Joelle and Dylan Tie the Knot in New Zealand

**Travel info. For those of you asking, here’s how we did it:

Budget, budget, budget. My dad gave us $12k for our wedding and the rest was up to us to budget and save. Venus in the U.S. we’re like $10-$20k alone so we knew that was out. We also knew we loved the scenery and wanted to travel.

We got 30% more for the USD in NZ so the prices were less for us.

We tracked flights and set up notifications for when they went on sale. Instead of booking flights into NZ we found it was cheaper to book into Australia. So we actually had a pre-honeymoon travel route throughout AUS and NZ South Island.

We got roundtrip flights for $700 vs $1500 because we flew into Aus.

I also set up tracking for a few friends and family members so we could notify them when prices dropped. Our friends got the same deal we did and flew out of Dallas which was 3 hours from where we lived in Louisiana.

We knew our family/ friends would be spending a lot on flights so we wanted to help them make the trip worthwhile and a little more affordable. We booked a large Airbnb villa for them all to stay in for three nights and the rest of the trip was up to them.

For the travel part: We gave a budget to a travel agency called First Light Travel that’s native to Australia and New Zealand. The travel agency gets paid by local hotels, excursions, etc so you don’t pay for the work they do. They also know the land and how to find the best deals etc. So they got us around Australia and then to NZ for the wedding.

I told them a few places we wanted to go and they sent me an itinerary, I revised it and they sent another so that took out a huge amount of time for me.

For the wedding, When I was googling New Zealand weddings I stumbled upon some photos in the mountains. Those are by a company called Heili flight if I remember correctly. I found out this estate called Stoneridge does package deals with the Heili flight.

I booked the estate’s Remembrance package which included the reception dinner and then paid for some floral add-ons separately.

The package is like 20k or something, but we didn’t pay that amount because that was in NZ dollars. We paid $12k or something. The total trip was around $20k for three weeks of travel, an Airbnb for our family for 3 nights, our wedding, little reception shared appetizers in town, flights for us, and we traveled all across NZ and Aus.

Sooooo worth It!

Joelle Moorman and Dylan Cullimore - USA

First Published by Joelle on the Girls LOVE Travel Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/GirlsLOVETravel/permalink/2028042130873433/    

New Zealand Honeymoon Itinerary Ideas

Less than 7 days 
Maximise your time by focusing on one island. 
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8-14 days 
Fly and drive: break up your journey with flights between major cities and between the North and South Island 
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15-21 days 
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21+ days 
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Spoil yourselves even further with a few days with a Pacific Island getaway to break up your journey home! 
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