Terms and conditions

Who you are dealing with

Just Add Vows is operated by Hide + Seek Elopement Co Ltd, a New Zealand company. Our ceremonies are led by celebrants from Married by Friends. Where these terms say we, us or our, they mean Hide + Seek Elopement Co Ltd.

What you are booking

A place on one of our published days, at the hour you choose when you book. Each day runs to a fixed schedule and each couple has their own hour, so the time you pick is the time you have.

The price shown for that day covers the celebrant, the ceremony, vow cards and our vow-writing resource, two witnesses if you need them, a content creator and your highlight reel, cupcakes and bubbles for the two of you with proper glassware, a professional photographer, and the location itself. We will tell you before you pay if anything on that list is not available on your day.

You may bring up to ten guests, including children, on any of our land-based days. The helicopter day is the exception: there is no room for guests on that one, and you will share the aircraft with the other couples marrying that day.

Paying for it

A deposit of $499 holds your day and your hour. It is part of the price and not a fee on top of it.

The balance is due six weeks before the day, and we take it from the card you booked with. We will email you 3 days beforehand so it is never a surprise, and again with a receipt once it has gone through. If your day is less than six weeks away when you book, the balance is due a week after your deposit, or the day before your wedding, whichever comes first.

All prices are in New Zealand dollars and include GST where it applies. Payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or hold your card details.

Changing your mind

If you change your mind within 48 hours of paying your deposit, tell us and we will refund it in full, no questions asked.

After that the deposit is non-refundable, because your hour comes off the day and nobody else can take it. If you cancel more than six weeks before the day, you owe nothing further. If you cancel inside six weeks, the balance stays payable, since by then the vendors for your day are booked and paid.

We would always rather move you than keep your money. If something happens, talk to us. Where we have another day with room on it, we will do our best to move your booking across at no charge.

If we have to change something

These days depend on landowners, aircraft and the weather, so occasionally something has to move.

If we cancel a day outright, you will be offered a place on another day or a full refund of everything you have paid, whichever you prefer.

If we have to change the exact location, the schedule or a vendor on your day, we will tell you as soon as we know. A change of that kind does not entitle you to a refund on its own, because what you have booked is the day and the experience rather than one particular field.

Weather

We go ahead in ordinary New Zealand weather and we bring clear umbrellas. Every day has a backup plan for it.

If conditions are genuinely unsafe, we will move you to the next day where that is possible, or to another of our days, or refund you in full if neither works. Helicopter flights are at the pilot's discretion, and the pilot's decision on whether it is safe to fly is final.

Getting there, and turning up

You get yourselves and your guests to the location. We send the exact address around three weeks before the day.

Please arrive about five minutes before your hour, with your guests, ready to go. Arriving late shortens your own ceremony rather than anybody else's, because the couple after you is already on their way. If you miss your hour entirely we cannot refund it.

Your marriage licence

Getting married in New Zealand requires a marriage licence, which you apply for yourselves through Te Tari Taiwhenua Department of Internal Affairs. We will guide you through the process and tell you what is needed and when, but we cannot apply on your behalf and we cannot marry you without a valid licence for the right location.

If you arrive without one, the ceremony can still go ahead but it will not be legally binding, and no refund is due.

Photographs and film

Your photographer will deliver at least one hundred edited photographs. Delivery times are given to you by the photographer on the day.

Copyright in the photographs and film stays with the photographer, and you receive a licence to use them however you like personally, including on social media.

We would love to use a few of your photographs to show people what these days are like. We will ask you first, and no is a complete answer that changes nothing about your booking. Our days are shared, so you may appear in the background of another couple's photographs, and they in yours.

Behaviour, and things going wrong

These locations are exposed, sometimes remote, and shared with other couples on the same day. You are responsible for your own guests. We can end a ceremony without refund if anybody is unsafe, abusive to our team, or damaging the place we are standing in.

Tell us in advance if anybody in your group has limited mobility or other access needs, and we will tell you honestly which of our locations will work for you.

The limits of what we owe you

Nothing in these terms limits your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or the Fair Trading Act 1986, and where those Acts apply they override anything here that conflicts with them.

Beyond those rights, and to the extent the law allows, our total liability to you for anything connected with your booking is limited to the amount you have paid us, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss such as travel, accommodation or time off work.

Governing law

These terms are governed by New Zealand law and the New Zealand courts have jurisdiction over any dispute about them. Before anything reaches a court, please write to us: almost everything is faster to fix over the phone.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The version that applies to your booking is the one published on the day you paid your deposit, and we will send you a copy on request.

Getting hold of us

Write to hello@marriedbyfriends.co.nz or ring +64 21 388 921. A real person answers both.