Jacqui and Brendan contacted me from Wellington about planning an elopement up a mountain in Fiordland. They had only recently got engaged and found it such a hard time trying to get a date to suit all their friends and family they decided to just elope instead!
After falling in love on an overseas trip to Okavango Delta in Africa and exploring the world and having adventures together this sounded like the perfect way to start married life.
The plan was to Fly into Doubtful Sound with their parents and have the ceremony up the mountain before flying to a nearby waterfall for more photos.
The weather is fickle in Fiordland so we blocked out the entire weekend in case we couldn’t fly.
I arrived in Te Anau on Saturday morning to dramatic skies and rough weather in the mountains.
After looking at our options we decided to fly to a nearby creek to have the ceremony and would try to go into the mountains on the Sunday for portraits.
After getting ready at the Air BnB we whipped down to the Jetty in Te Anau to do a first look.
This is always one of my favourite moments of the day because it suddenly seems real that today is wedding day!!
Fiordland Helicopters flew us to the Waiau Creek.
We had the ceremony with Brendan and Jacqui’s parents. It was such a fun and laid - back ceremony that got interrupted by a flock of wild geese honking and 10,000 mosquitos ha-ha.
It was intimate and personal. The perfect spot to say their beautiful vows.
Once the rain started, we flew back to Te Anau to have a celebratory drink and plan for the next day.
Sunday morning was looking much better but Doubtful Sound was still not an option. Instead we flew into Lake Victory which was partially frozen over.
Mark warned us that we would be playing around in a foot of snow and he was not wrong!
I will never forget Jacqui’s face light up when she started having a snowball fight and the hilarious moment Brendan produced a little gift for her – possum fur nipple warmers!
We played in the snow and had a great time before flying to Jackson Peak that overlooks Lake Te Anau.
Popping some bubbly and having a first dance on top of the mountain was a glorious way to end this perfect weekend.
Thanks to the amazing team that made the weekend so magical
Heli: Fiordland Helicopters
Celebrant: Bronwyn Eason
Dress: Astra Bridal
Photography: Kiwi Captures Photography
"Brogan was the photographer we chose for our helicopter elopement in Fiordland. An elopement is super intimate and when having a wedding with such few people around, every single person is memorable.
Brogan fit right into the setting and was awesome, fun, friendly, kind and flexible. She completely understood what we were after. The couple of days we had with her (cause our wedding day wasn't the mountain wedding we hoped for, and we got to fly the next day too) was awesome.
She had us completely at ease and even took away the stress of coordinating with Fiordland Helicopters (who are also great) for us when the weather was looking dicey for our wedding day. The turnaround time was great and our photos and the album she put together for us were fantastic, of great quality and truly captured our day and what we were all about"
- Jacqui & Brendan
Enjoy this elopement? Check out some more Te Anau sessions here: