Wanaka has long been a popular wedding destination but wedding planning requires certainty and that’s been in short supply during the COVID-19 restrictions. To counter this, local operators in the wedding industry have joined forces to form the Wanaka Wedding Collective.

Pre-COVID, over 1,400 weddings were held each year in the district, local wedding planner Samantha Stout estimates. 

“This thriving industry supported over 150 direct suppliers, 500 jobs, and boosted the local accommodation and hospitality industry in both summer and winter seasons,” she said, but moving in and out of COVID alert levels had caused a degree of hesitation in wedding planning for many people.

The collective is applying innovative thinking to continue to market the local district to potential brides and grooms. 

“The power of our collective skills, passion and knowledge is immense. It seemed logical to take a proactive and joint approach to actively market Wanaka as a wedding destination in the near future and beyond,” Samantha said. 

The initiative is backed by Lake Wānaka Tourism and the Queenstown Lakes District Council, both of which acknowledge the significant contribution this industry brings to the region, Samantha said.

“The new collective means planning and booking a wedding has never been easier or more integrated. Given we are long-time locals and very experienced at running weddings in our town, the change in the environment has just provided another opportunity for us to streamline how we work together and work with our clients.” 

Getting the suppliers around the table also means we can encourage one another to offer the most favourable COVID related postponement policies to ensure we are looking after our couples the best we can in these uncertain times.”

The Wanaka Wedding Collective will host an annual wedding fair in Wanaka and this year things will be a little different, Samantha said. 

A digital wedding fair will be run online on Sunday October 25 to showcase all that the Wanaka wedding community has to offer. It will also feature a live broadcast from a small pop-up “wedding fair” at Rippon Vineyard which will be filmed from 10:00am to 11:00am and the live stream will remain on the collective’s website after the fair as an open digital event.

The pop-up fair, which will operate from 11:00am-2:00pm, is open to the public and free of charge.

Online registrations are available here.

PHOTO: Supplied