Planning a NZ Wedding From Overseas

Carrie and Jamie planned their New Zealand wedding while living in London. They married at Bay of Plenty venue ‘Old Forest School’ in February 2016, and booked some of their vendors two years out from their wedding day.

This included Carrie securing her makeup with me. I’m an award-winning Tauranga-based makeup artist and have served 350+ brides with custom wedding makeup. Carrie said she wanted her most important suppliers locked in early so she didn’t miss out. She also booked photographer Rambo Estrada. All images on this page are his work.

Carries feels the sand between her toes in her wedding dress on Pukehina Beach. Photos: Rambo Estrada

After the wedding, Carrie wrote about her makeup:

“It was a gamble booking a makeup artist from pics online only and I didn’t have my trial until three weeks pre-wedding. Despite the previous worry, Lillybeth was fast and responsive to all my questions and following my trial I was sure I’d made the right choice.”

You might feel booking your vendors without meeting them in person is a gamble. If you’re planning your New Zealand wedding from overseas and aren’t visiting the area of your venue beforehand, like Carrie, yes, it can be scary. You could ‘win’ and get fantastic service and results – just what you want – or you could ‘lose’ and get an unprofessional ‘don’t care’ attitude or someone taking your money but not turning up to do the work…

If this sounds like you, know you’re not alone. About a third of the brides who book their wedding makeup through Lillybeth live overseas – most are in Australia – and they communicate with me mostly by email. They don’t meet me or their chosen makeup artist until weeks or days before the wedding. Sometimes this is a gap of almost two years, like Carrie.

The good news is most wedding professionals are used to dealing with couples by email (or facebook message) alone. And some suppliers – especially celebrants – will chat with you over Skype or FaceTime to see if they’re a good fit for the style of wedding you’re wanting.

But there’s even better news. The world wide web means planning from overseas is almost like living just down the road from your wedding venue. Sure, you can’t attend the local wedding shows or check out venues in person, but these days you can more easily source honest reviews from past customers = gold! It wasn’t always like this!

Let’s say you’re looking for a reliable makeup artist. Apart from viewing examples and photos of their work online, you can usually find honest reviews posted online from past brides or grooms.

I’m not talking about testimonials on the official website of the business, but reviews on independent websites like facebook, weddingwise, google places, yellow and yelp. Grab your list of potential wedding suppliers and look them up on these review websites to see what kind of experience past couples have received. Most of these reviews and ratings are unedit-able by the business, so you know you’re getting honest, unbiased feedback.

Finally, If you get stuck and are struggling to fill a gap or find a supplier you like, ask the ones you’ve already booked. If they’ve been serving weddings a few years, they should have good local contacts to offer you, or the insider information to help you choose between the suppliers on your list if you’re having trouble choosing. Ask your professionals!

In the end, here’s what Carrie said about her makeup:

“Mum is very insecure and had never had her makeup done professionally before, but we organised a trial for her too and everything went seamlessly. She was gorgeous – we all were. The best part is that it lasted the whole day despite it being 28 degrees. I had hair down and a ballgown dress with a lot of layers so I had expected [the makeup] would smudge, but it didn’t let me down at all.”

I’m one of the few ‘Tauranga-born and bred’ people around here, and I have oodles of contacts and recommendations if you need anything. From my rural home I enjoy serving brides marrying in the Bay of Plenty – whether living overseas or just down the road – with super speedy email replies.

To experience my hassle-free communication for yourself, contact me through this website for a response from me within 24 hours.

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Planning a NZ Wedding From Overseas

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