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The Best Matakana Wedding Venues – Vineyards, Gardens, Barns and more

Posted on by Megan Hutchison

If you’ve just started wedding planning, consider one of Matakana’s beautiful wedding venues. Whether you’re planning a small and intimate elopement or a large wedding for your ‘big day’, Matakana has some of Hibiscus Coast’s most beautiful vineyard and garden venues for your both your ceremony and reception.

Grab your wedding planner book and visit some of these beautiful Matakana wedding venues – take note about everything you love, and have a look at the Matakana elopement and weddings we’ve featured.

1. Stables Matakana

A Matakana wedding venue with a unique country charm, Stables is a great all-seasons place. Versatile spaces for your ceremony, and a stunning dining room overlooking the beautiful rural Matakana landscape, Stables is a fabulous choice. Macrocarpa beams, modern rustic fittings and vintage furniture give the venue a timeless, charismatic charm. Run by a team of hospitality professionals with collective decades of experience, Stables Matakana can also help you plan and organise your wedding.

2. Plume Restaurant

In the rolling hills of Matakana lies Plume Restaurant. Surrounded by beautiful vines, Plume is a modern award-winning restaurant and boasts some of the areas finest wines. Plume is in a secluded spot where you will enjoy the very essence of New Zealand landscapes. The venue is in a secluded area on the stunning Matakana Wine Trail, while right off the restaurant, the expansive lawn area overlooks the surrounding countryside and enjoys all day sunshine. The perfect backdrop for your special day.

3. Tawharanui Lodge

Just 10 minutes out of Matakana Village and Omaha Beach is Tawharanui Lodge wedding venue. Situated in Christian Bay surrounded by park like grounds and only a short 2km drive to the picturesque Tawharanui Beach, it’s a fantastic all-inclusive venue with accommodation for up to 14. Dependable service is at the foundation of every great Tawharanui Lodge event, and clients can choose from the wedding planning services available or customise their own. With five double en-suite lodge rooms and two villas boasting private balconies over looking the estuary, noone will want to leave.

It’s also an affordable wedding venue, with venue hire $2000 reducing to $1000 if all accommodation is booked.

4. Ascension Wine Estate

A long-time favourite of ours, Ascension Wine Estate is an award winning estate and wedding venue. The venue has been refined to host your ceremony, photos, canapes and reception all at one incredible location. Each aspect is designed to offer privacy & luxury. With 3 outdoor and 2 indoor ceremony locations as well as a large capacity reception room of up to 220 guests, you will find the ideal area for your wedding. Read more and see photos of Ascension Wine Estate in an earlier article.

5. Matakana Estate

An exclusive venue offering intimate luxury, stunning views and a wide range of backdrops for photographs, Matakana Estate is one of the area’s newest premier wedding venues. With accommodation on offer too, the bridal party can spend the night before the wedding and then get ready in style overlooking the beautiful vineyard.

The wedding ceremony and reception are all held on the grounds surrounding the lodge, and Matakana Estate work in conjunction with a marquee company that offers multiple choices dependent on the number of guests coming to share your special day with you.  

6. Sculptureum

Sculptureum is an incredibly unique, one-stop shop to creating a lifetime of lasting memories – not to mention the endless photo opportunities! Set amongst three grand sculpture-filled gardens and an award-winning vineyard, you can host your ceremony with a view atop the vineyard, overlooking Little Barrier Island or anywhere else on the versatile 25acre property, before sitting down for a delectable reception dinner from Rothko Restaurant.

7. Matakana Speakeasy Barn Door

Matakana’s DIY ‘barn’ wedding venue, the Barn Door + Speakeasy is a fabulous place for a Dry-Hire wedding. Suitable for up to 100 guests, the Speakeasy bar, outdoor pergola and surrounding garden are all included, as well as the rustic barn. From champagne and light canapés to full course seated dining with wait staff, with venue hire for $5,500 it could be just the place for your small to medium wedding.

If you’re planning to have a ‘dry-hire’ venue, of course there is more work involved, and it can be easy to blow the wedding budget, so make sure you stay organised with your little white book wedding planner and the wedding planning pack.

If you’re still searching for the right area to get married, also consider Kumeu Wedding Venues and see How to Choose your Auckland Wedding Venue.

Check out this Whangateau wedding (just up the road from Matakana) with a $100 venue!

& this beautiful same-sex elopement in Matakana!

Matakana Elopement Same Sex

Bohemian Rustic Whangateau Wedding (with a $100 reception venue!)

Posted on by Megan Hutchison

Today’s wedding is a little bit AMAZING! (In fact, I’m slightly obsessed!). A beautiful blend of bohemian and rustic with classic elements, Adam + Ellen hired and prettied a small hall as their wedding reception (love the idea of replacing hall memorabilia with beautiful written words!) and it cost them a $100 hire fee per day, BOOM! (town halls are where it’s at for saving mulah!). Oh, and it features on of my fave wedding dresses of all time, the much coveted Frankie dress from Made With Love Bridal. A big thank you to the gorgeous couple and Kirsty Peta Stone Photography for sharing this fab love story with us!

Who Adam John Wilburn + Ellen Grace Wilburn
Where Whangateau Hall (ceremony + reception). Getting ready house in Matakana.
Guests 100

Our love story began…

Over 11 years ago at a mutual friend’s party when we were both spring chickens. It was the first time I met most of the friends we now share today. Adam plucked up some dutch courage and offered me a gourmet meal of 2-minute noodles which I politely refused and we skirted around each other as great friends for a few years until I finally gave in to Adams persistent nature. We have now been together 11 years and the rest is pretty much history. In those 11 years, we have travelled to 22 countries, fallen in love with the world, managed a long-distance relationship and bought and sold our first home.

I said yes… On my birthday, making it hard to forget. Adam took me away to Whangamata for the weekend where his family have a holiday home. He suggested we go for a picnic lunch at the beach. In a tongue and cheek manner I slightly teased him for this romantic gesture as it wasn’t his usual way. Needless to say, this probably made him even more nervous. After being at the beach for a while he rolled over on the picnic blanket, box in hand and simply said “I have another birthday surprise for you, will you marry me?”. It was perfect, relaxed, low key, in our favourite spot with no one around.

Our wedding style inspiration… Was a mixture of sorts, we drew inspiration initially from the colour palette of the wedding invitations I designed and we went from there. We had touches of bohemian, classic, and rustic aspects all tied in to one.

We saved by… Hiring the hall for both the ceremony and reception. At $100 a day you can’t really go wrong. We also included a lot of DIY elements. The invitation suite, banner backdrop, signage and painted wall boxes were all done by myself. My wedding shoes were a $40 sale bargain and we set the entire day up ourselves meaning no need for a stylist. All the furniture including the ceremony screen and boho chair were all borrowed from my Mums company so this saved us big time and my sister and law and bridesmaid who runs Sage and Ivy was a big help with the flowers also. We also had friends lend us the festoon lights which made such a big impact when dressing the hall and bought wholesale alcohol which we could bring to the venue.

We splurged on…The food, we had quite a number of guests so this can push the price up but you don’t want guests going hungry and I love to cook so food was very important to us.

Our advice to engaged couples is… Do it for you and no one else. It is your day and you need to ensure you enjoy every moment of it. The idea of marriage is being a team, for us it is sharing food with the other human, sitting in the car for 10 minutes contemplating which café to go to, being the ultimate team at concerts together, seeing the world, putting on your old track pants and watching a Sunday film. It’s all about appreciating life’s little beauties as well as the big accomplishments as they all shape you as a couple.

CREDITS

Photographer Kirsty Peta Stone Photography
Planner/Stylist
 The bride,  Ellen Robertson Design
Flowers  Buds & Bows – Family Friend (Hall & Ceremony Arrangements) and Sage & Ivy (Brass Vases)
Venue Whangateau Hall ($100 a day!)
Catering Pits Kitchen
Macramé Hanging Two Foxes Styling & Prop Hire
Furniture Hire Mayon Importing (My Mums company, we were very lucky to be able to borrow the ceremony screen, bohemian chair and other decoration details for the day.
Stationery + Signage
 All by the bride Ellen Robertson Design
Makeup Makeup by Meags
Hair Robyn Munro of Inspired Hair
Cake Family friend
Celebrant Family friend Keri Edley
Brides Dress Made With Love Bridal (Frankie Dress)
Brides Earrings Picked up in Jaipur India
Brides Hair Clips Mignonne Handmade
Brides Veil Floral Jewellery
Brides Shoes Rubi Shoes
Couples Custom Jacket Patches  Ellen Robertson Design
Bridesmaid Dresses Kookai + Maurie & Eve + Zara
Bridal/Bridesmaid Robes Sage & Ivy
Grooms Suit, Shoes + Tie Barkers
Groomsmen Pants + Ties ASOS
Brides Custom Engagement Ring Culet Diamonds
Brides Custom Wedding Band Jewellery By Grae
Grooms Ring Walker & Hall
Transport Warkworth Party Hire
Music Audio Club 

A Super Stylish Matakana Elopement by Jodie C Photography

Posted on by Megan Hutchison

I’m not even sure where to begin with today’s Matakana elopement. Tanille + Kristy are super stylish, simply stunning and sooooo in love, that every pic is just PERFECTION! I have been waiting oh so patiently (nearly 6 years in fact) to feature a bride wearing a white tuxe on her wedding day, so today all my Christmases have come at once with not one, but two brides rocking drop dead gorgeous custom-made kit, and each in their own unique way. Of course, as always, Jodie C Photography knocked it out of the park with these images, so I won’t keep you any longer from falling in love with this elopement, also perfect wedding inspiration for the style savvy couple! Enjoy xox

 Who Tanille Elley + Kristy Holt
Where Matakana, New Zealand
Guests None!

Our love story started…

Just over 2 years go after a love at first sight moment on Anzac Day 2014. Through use of facebook & mutual friends… we had the courage to contact each other by early July 2014…

The proposal happened when…

TJ asked KH to return to the same little local coffee shop where we shared our first date. KH didn’t realise it was exactly one year from our first date. KH also didn’t understand why they had to meet for breakfast, travelling in two separate cars, when they lived under the same roof, but didn’t ask any questions. TJ arrived at the café with a bunch of flowers and a little letter. The letter said it all, except the four words, ‘will you marry me?’, which TJ mustered up the courage to ask when KH was at the last sentence of the letter…..Selecting a ring for an artist and designer was impossible, so TJ’s florist made a little pink ring from wire and ribbon, which did the trick while two matching black triangular diamonds were sourced (which took months!).

Our inspiration for the day was.

Our day, in the least selfish way possible, was about us, our feelings for each other, and the goals we have together. Because of this, we chose to elope. There was absolutely no distraction from the meaning of the day, and it couldn’t have been more filled with love and laughter. IN fact, it’s hard to find photos in which we aren’t throwing our heads back in joy, enjoying the day, enjoying each other, and excited at the life we have ahead of us.

What was the hardest thing about eloping?…

We had to source everything we needed online… Celebrant, Chef, Photographer, Hair and Makeup Artist, and Florist. There was no opportunity for trials or face to face meetings, so we just had to trust our gut feeling. the hardest part was keeping it all a sceret! TJ’S mum has keys to our house and often calls in… we always had to be scrambling to hide any research including material samples, tourist info on NZ & Matakana, air flight tickets etc..!!

Our advice to engaged couples is…

You can have all the ‘bells and whistles’ without the long guest list!

CREDITS

Photographer Jodie C Photography
Flowers, Corsage + Wreath Twig & Bloom, Matakana
Stationery Postcard Announcing Our Elopement from Vistaprint
Venue Matakana 360, Matakana, NZ
Catering + Cake Mark Townsend at iCATER
Signage Lightbox DIY +  ‘Mrs & Mrs’ Letters from TYPO
Hair & Makeup Paige Best
Celebrant Linden Louise Cowen (lindenlouise@gmail.com)
Rings Paul Carruthers Manufacturing Jewellers
Brides Outfits One Piece Playsuit + Coats custom made by Gail from Stitches Dressmaking,  NSW, Australia
Accessories Alison Jackson “XO” Earrings purchased from Studio Melt, NSW Australia
Fabric Tessuti Fabrics, Surry Hills, NSW, Australia
Tie + Bowtie Custom made by Gail from Stitches Dressmaking, NSW, Australia
Fabric Spoonflower
Brand Bride Tanks Private Party
Lingerie Simone Perele + Calvin Klein
Shoes Wanted Shoe Co.

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