Travelling from overseas?
If you are thinking of having your wedding in Aotearoa/New Zealand… then Tauranga and Mount Maunganui offer many beautiful venues, and the surrounding environs and many beach settings are simply stunning settings for your ceremony and celebration – all with very reliable summer weather. I would be more than happy to make suggestions for the perfect location for your wedding, depending on the style of ceremony you want. For small intimate weddings you are welcome to be married in my garden which has stunning views of the Tauranga harbour and The Mount (Mauao).
I am equally comfortable being your celebrant whether there is romantically just the two of you, an intimate group of close friends and family, or you are organising a full on “returning to New Zealand from overseas” wedding. I am very organised and professional but have a friendly, open, fun personality, and my commitment to you is that you will have a romantic and truly memorable wedding, in a spectacular part of our beautiful country.
How the planning works
I will work with you as I do for all couples (please see my Weddings page), with the only difference being that we get to know each other by email, skype or facetime. As well as working with you to design a personalised and unique ceremony, I will assist you with the legal requirements for getting married in New Zealand (it’s very easy, see my blog about this).
If you are have no family or contacts here, I can arrange such things as flowers, a hairdresser, a makeup artist, a cake, suitable accommodation (for a small fee based on the amount of work required.) I can also supply witnesses if your wedding is going to be a romantic affair for just the two of you. Alternatively, if you are planning a larger wedding I can suggest a wedding planner for you.
When you arrive in Tauranga, New Zealand
You would go in to the local Birth Deaths and Marriages Office, (McLean House, McLean St., open Monday to Friday normal office hours) to uplift your pre-ordered marriage licence. And we finally get to meet in person! From there on, everything falls into place just as it does for any wedding.
And when you fly home, even if your name hasn’t changed on your passport, you will know that your ‘Kiwi Wedding’ was a fabulous start to your married life together.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like to know more.
Perhaps the most real help for you is from some overseas based couples – who have kindly written their impressions of their day and the process of creating their ceremony. They have also generously allowed me to use one of their stunning photos (thank you) of their happy day.
“You are a very passionate and professional celebrant. Despite the fact we only communicated via email and phone (as we were at remote places and just met the day before the celebration plus the very short notice of just 2 weeks) you asked all the right questions to create a very personal celebration and we received outstanding feedback for that. You also supported us with organising everything else we could think of (or had not been aware of) like photographer, hairdresser, rings, restaurant etc.
Finally we all were climbing up the Mount … Wendy, thank you so much for making that day really special!”
Xiaosu and Stephan
Germany and China
“After finding you online and having just one skype call, we knew we had found our celebrant. You were genuinely excited and interested in making our elopement day special and a reflection of us. While our wedding was a little unusual (just us, planned from overseas, combination of 3 cultures; a Kiwi, a Mexican, and we live in Canada), you were very patient and took care of a lot of details which totally put our minds at ease. The thing that was most special to us was how much of a wonderful storyteller you are. You crafted a beautiful ceremony that was filled with laughter, love (and a few tears).We felt honoured to have you as part of our day and would highly recommend you.”
Megan and Alex
Canada
“You probably hear this a lot…….. but you are AMAZING!! Thank you so much for playing such a huge part in our awesome day and making it perfect. We couldn’t have wished for anything more, you were so helpful and easy to work with, you made the whole process fun, and gave fabulous advice. You are a true professional, friendly, accommodating, and SUPER organised, with an amazing sense of humour. We have had so many people comment on what a beautiful ceremony it was, and how much they loved that it was about us. So thank you, thank you, thank you!”
Shannon and Tony
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
“On our Wedding day, we were truly blessed with an amazing, incredibly intimate, and memorable ceremony. You enabled everything to come together so successfully because you really took the time to understand our vision for our day, (simple, no stress and a celebration of us together amongst the raw beauty of New Zealand nature). You got a real sense of who we were from our conversations and emails while we were overseas, your warm welcoming nature, and meeting us – only two days before the ceremony. Your questions and resources really helped us to express who we are, both individually and together, and our vision of our life together. Wendy, you have a true gift for drawing out of people who they really are, and what they bring to their marriage. Thank you Wendy for your fabulous efforts and for sharing with us your wonderful talent! We are forever grateful for everything you have done for us, it was SO much more incredible than we could have ever imagined!”
Nadija and Scott Veach
California, USA
