Free tool
Wānaka wedding checklist
The steps that matter here, in the order they need doing, including the local ones that generic checklists miss.
Short answer
Work through four phases: decide the shape of the day, lock the site and legal basics, handle the logistics that catch people out here, then reconfirm everything in the final month.
Coromandel Peak above Lake Wānaka. Photograph: Wonder Weddings.
Your checklist
Tick as you go. Progress is stored in this browser only, and you can print the list at any time.
Decide the shape of the day
- Choose the format: elopement, intimate or full wedding
- Agree a guest number you can both live with
- Pick a season, and accept its trade-offs in weather and daylight
- Set a total you will not exceed before contacting suppliers
Lock the site and the legal basics
- See your shortlist in person, or on a video walk-through
- Confirm the wet-weather option in writing, not in conversation
- Check vehicle access, parking and step-free routes for every guest
- Confirm whether your site needs a permit or landowner permission
- Apply for the marriage licence, and check the current fee and lead time
- Book a registered celebrant and confirm they can travel to the site
Logistics that catch people out here
- Plan guest arrival: which airport, which day, which drive
- Book transport for the ceremony site, including the return trip
- Hold accommodation early for peak-season dates
- Write a weather plan with a decision time and one decision-maker
- If flying, agree a written alternative for a weather cancellation
- Build the running order backwards from sunset
Final month
- Reconfirm every supplier's arrival time and contact number
- Send the timeline to suppliers, family and anyone speaking
- Give guests directions, dress guidance and a warm-layer reminder
- Confirm who calls the weather decision, and when
- Check the licence, rings, vows and anything that must travel with you
What this assumes
- The list covers process, not prices, no cost or availability claim is made here.
- Progress is saved in your browser's local storage; clearing site data clears it.
- Nothing you tick is sent to a server or to us.
- Your suppliers may add steps specific to their service.
A planning aid, not a substitute for advice from your venue, suppliers, council or the New Zealand Government.
Advice
Two ways couples use this well
First, print it before a venue visit and take the site questions with you. Answers written on paper are worth more than remembered reassurance.
Second, put a name against every item. Most missed steps are not forgotten, they are assumed to be someone else's.
Talk to a planner
If you would rather someone else owned this list and chased the replies, that is what a planner does.
Planning by Wonder Weddings, an affiliated brand.
Want someone to own this list with you?
Wonder Weddings plans and runs weddings in Wānaka and the wider Southern Lakes. If you would rather talk it through than read another guide, start there.
Planning and photography by Wonder Weddings, in the same group as this guide.
This guide is written, maintained and funded by Wedding Machine Group, founded by Cristian Batista. Enquiries sent from this site go to Wonder Weddings, the planning and photography brand in the same group, and some readers become its clients. Heli Elopements and Eureka Films are also brands within Wedding Machine Group, sister companies, not independent recommendations.