• Here in Aotearoa we are lucky to have very sensible laws around marriage. Getting married has been wrenched away from being a religious monopoly to being something wonderful and available to any loving couple. (over the age of eighteen) Here at Olive and Bloom we would be delighted to help you to celebrate your relationship now that you have decided to be married. So, without any more blather, what do you do next?

    1/ (most important) choose who you are going to marry. It's always wise to get their agreement :)

    2/ Choose who is going to marry you. e.g. choose me!.

Do you want a registry style wedding? Once upon a time, you could pop down to the local registry office and an official would perform a wedding ceremony right there and then! You still had to have a license and witnesses. Nothing dodgy about it at all. There are no longer registry offices. So instead, you can request a registry wedding and choose a celebrant. It must be within ten km of their place and there is a standard format and script. It takes about ten minutes.. The price is fixed by DIA at $95-.

BUT if you are in haste there is another solution. You can go to a place like Boutique Barn, and choose their elopement package starting at $1500-. It is a very nice rural location. You can have a nice celebrant and a few friends.

OR you can come here to my place. Also a nice rural location. We do not do overnight stays or sit down meals. Our package includes a welcome for you and your friends (two to six) For just $495-

  • The best thing to do now is head over to the department of Internal Affairs and apply for a marriage license. You may need to have your birth certificates, passports, stuff like that, handy.

    Start here: https://www.govt.nz/organisations/births-deaths-and-marriages/



    Wedding steps graphic


    You will notice that even at this early stage, you are asked for the name of your proposed celebrant. You can put my name in there. John McConnell. You can change to anyone else if you wish. But for now this is so that DIA can send stuff to the celebrant. They know where to find me.

    There is an option to ask for a copy of the marriage certificate. I recommend you tick that box now. It is way easier than applying for it later.

    We need a proposed date. Try to nail it down to a specific date so your friends and I will know when to attend.

    It is a really good idea to meet. You should really vet a few celebrants, rather like a job interview and choose one you are comfortable with. All celebrants here in Aotearoa NZ are vetted closely by DIA and VCANZ  celebrants have a strict code of conduct to follow. Look for the VCANZ symbol as a sign of quality. All celebrants are listed by DIA and you can lookup anyone their web site. Look for the VCANZ symbol and perhaps even the celebrants qualifications. My entry on that page looks like this:

    Find me at Dept of internal affairs web page

    Your celebrant will organise a backup in case they get run over on their way to your wedding.

    OK, let's say you have chosen me. Thank you very much. I will arrange a meeting to get some more detail of what you wish your wedding to be like. You can literally do anything you like. You could both be standing the backs of live crocodiles if you REALLY want to do that.

    But you get my drift. I can talk through various options with you. Scale back your more outrageous or perhaps actually dangerous or illegal proposals and suggest some you may like to consider.

    You will probably wish to write your own vows. I will need to see them and be sure that they meet the very simple requirements. Basically your are not allowed to simply say "I do" to my question and bingo you are married. You must say "I (your name) take you ( their name) to be my lawful wedded wife/husband etc." OR words to that effect.

    Google/Bing etc. is wonderful. You can see loads of other peoples weddings, watch videos and read or listen to their vows. You will soon realise that the world is your oyster.

    I could give you a template now but really we are not planning your whole wedding here and now.

    So ask for a meeting, give me a call, email or what ever.

    We can have a chat and you will have taken the first step. You are on your way.

    But how? That old phone that sits on the kitchen bench: 09 4211753

    The modern thing in my pocket: 0274 533 907 OR 0800 222 812

    email: john@ccat.co.nz