Wellington Wedding Photographer
Even though I am based in Palmerston North and Manawatu, I have had the pleasure to have captured many Wellington wedding photography for my wedding clients. 2 hours drive is like a stone throw away, and often these weddings involve just a day trip from home.
As a professional wedding photographer, it is always fun to travel to new wedding venues, seeing new scenery, having new creative wedding photo ideas, as well as working with awesome new clients. It is this variety that keeps wedding photography interesting and fun, and this is the best way to capture and celebrate weddings in my humble opinion.
There are simply too many beautiful Wellington wedding venues to list here, so I just want to share some of my favorites venues that I have been to.
Silver Stream Retreat
This is easily one of the biggest and busy Wellington wedding venue. They have multiple areas and able to hold several weddings in any given day. There are very few New Zealand wedding venues that have such capacity. They constantly improve, upgrade and expand their facilities every year. They can easily hold 100 weddings, on tops of conferences and events every year. The numbers of weddings are just eye-popping. But hopefully these images are can easily show you why Silver Stream Retreat is so popular with brides and grooms.
Sudbury
This is the Wellington wedding venue that is closest to home, only just over an hour drive away. First of all, they have a dedicated car park for wedding photographers, videographers, caterers. Talk about amazing service and taking care of fellow wedding vendors. Sudbury is a boutique wedding venue, offering stunning rural landscape, as well as high-end accommodation for getting ready as well as on the wedding day itself. So why else do I love Sudbury as a wedding venue?
- Sudbury a diverse range of backdrops for bridal photography. You have the venue itself, which is elevated to provide a stunning panoramic view of the mountain range and valley. You have long grass, wooden cabin, farm like walks and backdrop, did I mention the gorgeous mountain range that reminds me of South Island scenery, rustic barn, and only 5 minutes drive to the beach.
- Great staff and service, not just for the brides and grooms, but for everyone involved including as wedding vendors
- The wedding food is just sublime and mouth watering
- DIY for alcohol, which is very rare for such a high-end wedding venue
- I can fly the drone for epic photography and videography
Ohariu Farm
Ohairium Farms does have a similar wedding backdrop as Sudbury above. It is located in Lower Hutt, with open farmland and mountain range visible in the background. In fact, the mountain range and hillsides are much more accessible on foot. These locations are just epic wedding photography backdrops, giving a real adventure and rustic feel to the wedding bridal photography. I have very fond memories of this venue, having attended several Sri Lankan weddings, as well as some amazing wedding films that I have created in the past.
The Lodge
Just outside of Wellington is The Lodge with an outstanding view of the Pauatahanui Inlet. It is a historic country lodge, and only 20 minutes drive fro Wellington, Hutt Valley and Kapiti Coast. It has two halls and thus able to hold up to two weddings on a given day. Their upper hall can easily hold 200 guests, and thus is very popular with Asian weddings which tend to have a lot more wedding guests than the typical weddings where 100 guests is normal.
The Lodge provides quite a few little nooks for stunning wedding photos, from farm and rural backdrops, to tall grass, abandoned tennis cour for some super cool contemporary images, and whatnot. 15-20 minutes away and you get beautiful sea view at the inlet, or Battle Hill Farm, for forest and garden settings. I have even gone to the Kapiti Coast to get epic seaside wedding images, as well as to the Paekakariki Train Station for unique Kiwiana and urban style wedding photos. The possibility is just endless.
