HOW IT WORKS
Booking your elopement is simple directly via our website with only a $110 deposit including GST required to secure your date and get the ball rolling. Our elopements are the simplest way to organise a wedding with minimal time needed on your end. We help you through the entire process which starts with selecting from one of our local celebrants. They then get in touch with you and organise the ceremony and legal side with you directly.
You must meet with your celebrant at least 1 month out from the day to fill out the Notice of Intended Marriage paperwork. Your celebrant will also get to know you both and discuss your vows and other details of the ceremony. We also suggest visiting the location at the same time as meeting the celebrant. If you happen to live far away this meeting can be done over zoom though.
We handle everything on the day so you just need to get yourself there and organise your outfits and rings. Every elopement gets a floral backdrop for your ceremony thanks to our friends at Thirty3 Events. We set this up away from the picnic setup but at the same location. It is a small 100 metre walk to our location but there are some knee high ledges to step down and uneven footing but it is rare for even elderly or disabled people to be unable to access the location.
As soon as you’ve booked in we can provide the directions to the location, if you’re worried about access for any of your guests we suggest visiting the spot so you can see it first hand. We also cannot provide seating for the ceremony due to the sandstone rock escarpment not being level so any guests will need to stand during the ceremony. However if this is difficult for anyone such as elderly guests you’re welcome to bring your own chair or similar for them. We can always switch to a more suitable location if needed but suggest booking in like normal and visiting the location first before making the decision to change venues. PLEASE NOTE: Changing locations from our normal spot incurs a $500 + GST fee (the same as the weekday picnic fee although if already on a weekday this isn’t charged twice) to cover the additional time and logistics involved with a one off setup. Particularly as we normally do back to back bookings plus have another spot nearby running with our normal picnics and are unable to operate like this when doing a one off setup.
We set everything up and leave prior to the ceremony starting with only our celebrant and professional photographer staying during the elopement. Once the ceremony is completed and you have had photos with any guests both the celebrant and photographer leave so you can enjoy the picnic side with your guests. You’re more than welcome to bring anyone you would like but we do have a 20 guest capacity.
We provide our normal picnic setup which has been designed around couples. Due to the nature of the location there isn’t enough room or level ground to setup more equipment, tables, chairs or similar to accommodate seating for all guests. (Remember this is an elopement not a wedding!) The bride and groom will be able to sit down and enjoy the picnic setup if they wish but we find most people stay standing while mingling with their guests. There are plenty of spots to sit and guests can sit on the pillows from the setup. We can supply enough food or drinks to accommodate all guests and work this out on a case by case basis for each elopement. We can also organise catering on request.
The duration of the elopement is 2 hours from the start of the ceremony to the finish of the picnic. As we do back to back picnics at multiple locations we do need to be firm with the start/finish times if this is the case but are happy to be a bit more flexible if we’re able. However we do find 2 hours is the perfect amount of time for our picnics. We’re also happy to accommodate any special requests or specific types of food or alcohol you would like. We can also do elopements on a week day for an additional fee of $500 + GST to accommodate the extra time needed for a one off picnic however we can be more flexible in start time and duration during the week.
We can also give you great suggestions for restaurants, accommodation, bush walks and more which we’ve actually experienced for ourselves. Most people go for dinner after the ceremony either up here or back in their own local area. We provide your photos within 72 hours of the ceremony via a Google Drive link but normally sooner than this. The final step is us posting your marriage certificates and getting some feedback.
