By Matt Black | 11th June 2025 | 4 min read

Stretching from South Yarra and Prahran out to Dandenong, Berwick, Cranbourne, and Pakenham, Melbourne’s southeast suburbs incorporate many of our favourite wedding venues and ceremony locations. Read about some of the southeast suburbs weddings for which we’ve provided musicians, bands, and DJs.

Richmond Wedding Musician

Sam and Adrian hired me as the solo musician for their Richmond wedding. One of the secrets to a great party is too many people in too small a room. Well they nailed that. I was squeezed into a corner at Friends Of Mine Cafe on Bridge Rd in Richmond, surrounded by guests. Bit like being at a rock concert. The ceremony space became the dance floor later. And all I had to do was pivot around to face an adjoining room where the guests were seated for dinner.

Sam and Adrian have Irish and Italian ancestry respectively. It made for a nice mix of cultures at this wedding. They asked me to learn When You Were Young by The Killers for their first dance. This is a song I hadn’t really listened to before. Wow, what a tune (and music video). I fell in love with it straight away, and it was a real pleasure to sing it for them.

What did I love most about this wedding? The guests! They were so much fun, and so appreciative of the music. But Adrian’s nonna was the highlight. A tiny Italian woman of ninety-five years, she was the most energetic person in the room. She started off hitting the dance floor, then I gave her the mic and she belted out some old Italian songs. Absolutely amazing. I heard later from the couple that she had been a legendary party animal in her youth. No surprises there.

Rippon Lea Acoustic Duo

Two days before Monica and Chris’s wedding I found myself in the emergency department at Dandenong Hospital with what turned out to be a herniated disc in my back. Suffice to say I wasn’t sure how I’d hold up for this full day wedding, which was set to commence at a church in Altona Meadows and finish at Quat Quatta in Rippon Lea. But the show must go on, and I was fine, even after loading a full PA into the venue in the pouring rain. It’s remarkable what the human body is capable of when there’s a wedding to do.

Monica and Chris opted for the acoustic duo at both the ceremony and reception, followed by DJ. We met the lovely and talented Madeline Kate at this wedding – she took the photo of us above. Monica asked us to learn Find You by Zedd ft. Matthew Koma and Miriam Bryant as a surprise for her brother (it’s “their” song). Then as a surprise for Monica, Chris sang Love Of My Life by Queen:

Quat Quatta has a cool setup where the “green room” is situated on a balcony overlooking the stage and dance floor. I do like to stay close to the action and keep an eye on things when we break for dinner.

Hawthorn Wedding Band

Olivia and Anthony hired our five piece wedding band for their Hawthorn wedding at fabulous Leonda By The Yarra. We had a bit of sax power at this one, with James on tenor saxophone and our lead singer Kat doubling on alto. Awesome. They asked us to learn a couple of songs: Until I Found You by Stephen Sanchez for their first dance, and Doesn’t Remind Me by Audioslave just for the hell of it. Other requests included Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked by Cage The Elephant (bridal party entrance), It’s Gonna Be Me by NSYNC (bouquet toss), Oh Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison (exit song), and lots of Italian music (Anthony’s family is Italian).

Now some couples do their wedding by the book. But Olivia and Anthony were determined that their wedding would be different. And by God it was. Here’s an example: a father/son dance (unusual enough) that morphed into… this:

Another first for us: Anthony’s friend performed a Red Hot Chilli Peppers song on solo bass guitar for the couple. Nice. What else? Oh yeh, Anthony asked me to learn The Godfather theme on guitar and play it during his speech when he mentioned Sicilian concreters. I knew about most of this stuff going in, as Anthony is a highly-organised and outgoing groom (while Olivia is quiet and shy). So lots of back-and-forth leading up to the wedding. But my bandmates knew almost nothing. Should have seen the looks on their faces.

Malvern Engagement Party DJ

Tash and Mick hired me to DJ their engagement party upstairs at Caffe La Via on Glenferrie Rd Malvern. This is a cool space, with chandeliers and pics of jazz greats on the walls. We later used it to shoot music videos for our band, trio, and acoustic duo.

The couple entered the room to Hotstepper by Ini Kamoze. They asked me to open the dance floor with Let’s Get It Started by Black Eyed Peas. Tash has Russian heritage so I got to spin some Russian music like Moscow Never Sleeps by DJ Smash. Otherwise the requests were very much oriented around old school RnB and 90s Eurodance. They hit the dance floor hard and it was a fun night.

Southeast Suburbs Wedding Reviews