residence next door which was used as bed and breakfast.
It was a difficult decision to make for the couple but one that they felt necessary due to both streams of their income being affected by the pandemic.
“When we first did the sums back in 2020 the direct costs of running the house against the chapel were pretty much line ball at about $6800 each,” Steve said.
“This financial year, the directly comparable costs of running the house has increased much faster ($7,950) than running the chapel ($7,500).”
The love for the chapel is fueling the planning phase as they map out the extension from St Cuthbert’s old bell tower leading into new bedrooms, bathrooms and workshop space.
A dining table will replace the altar and where the Chapel pews were will be the spot for the couple’s kitchen.
Unforgotten, in the new extension will be a balcony space where the pair will enjoy the luxury of eating breakfast in the morning sunlight and slightly heavier drinks in the afternoon.
St Cuthbert’s was built in 1907 and opened on Good Friday that year by the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne who also planted an Oak tree which still remains.
The congregation, which existed before the building’s erection, was made up of locals throughout the hills and after the introduction of Selby’s stone church in the 1920’s and the development which the narrow-gauge railway brought, families divided to worship elsewhere.
“That would have been quite an historic occasion for the locals and a bit sad in many ways because there were families who had gone to school together and gone to church [together],” Steve said.
“[In the 1930s], Menzies Creek Primary School burnt down and they were able to get all the furniture out. The following Monday morning, all the desks were put into the chapel and the last six weeks of that year, the school was at St Cuthbert’s Church,” Steve said.
“A few years ago, the community hall had a 60th anniversary…and we spoke to a couple of people who had actually started school at St Cuthbert’s in January for the first term of the following school year. They were three or four years old at the time,” Anne added.
The church was closed by the Church of England in 1988 and changed hands a number of times until it fell into the lap of Celebrant Wendy Adams and then to Anne and Steve.
Wendy started the process of reinstating the gem back to its former glory and extended the house next door where she would manage the wedding business’ administration.
The pair took the chapel under their wing in 2010, re-painted the exterior and welcomed lovebirds of various religious beliefs at the independent, secular space.
“We’ve had a Latin mass, we’ve had Pentecostals, we’ve had the Church of England; Catholics, independents and Pagan-type weddings,” Anne said.
“It was a really interesting exposure because I saw all different ceremonies, beliefs and ways that celebrants and ministers work.”
The decision to keep their chapel, and sell their house came out of desperation to keep the historical structure in the community.
“The wedding industry has its troughs and peaks – there are years when there are very few [weddings] and years when there are a lot. We’d ridden all of those in the time, [but] when all these restrictions hit, it took us back further than when we had purchased the property in 2010.”
“We just didn’t have the energy, the inclination or the drive to [start the chapel up] again – because it is such a fickle business in a lot of ways,” Anne said.
The couple said the decision will save them upwards of $90,000 over the next ten years, helping them to avoid working themselves into an ‘early grave’.
“You would have people saying ‘we want to get married in September next year’ – but what is that doing for us in the next 18 months? You can’t rebuild without a steady income.”
Anne said the popularity of ‘micro weddings’ taking off due to the pandemic and reduced capacity limits would have made St Cuthbert’s the “perfect” ceremony destination now and in the future – but the couple did not have the “impetus” to build their business from the ground up again.
“People have seen the benefits of smaller weddings…and it’s a much more popular thing [and] this building is the perfect size for smaller weddings,” Anne said.
“It has been a bit sad to close it because it is a niche and now people are recognising it…but it’s too late.”
Now, the focus is on selling their current home, making the move next door and building a new oasis for themselves.
“We’ve been married before, [but] neither of us have at any time built a new place,” Steve said.
Along with alleviating the costs of running two businesses, their weekends will be spent enjoying things they love.
“We might be able to go out, have a feed and go to the Cameo theatre in Belgrave,” he said.
