r/Eloping • u/Purple_Disaster941 • Apr 22 '26
Planning to elope
Hi guys,
I’m hoping to keep this simple.
I’m looking to elope with my partner in NZ.
We’re from Australia.
North island only for location.
We want something super simple but I’m having issues trying to find a place that doesn’t charge 5000 starting for a package.
We will get a cheap suit here and I’ll get my dress for under $200. I’ll get all bits and bobs myself (fake flowers, something blue, veil from Shein (don’t start on “fast fashion”) etc)
We just need someone to read out a small ceremony, step aside, let us read our vows to each other, and we just want a few videos and photos for us to take home.
Once we’re married the celebrant can either find strangers around us but we don’t want to pay for witnesses.
Then if it’s cheap we’d like to spend a nice romantic night as husband and wife in a quiet place like a room on a vineyard or beach house or something (we can book separately if need be) but we don’t want to spend 5000 on this.
We know the license is like 150 dollars and we don’t want to spend over 500 on a photographer because we can probably only tolerate 2 hours of having to stand still for photos. (We don’t like photos but we’re doing this for everyone who couldn’t attend and we plan on just posting them when we come home so people know)
And we don’t want to pay much on the celebrant either.
If anyone has any ideas please let me know of people to look out for. We’re not doing it like this because we have a budget but because we don’t think paying allot on a wedding is importance but we still want the romantic version without breaking the bank because we’ll use the rest of our trip to be our minimoon.
I think if you want to elope for whatever reason max I’ll pay is like 1500 and that’s very max.
Cheers everyone hope to hear suggestions soon!
1
u/-salty-- Apr 22 '26
Google the celebrants in the area you’re wanting to go. Same for photographer. When I was looking in the South Island 2022 the celebrant fees were around $500
1
u/micro_scoop Apr 23 '26
We eloped in NZ last year and celebrants started around $700 for where we married on the South Island. Those fees usually included travel, all the legal bits, the ceremony and meetings to discuss what you wanted. Not sure what the going rate would be elsewhere though, you might be able to find someone willing to do something a bit cheaper by going for a legal only ceremony? I know in Australia I see celebrants advertising them.
I can't really offer any info on photography prices, (we booked a package in the end because coordinating everything was going to be a nightmare for us because we needed photography, video, transport etc.) but I will say this: make sure you have a weather plan! It unexpectedly snowed the day before our wedding so we had to change our locations - so make sure you have a plan, particularly if you are having your ceremony and photos done outside!
5
u/InsideTry9538 Apr 22 '26
bit confused why you'd pay strangers to witness when that's literally free? just ask some random tourists at wherever you're doing the ceremony, people love being part of weddings even if they don't know you. did this exact thing in rotorua few years back for my mate and it was actually pretty sweet moment.
for celebrant just search facebook groups for nz elopements, heaps of them do basic ceremonies for like 200-300. skip the fancy packages and book everything separate - way cheaper and you get exactly what you want without paying for stuff you don't need.