Package Updates as of 2021
Happy new year!
James Hirata here - 2020 was tough but we’ve made it.
We all went through it together and I’m wishing everyone good health and happiness in 2021.
Spring and Summer 2020 was crazy. Crazy busy, doing up to 16 weddings in a month.
I would like to thank all of our clients for entrusting us with their special days.
The second group of people I’d like to thank are my suppliers in Queenstown, Wanaka, Tekapo, Mt Cook and Auckland for being so reliable and trustworthy - sometimes accommodating last-minute schedule changes due to the weather. Without them, this whole show couldn’t happen.
As a business, we introduced several new things in 2020 that brought us significant boost in business; namely things like our COVID-19 deposit refund policy, our new Elopement Wedding Packages, Heli Wedding Packages and Wedding Ceremony Live Streaming.
I personally love Elopements so much - despite being small, all the focus is on the couple’s commitment to each other (no fluff) making these weddings so beautiful and memorable.
With this being said, I am pushing this business more towards Elopements and moving away from doing the long and tough Pre-Wedding Photoshoot Tours, which used to be our core product in 2019.
The main business changes in 2021 are the cancellation of two of our most popular packages:
The Tekapo 1 Day Pre-Wedding Shoot Package, along with the Queenstown + Tekapo 2 Day Pre-Wedding Package.
We have several reasons for cancelling the Tekapo options:
The famous Church of the Good Shepherd, is no longer taking Wedding bookings for non-McKenzie locals
The church has been fenced out, due to vandalism and excessive tourism. (Very difficult to take photos there, even with a permit - the tourists still barge in)
The lupins are being weeded out by the local council, as they are not a native species and are causing traffic accidents every year.
The lupins have been wiped out by the flood in December 2019 - No lupins to be found by the lakeside in summer 2020.
Mt John Observatory has banned Wedding Photography on their grounds
No possible local back-up solutions if the weather is bad, other than to stay in Tekapo for extra nights.
Mt Cook Helicopter 80% chance of cancellation due to frequent bad weather.
Very long driving and shooting times just for a few locations - It is no longer possible for us to repeat this tour multiple times a week.
We understand that although there is still a huge demand for the Lupins, the famous Church, the Milkyway Shots in Tekapo and the Glacier at Mt Cook, the chances of getting those fairy tale shots are getting slimmer and slimmer.
We were lucky to find this small patch of lupins near the observatory - this was probably as much as we could find in Tekapo.
What’s new in 2021?
Instead of keeping the photoshoots long, we have decided to shorten the packages to focus on the hero shots, and not on the fillers.
A feedback we frequently received between 2018~2020 was that our packages were good value for money, covering many many locations.. but our clients often felt in hindsight that a full day photoshoot, yet alone a 2-3 day option is simply too long, especially when they know that they had 1 or 2 locations they really liked.
Those 2-day long photoshoots were often followed by a week of fatigue and sore muscles by the bride - it’s not easy being in a tight dress and putting on a smile all day long!
Another consideration was that with long hours, the couples are often left with very little time to eat. Just so you know, there’s nothing but burgers after 9pm.
We have also decided to reduce the number of bookings we will take in any given month, to a maximum of 3 weddings per week or 12 per month, down from our peak of 16.
This is to give every client extra wet-weather backup dates and to allow us some time to rest in between bookings, so we can perform at our best.