Wellington wedding photographer & videographer
Twelve venues, an honest read on the wind, and a team that flies down the day before. Around five Wellington weddings a year, and we would like more.
We are an Auckland photography and film team, and Wellington is the one city where the first question a couple asks us is never about light. It is about wind.
The honest position: the wind is real, measurable, and it will shape your day. It will not ruin it. Some of our best frames were taken in wind — a veil pulled horizontal is a photograph, where a perfectly still veil is a dress detail.
Wellington venues
Every venue name links to its own site. In Wellington the question to ask each one is not “is there a wet-weather option” — it is “where do 120 people stand when it is blowing 60kmh and horizontal.”
Te Papa
Waterfront
Harbour-view museum spaces from 30 to over 500. The most weatherproof large venue in the city.
The Boatshed
Taranaki Street Wharf
Restored 1920s waterfront boatshed — exposed beams, lagoon views, a balcony you will use on the three calm days a year.
InterContinental Wellington
CBD
Five-star hotel on Grey Street. Guests sleep upstairs, which in Wellington weather is worth more than a view.
Wellington Botanic Garden
Kelburn
Council garden spaces including The Dell for up to 250. Book early and check what is open.
Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne
Karori
A fenced eco-sanctuary ten minutes from the CBD. Lawns to 200, indoor spaces to 200, birdsong you cannot fake.
Coast & valley
Boomrock
Ohariu Valley
Clifftop farmland above Cook Strait, 120 seated. Spectacular and genuinely exposed — the Lodge is your plan B and you will want it.
Pencarrow Lodge
Eastbourne
On the rugged Pencarrow coast. Dramatic, remote, and a drive your guests should be warned about.
Silverstream Retreat
Upper Hutt
Riverside and rustic above the Hutt River, three spaces from 108 to 216. Sheltered by the valley in a way the harbour never is.
Wairarapa & Martinborough
Over the Rimutakas, and where a lot of Wellington couples end up when they want vines and a calmer forecast.
Wharekauhau Country Estate
Palliser Bay
Luxury lodge on 3,000 acres. Elopements for two through to a full buy-out.
Lacewood
South Wairarapa
A cathedral-scale barn for 200, a wooded glade, Italianate gardens and beds on site.
How to plan a Wellington day around it
Pick your ceremony site for shelter, not for the view
The view is still there from a sheltered spot. What you cannot recover is a ceremony where nobody heard the vows because the celebrant’s microphone was full of wind, or a bridal party that spent forty minutes holding their hair down. Ask every venue where their sheltered ceremony position is. The good ones answer immediately, because they get asked constantly.
Hair and veil decisions are wind decisions
This is the conversation to have with your stylist, not with us, but have it early. A veil in Wellington is a commitment. It can be the best frame of the day or forty minutes of somebody chasing it across a lawn. Both are fine outcomes as long as you chose one.
Northerly and southerly are different problems
A northerly is warm and relentless. A southerly is colder, often wetter, and arrives faster than the forecast suggests. Which one you get changes which side of a building you shoot on, and it is worth your photographer knowing the difference before the morning rather than working it out on the day.
Book a real indoor plan, then go outside anyway
Wellington weather moves. A blowing, grey 2pm frequently becomes a still, gold 6pm. The couples who get the best photographs are the ones whose timeline has fifteen flexible minutes in it, so that when the harbour goes calm and the light comes through, everybody can step outside for it.
What the wind actually gives you. The frames couples end up loving from a windy day are almost never the ones they were nervous about. A veil pulled horizontal, a jacket held shut, hair that refuses to behave — those read as a real day rather than a styled one. What the wind takes is the still, symmetrical, everything-in-its-place photograph. If that is the one you came for, book a sheltered ceremony site and shoot the portraits somewhere with a wall.
An Auckland team who shoots Wellington regularly
We photograph and film around five Wellington weddings a year. That is not enough to call ourselves locals, and we will not pretend otherwise — but it is enough to know which venues have a real indoor plan, which ceremony sites are sheltered, and how fast a southerly changes a timeline.
We fly down the day before rather than the morning of, and we shoot photo and film with one team so a narrow weather window is not being negotiated by two crews who have never met.
Before you book
Are you based in Wellington?
No. We are an Auckland team and we shoot around five Wellington weddings a year. We would rather say that plainly than imply we live there. What you get is a team that arrives the day before, knows the venues and the weather, and shoots photo and film together. What you do not get is someone who can visit your venue on a Tuesday — if that matters most to you, hire local and we will say so.
How bad is the wind, really?
Real, and worth planning around rather than fearing. Wellington averages more windy days than any other New Zealand city, and spring is the worst of it. But it moves fast: a blowing grey afternoon often becomes a still golden evening. Plan a sheltered ceremony, keep fifteen flexible minutes in the timeline, and the wind becomes a feature rather than a problem.
What is the best time of year for a Wellington wedding?
Late summer into autumn — February through April — is the most settled and the most reliable for light. December and January are warm but busier and often windier. Spring is the least predictable in both wind and rain. Winter is genuinely underrated for indoor city venues like Te Papa or the InterContinental, where the weather stops mattering.
Do you cover the Wairarapa and Martinborough?
Yes. A lot of Wellington couples end up over the Rimutakas for vines and a calmer forecast, and the drive is about an hour and a quarter. Wharekauhau, The Runholder, Tirohana and Lacewood are all on our list.
Do you charge travel from Auckland?
Travel is quoted with your package before you book, never added afterwards. Flying down the night before is built in as standard — it is the only way to scout your ceremony site in real conditions.
Do you film as well as photograph?
Both, with one team. In Wellington that matters more than usual: when a weather window opens you want one crew who already agreed the plan, not two negotiating it on a windy terrace. See wedding films.
What happens if the weather is bad on the day?
We shoot it, and we watch for the break. What we will not do is sit still waiting for perfect conditions. Before the day you will have both a wet-weather version of your timeline and a fast-response plan for when the sky clears — because in Wellington it usually does.
Worried about the wind? We wrote the guide we wished existed — Wellington wind by month and direction, and fourteen photo locations rated for shelter in a northerly and in a southerly. Read Wellington weddings and the wind.