Frequently Asked Questions

An elopement package is full-service. It can include planning and coordination, a licensed marriage celebrant, the ceremony location, wedding photography, videography, and hair and makeup. A heli-wedding elopement adds the helicopter flight to an alpine landing site.

Not every couple wants the full package. We also offer pre-wedding shoots without a celebrant, and wedding-day photo and video where another planner runs the day and we focus purely on the images.

Elopement packages start from NZ$4,690. Heli-weddings cost more depending on the aircraft, flight time, and number of landing sites. We quote every booking individually, so the price reflects what you actually want rather than a fixed bundle.

See the full package overview.

Prices are GST inclusive. The figure on your quotation is the figure you pay, with no GST added on top.

A heli-wedding flies you to an alpine peak or glacier for the ceremony. A ground elopement uses car-accessible locations such as Deer Park Heights, Coronet Peak, or Moke Lake. Both include the same core services. The altitude is the difference.

The alpine landing sites, including Cecil Peak, Earnslaw Burn, Lake Erskine, Coromandel Peak, and the glaciers, are helicopter-only. There is no road up, so driving to them instead is not an option.

Yes. Eloping does not mean celebrating alone. Ground locations can host up to 15 guests, and for heli-weddings you can charter additional helicopters so guests fly up with you, quoted per aircraft when you book. Tell us your numbers in the enquiry and we will plan around them.

Mostly, yes. You are welcome to add or remove items from a package to suit you, with one exception: photography stays with us, since it is the core of what we do. Some couples bring their own pastor or priest instead of one of our celebrants, and some fly in their personal makeup artist from out of town.

Approved overtime is NZ$575 per hour or part thereof. We confirm any overtime in writing before it starts. It depends on team and pilot availability and on aviation flight-time limits, so we cannot always say yes on the day.

Preview photos arrive within 5 working days, and the full set of photos and film within six to eight weeks. During peak wedding season, November to April, this can extend to ten weeks. Delivery dates are estimates rather than fixed guarantees, and if it runs longer we keep you updated with a revised delivery date.

We do, entirely in-house. Our shooting team are full-time, not freelancers: Tomomi, Ayaka, and James, the owner, who is currently in Japan running Nomad Weddings Japan. Every photo and film on this website is our own work. Keeping it in-house matters most on the mountain tops, where time is short and one team moving together gets more done than separate vendors competing for angles.

Helicopter operators, celebrants, hair and makeup artists, and florists are external specialists we arrange on your behalf, so you still have a single point of contact for the whole day.

We use the same editing workflow and presets for every couple. The real differences in how photos look come from the season, the time of day, the weather, and the location. The golden light you see in parts of our portfolio mostly comes from autumn and winter, or from late summer evenings around 9pm, rather than from a filter.

We do not cap the number. We deliver the full edited set that does justice to your day, with a minimum of 250 images for half-day coverage. We do not individually guarantee specific shots, so if a particular moment matters to you, tell us in writing at least 7 days before the wedding and we will prioritise it where the day allows.

RAW files stay with Nomad unless we agree otherwise in writing. You receive the finished, edited images and film, which is the work you booked us for.

Nomad retains copyright. That covers two things: we remain the recognised authors of the images, the people who took them, and we hold the underlying rights to the work. Separately, every couple is granted a licence to use their own wedding photos for personal use. We also use selected images for our portfolio, website, and marketing. If you ever have a genuine privacy or safety concern about a specific image, tell us in writing and we will address it.

If you booked videography, one revision is included, covering up to 10 clip adjustments such as replacing, trimming, removing, or re-ordering clips. Changes to music, titles, pacing, colour grading, or effects are charged separately. Editing and colour grading are our creative call, which is part of why you chose us.

You can ask for a particular style or mood and we will match it. We cannot use copyrighted commercial music in your film, so if you have a specific song in mind, we will find something with the same feel instead.

We keep your files for 12 months from the date of delivery. Retrieval after that period is not guaranteed and may carry an archive fee, so please download and back up your gallery as soon as you receive it.

Yes. There is no residency or citizenship requirement, so any couple can marry here on a tourist visa. The legal process is the same for visitors as it is for locals: you apply for the licence online, we provide the registered celebrant, and the ceremony happens wherever you name on the licence. Same-sex marriage has been legal and fully recognised since 2013.

We cover the whole process in detail in our guide to marrying in New Zealand as a foreigner.

No special visa is needed, and there is no marriage-specific permit. Citizens of visa-waiver countries, including Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and most of Europe, can marry here on a standard visitor entry.

Most visa-waiver travellers do still need to request an NZeTA travel authority online before flying, which is also where the NZ$100 International Visitor Levy is paid. Australians on Australian passports need neither. Check your situation at immigration.govt.nz.

A valid passport each, and a New Zealand marriage licence applied for through the Department of Internal Affairs. If either of you has been married before, you also need a dissolution order, or a death certificate for a former spouse who has died. There are no embassy affidavits, no certified translations, and no government office queues to work through.

One of you applies online through the Department of Internal Affairs. It takes about ten minutes, and the licence is issued within three working days, arriving by email as a PDF that you print and hand to your celebrant. It costs NZ$158, and you can add the official certificate for NZ$35 at the same step.

The licence is valid for three months, so apply no sooner than three months out and no later than three working days before the day. Couples who both live outside New Zealand complete BDM Form 58 rather than the standard online form. With Form 58, the statutory declaration is witnessed at a New Zealand consulate or High Commission beforehand, or signed at a BDM office once you arrive in the country. We tell you which form applies to you when you book.

Yes. New Zealand law lets you marry at any location named on your licence, whether that is a mountain summit, a glacier, a remote valley, or a lakeside. You list the spot on the application, and an approximate name such as Coromandel Peak, Wanaka is enough. Many countries restrict legal ceremonies to registered venues. New Zealand does not, which is the reason a heli-wedding is possible here at all.

No. Two witnesses aged 18 or over need to be present and sign the licence, and we sort that out as part of every package. On a helicopter elopement, the pilot and photographer sign as your legal witnesses. On a ground elopement, the photographer and planner sign. If you bring guests who would like to witness, they are welcome to.

A New Zealand marriage certificate is recognised internationally, and for many couples it is accepted at home with no further steps. Countries in the Hague Apostille Convention, including Japan, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and most of Europe, may need an apostille, which is applied for through the Department of Internal Affairs. A few countries outside the convention require full authentication instead. When you book, we walk you through what applies to your nationality so there are no surprises once you are home.

The government fees are small. The licence is NZ$158 and the official certificate is NZ$35, so the legal cost starts from around NZ$193. A celebrant is normally a separate fee, but it is already included in every Nomad package, so it is not something you pay on top.

You can, and the marriage is just as legal either way. A registry office wedding costs NZ$333 all up, a NZ$158 licence plus a NZ$175 registry ceremony fee, and it runs at the registry during weekday business hours, uses standard scripted vows, allows up to 20 guests, and lasts about half an hour. A celebrant ceremony, which every package includes, can take place anywhere in the country, on any day, with vows built around the two of you. Since the law already lets you marry anywhere, most of our couples would rather stand somewhere with a view.

Nomad Weddings has run from Queenstown since 2012, focused on heli-weddings and elopements for couples travelling from around the world.

We are a Sony Alpha Awards finalist and have been featured three times in Zexy, Japan’s leading bridal magazine.

A small team based physically in Queenstown, made up of planners, photographers, and videographers. Being on the ground here is a real advantage: we know the roads, the landing sites, the light, and the way local weather moves, which vendors travelling in from out of town tend to learn on the day rather than before it.

Email [email protected] or use our contact form. We will reply from Queenstown.