Package Weddings: Susan & Nathan's Intimate Clyde Wedding
- hannahlindcelebran
- Dec 10, 2025
- 4 min read
Two things Susan and Nathan knew when they decided that 8 years engaged was long enough before trading up to the package deal of husband and wife were: They didn't want to have a big wedding… and they wanted to get married without the stress of having to plan it themselves. That of course is where I come in!
When we first met, the plan was for an elopement package, just the two of them, but after a little time and thought, morphed to become an intimate wedding package and include their families.
Because of Susan’s job (chef at an award winning Central Otago restaurant) they decided to get married in winter, as she’d be off work for the month long shut down.
Winter in Central Otago can be challenging.
But a comfortable venue in winter wasn’t the only important consideration.
It needed to be reasonably close to home (yes you can be a local and opt for a package wedding!)
For comfort in case of a day spent under the inversion layer, they needed an indoor venue (even better if a lot of the photos could be done inside on site in case of bad weather)
They wanted to get some couple photos, but as everybody isn’t often in the same place at the same time they wanted to make sure they got some great family group photos too
There needed to be a fabulous local restaurant nearby so they could go out for dinner as a group to celebrate
A mobile hair & makeup artist happy to travel to Susan at home in Omakau
Bouquet and buttonhole (which I picked up and delivered)
They had a maximum budget of $6k
And I do love a challenge!
The location we landed on was my favourite historic hotel in Clyde - Dunstan House.
We hired their lounge for the ceremony, as this was a brilliant private space, beautifully decorated. We also had access to the foyer, staircase and balcony for photos before and after the ceremony.
They had 2 hours with Lisa (Credit for all photos goes to Lisa Hill Photography) one of my favourite photographers. This gave them plenty of time to have the ceremony and some beautiful couple photos taken, as well as group and family photos for everybody.
Susan and Nathan got to get ready totally relaxed at home as a family as one of my favourite hair & makeup artists was more than happy to travel to take care of Susan at home in Omakau.
I picked up and delivered their flowers to them at home before I headed home to get ready for the ceremony and met them all at Dunstan House for what turned out to be a beautiful (if cold) day
One of my jobs as your planner is to roll with whatever happens and create a new plan in the moment, stress-free to you, if necessary. So when it transpired that half of the guests had gotten the time wrong and were going to be half an hour late… we changed things up. Couple photos before the ceremony, followed by ceremony, followed by family photos.
But don’t just take my word for all of this. This is what Susan and Nathan had to say
'Having Hannah as our marriage celebrant and wedding planner in one was such a weight off our shoulders, just being able to sit back and relax on our day and not have to worry about who and when people would be showing up, it just took the stress out off planning our big day for us.
We had been engaged for 8 years and thought its about time for us to get married, so we meet up with Hannah and from the get go, she was warm, inviting and just all round easy to talk too.
She listened to what we were after for our day, and being in the middle of July we come up with having the ceremony inside at Dunstan House and being able to have photos in historic Clyde, followed by a dinner reservation at Oliver's across the road.
This made it easy for our family who were from out of town to book accommodation at Dunstan House and fully immerse into the day and not having to worry about a thing. We had a small immediate family wedding and it was perfect.
Will be recommending Hannah to anyone who would like to take the stress out of the big day, having her plan the timeline and who was to be where and when was just amazing.
Thank you again Hannah'
And yes, we came in below Susan and Nathan's $6k budget for their Clyde Package Wedding which included:
Celebrant & Planner
Location
Photographer
Hair & Makeup
Florals
What would your most important considerations be for your Bespoke Central Otago Package Wedding?
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