Wellington Weddings and the Wind

This is about Wellington, New Zealand — the capital, on Cook Strait. Not Wellington, Florida. Not Wellington, Ontario. You know which one you meant; the search results do not.

I shoot out of Auckland and travel for weddings, and Wellington is the one city where the first question a couple asks me 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 my best frames were taken in wind — a veil pulled horizontal is a photograph, where a perfectly still veil is a dress detail.

The wind data, plainly

NIWA records an annual mean of 25.8 km/h at Wellington Airport, with 166 days a year gusting at or above gale force (63 km/h) and 24 days above 96 km/h. MetService puts the gale figure at 178 days. Either way, roughly one day in two.

The number that matters more is a different one. Within the same region, NIWA records 36.1 km/h at Baring Head and 9.1 km/h at Wallaceville in the Hutt — same weather systems, four times the wind. Shelter beats geography, and that contrast is what this guide is built on.

Wind by month and direction

Monthly means are from WeatherSpark’s reanalysis — indicative, not station-observed. Trust the shape of the year, not the decimal place.

The two winds behave completely differently, and this is the part nobody explains.

A northerly is the default, dominant about eleven months of the year. It funnels down Cook Strait and pushes south down the harbour: warm, dry, persistent, building through the afternoon. It hits the waterfront, Oriental Bay and every exposed ridge.

A southerly is the interruption — off the Southern Ocean, cold, often wet, fast-arriving, hitting the south coast at Island Bay, Lyall Bay and Red Rocks first. Most likely late June to mid-July.

They fail in opposite places. That is the opportunity.

What wind actually does, and what fixes it

Veils and hair. Both are sails. Own section below — it is the decision that matters most.

Dresses. Chiffon and organza lift; structured crepe, satin and mikado do not. Already bought chiffon? Fine — your frames will be movement frames.

Arbours and arches. These go over. Stake it, weight it, or use a fixed structure; the Botanic Garden pergolas and Remembrance Ridge have one built in.

Florals and signage. Low, dense, wide-based. Greenery over blooms. Sandbag easel legs or mount signs flat on a wall.

Marquees. An engineering decision, not a styling one. Wellington City Council bans them outright at Cockayne Lawn and allows them at the Dell only October to March.

Vows. The most underrated one. Wind noise buries an unamplified voice at a few metres — guests will not hear you and neither will my recorder. Lapel mics on both of you and a small PA.

Candles. No. Drone. Most consumer drones are rated to roughly 10 m/s sustained and gusts ground them — a bonus, never a paid deliverable.

Hair and veils: the decision that matters most

Mechanics rather than product names, because I photograph hair, I do not style it.

What holds is anchoring, not product. An updo pinned into a secured base holds. A half-up style with loose lengths does not — the loose part whips across the face, lands over the eyes, and lands there in every frame.

The veil question is really about when. A veil in wind photographs beautifully for about three minutes and is a problem for the rest of the day. Wear it through the ceremony and the first ten minutes of portraits, then take it off — you get the veil shots and the rest of your photos.

If you want it longer, a short veil with a weighted hem on a comb pinned into a secured updo is the combination I see survive. Long, light, single-layer tulle on a clip does not. Cathedral length in 40 km/h is a rescue operation, not a photograph.

Bring pins and a brush, put one person in charge of them, and say “Wellington” and “outdoors” at the hair trial rather than on the day.

Ceremony setup

Face into the wind. Counter-intuitive, correct. Your hair blows back off your face rather than across it, and guests get the wind at their backs. Every photo looks intentional instead of dishevelled.

Put the arbour downwind so it is not carrying load, and stake it regardless. Seat guests in a tight horseshoe — bodies block wind, it is warmer, and it puts more faces near you. Use a PA and keep it short; twenty minutes outdoors in wind is generous, so move long readings to the reception.

Indoor and sheltered ceremonies

Old St Paul’s is the obvious answer and the right one — timber interior, warm light, complete shelter, photographs well in any weather. Zealandia’s indoor spaces give you bush without exposure. Wellington Museum, the Cable Car Museum and City Gallery all work and are bookable through the Council. Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush is not indoors, but its valley floor is the closest thing to a windless outdoor room.

Photo locations rated for shelter

This is my working judgement from the landforms — which hill blocks which direction — not published data, because nobody publishes it. Check it against the forecast direction on the day.

Note Oriental Bay and Red Rocks — near-exact opposites. On a northerly the south coast is calm and the harbour unusable; on a southerly it flips. Keep one of each on your list and you always have somewhere to go.

When to move, and when to go with it

Wind is not rain. Rain makes people miserable and gear wet. Wind mostly makes people laugh, and it makes photographs move.

Move it if: sustained winds above about 40 km/h with gusts above 60, an exposed site, elderly guests or small children, or a setup that depends on anything freestanding.

Go with it if: under 30 km/h, any windbreak at all, and a PA. Face into it, keep it short, let the photos be what they are.

The middle is a judgement call — make it at 8am on the day, not the week before. Wellington wind builds through the afternoon, so a still morning tells you nothing about a 4pm ceremony.

The Wairarapa alternative

An hour over the Remutaka Hill, the Wairarapa sits in the lee of the Tararua Range: warmer, drier and meaningfully calmer than the coast. It is why the Martinborough vineyards are there. If wind is your dominant worry and you are not committed to the city, this is the answer.

One real caveat: SH2 over the Remutaka Hill closes in high winds. NZTA publishes those closures, and they land on exactly the day you would be trying to escape. If your ceremony is in Martinborough and half your guests are in Wellington, build a buffer and check NZTA Journey Planner that morning.

Permits and Council rules

Wellington Botanic Garden. Ceremony spaces — the Dell, Magpie Lawn, Remembrance Ridge, the Rose Garden, the Herb Garden, the Duck Pond — are bookable through Wellington City Council. Wedding, engagement and family photography sessions also need a booking, via the Council’s outdoor event booking request form, allowing three working days for a response. Session fees are not published.

Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush. Cockayne Lawn is $113 per hour for up to 50 people, non-refundable once confirmed. No marquees, gazebos or awnings. No electricity, no vehicle access, no confetti, petals, rice or glitter. Maximum 20 spike-free chairs on the lawn. No wet-weather alternative.

Parks and reserves generally. WCC publishes no standalone commercial wedding-photography fee. For anything beyond a small couple shoot — setups, lighting, vehicles, large groups — contact the Council and get the answer in writing.

Filming. Screen Wellington handles film permits across Wellington city, Porirua, both Hutts, Kāpiti and the Wairarapa: free, five to seven working days, with location fees at some sites since 1 July 2025. It is built for production rather than wedding stills, but if you are running a video crew, ask them. Regional parks — East Harbour, Belmont, Queen Elizabeth — sit with Greater Wellington Regional Council under a separate concession process.

Rules and fees change. All of this was current at the time of writing; confirm before you commit.

Where these numbers came from

The annual mean, the gale-day count and the Baring Head/Wallaceville contrast are from NIWA’s The Climate and Weather of Wellington. The 178-day gale figure is MetService’s and disagrees with NIWA’s 166 — both are quoted here rather than quietly picking one. Monthly means come from WeatherSpark reanalysis, converted and rounded, which is why they are labelled indicative. The Council fees are from Wellington City Council’s own venue pages at the time of writing. The shelter ratings in the table are mine, reasoned from landforms, and are the one part of this guide with no source behind them — if a Wellington local tells you otherwise about a specific spot, believe them over me.

Send us the date and venue

We will tell you what the wind is likely doing at your ceremony time and which of the locations above will still work on the day. Photography and video run as one team on one timeline rather than three. See Wellington weddings or what the packages include.

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