Pros And Cons of Having a Spring Wedding in New Zealand

When it comes to weddings, spring is underrated.

Honestly, spring weddings (September-November) are hands down my absolute favourite season for weddings — so much so that I had my own wedding in spring!

The transitional seasons are often overlooked by most people — they’re such an underrated gem of a time to have your celebration.

Very similar to Autumn, with lots of benefits you’d usually attribute to summer — minus the heat and the feeling of having do your wedding planning at super speed to secure your bookings with venues and vendors while competing with thousands of other summer wedding couples.

Contents

1. How to Know if a Spring Wedding is For You

2. Spring Weather in NZ: Temperature Averages & Rainfall

3. Sunrise & Sunset Times in Spring NZ

4. Venue and Vendor Availability & Costs

5. Holiday Season & Tourism

6. Other Spring Things to Think About

7. Spring vs. Autumn Wedding in NZ?

8. Pros & Cons of Having a Spring Wedding

9. Tips for Planning Your Spring Wedding

How to Know if a Spring Wedding is For You

Okay, but where do you even start with planning a wedding? How can you tell what is really your vibe or not when there are a billion options out there?

I like to do a quick visualising exercise with my couples to get them started. This usually helps to start painting a picture of their dream day.

When you’re ready, take a deep breath and relax, perhaps close your eyes — and imagine yourself on your wedding day:

You’re in front of your love, the person you’ve chosen as your life partner and to be a life partner to, and you’re about to officially and symbolically seal your commitment to each other for the rest of your lives.

Feel what it’s like to be there, with all your senses.

Is it bright and colourful where you are? Are you comforably warm or cool? Are you in a wide open field of grass, or are you overlooking a grand cliff onto a mountain-ridged valley? Is there anyone else with you two? How many people are there?

What environment would make you feel totally at ease and in love with life on your perfect wedding day?

And take another deep breath, and soak in that vision.

There you have it, you’ve made a start. You’ve got a glimpse of your dream wedding experience.

All you have to do moving forward is to remember that vision, and see if what’s being offered is truly what you’re looking for — whether it’s spring or not.

Spring Weather in NZ: Temperature Averages & Rainfall (September-November)

Spring is when the weather starts to warm up, and the rain showers become more frequent.

Terms like “warm” or “wet” are really subjective — you can have a look at the temperature averages below to see if the usual spring weather is ideal for your preferred comfort levels. Personally, I love being able to enjoy the still somewhat cool outdoors (no sweaty pits here!) and not having to think about layering up so much.

The climate data below is sourced from the monthly historical averages recorded by the MetService.

Note: When looking at rainfall — less than 20mm per day is considered “low” amount of rain or showers. 20mm-40mm is moderate to high, and more than 40mm is high rainfall. What’s shown below is rainfall per month, so just take that into your estimating, my friends.

Upper North Island (Whangarei, Auckland, Tauranga, Rotorua, Hamilton)

Region

Whangarei (W)

Auckland (A)

Tauranga (T)

Rotorua (R)

Hamilton (H)

Highs

W: 21.3°C-25.4°C

A: 19.7°C-23.3°C

T: 19.9°C-24.4°C

R: 18.4°C-23.1°C

H: 19.8°C-23.9°C

Lows

W: 4.6°C-7.9°C

A: 5.0°C-8.4°C

T: 3.5°C-6.8°C

R: -1.0°C-1.7°C

H: -0.2°C-3.5°C

Rainfall per month

W: 75.9mm-112.3mm

A: 55.1mm-91.9mm

T: 57.2mm-81.0mm

R: 86.0mm-106.5mm

H: 89.5mm-106.7mm

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East of the North Island (New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Wellington)

Region

New Plymouth (N)

Palmerston North (P)

Wellington (W)

Highs

N: 17.5°C-23.3°C

P: 19.4°C-23.6°C

W: 17.4°C-21.9°C

Lows

N: 2.0°C-4.6°C

P: 0.4°C-2.9°C

W: 3.1°C-5.7°C

Rainfall per month

N: 98.8mm-117.0mm

P: 86.3mm-96.3mm

W: 94.7mm-110.4mm

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West of the North Island (Gisborne, Napier, Masterton)

Region

Gisborne (G)

Napier (N)

Masterton (M)

Highs

G: 21.9°C-28.8°C

N: 22.6°C-27.7°C

M: 20.9°C-26.2°C

Lows

G: 1.7°C-4.7°C

N: 0.8°C-4.2°C

M: -2.5°C-0.9°C

Rainfall per month

G: 57.0mm-69.8mm

N: 49.8mm-55.9mm

M:75.8mm-85.9mm

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Upper South Island (Nelson, Blenheim)

Region

Nelson (N)

Blenheim (B)

Highs

N: 18.9°C-23.6°C

B: 21.4°C-27.9°C

Lows

N: 1.2°C-4.7°C

B: -1.8°C-0.5°C

Rainfall per month

N: 58.5mm-80.3mm

B: 51.2mm-65.3mm

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East of the South Island (Christchurch, Mount Cook, Timaru, Dunedin)

Region

Christchurch (C)

Mount Cook (M)

Timaru (T)

Dunedin (D)

Highs

C: 22.4°C-27.7°C

M: 18.9°C-24.1°C

T: 23.3°C-27.6°C

D: 22.1°C-26.0°C

Lows

C: -2.5°C-0.4°C

M: -4.7°C- -1.0°C

T: -2.9°C-0.3°C

D: 0.9°C-3.8°C

Rainfall per month

C: 36.0mm-46.8mm

M: 323.3mm-346.9mm

T: 26.9mm-50.2mm

D: 43.5mm-58.7mm

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West of the South Island (Wanaka, Queenstown, Invercargill)

Region

Wanaka (W)

Queenstown (Q)

Invercargill (I)

Highs

W: 19.3°C-25.6°C

Q: 19.0°C-24.2°C

I: 19.2°C-23.6°C

Lows

W: -2.6°C-0.1°C

Q: -2.7°C-0.1°C

I: -1.2°C-1.5°C

Rainfall per month

W: 44.2mm-49.9mm

Q: 52.6mm-58.1mm

I: 76.9mm-93.9mm

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Why it’s important:

Knowing how likely it will be to rain or how cold it is will help shape a lot of your decisions — from choosing the right venue or ceremony spot (I chose to have my wedding ceremony under a canopy of trees which helped to shield us from rain and wind) to choosing the time of day you want to have the main part of your celebration, to your attire.

Fluctuating & unpredictable weather

In classic NZ fashion, our weather is usually “predictably unpredictable” — with spring especially being a time of fluctuating weather.

Don’t be surprised if it does end up showering on your wedding day (it rained, showered, and hailed on my wedding day, but it was also sunny!), but also don’t let it be your deal breaker.

Adventuring out in the rain can make for special photos, and showers during your celebration often makes it a truly memorable one.

In some cultures, rain on your wedding day means good luck and that your marriage will last. Either way, blessings!

The spring weather (rain and more) on my wedding day did stop us from having the best time of our lives — and made it all the more special! [photo by seamless creatives]

Sunrise and Sunset Times in Spring NZ

Golden hour — the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset — is THE best times of day to get some beautiful, cinematic shots of you and your partner. There’s something about the softer light from the low sun that makes everything look way more magical.

As the days get gradually longer coming out of winter, sunset times get later and sunrises get earlier — be sure to take those times into account when thinking about your ideal day.

Another more underrated celestial moment is the moonrise — I tell my couples to take that into consideration as well when thinking about their wedding day timelines, especially if they want to get some shots with the moon in the sky. The moon rises during the day too, so you don’t have to wait until it’s pitch dark for it to make an appearance!

Why it’s important:

Lighting is everything. You’re celebrating an important milestone in your journey, you sure deserve to look heavenly while you’re doing it! Plus comfort-wise, the softer light of a low sun is much easier on the eyes and skin.

Being aware of when the best times to take photos are on your wedding day will help you decide if that flow is for you. For example, if sunset time happens to be around when you want to be having dinner, or if you can’t be bothered getting up so early for a sunrise moment then you have all the power to pick a different season where the times would suit you better.

Sunrise and sunset times spring 2025

Auckland

Sunrise

September 2025 — 6:42am-6:58am*

October 2025 — 6:57am-6:17am

November 2025 — 6:15am-5:55am

Sunset

September 2025 — 6:00pm-7:23pm*

October 2025 — 7:24pm-7:52pm

November 2025 — 7:53pm-8:23pm

Wellington

Sunrise

September 2025 — 6:46am-6:57am*

October 2025 — 6:557am-6:09am

November 2025 — 6:07am-5:42am

Sunset

September 2025 — 5:57pm-7:25pm*

October 2025 — 7:26pm-8:00pm

November 2025 — 8:01pm-8:36pm

Christchurch

Sunrise

September 2025 — 6:56am-7:04am*

October 2025 — 7:02am-6:13am

November 2025 — 6:11am-5:44am

Sunset

September 2025 — 6:02pm-7:35pm*

October 2025 — 7:36pm-8:13pm

November 2025 — 8:14pm-8:52pm

Queenstown

Sunrise

September 2025 — 7:14am-7:19am*

October 2025 — 7:17am-6:26am

November 2025 — 6:24am-5:54am

Sunset

September 2025 — 6:17pm-7:51pm*

October 2025 — 7:53pm—8:32pm

November 2025 — 8:34pm-9:13pm

*Note: Daylight savings happens in September — clocks change forward 1 hour, hence the bigger time difference

Venue and Vendor Availability & Costs

Bridgewater's gorgeous indoor ceremony area

Spring is considered off-peak for most venues, and a lot off-peak packages are significantly lower than their peak season (summer-early autumn) ones — which means you’d be able to save quite a bit in terms of venue costs. Some venues like Bridgewater Estate even do free venue hire during their off-peak times!

And with it being a less popular season, you’d be able to pick a coveted weekend wedding slot even if you’re only months out from your wedding date. If you wanted to keep costs even lower, you could choose a spring weekday to have your wedding.

There’s not too much of a rush to reach out to venues and vendors (like you don’t have to book them in a year or even 18 months in advance), but best practice is to enquire as soon as you can to ensure you get to book your dream vendors.

Holiday Season & Tourism

Great news is — with the temperatures slowly starting to warm up, it’s a relatively quiet time for tourism, which means less people potentially being out and about where you’ll be having your wedding.

All of the public holidays in spring of 2024/2025 happen to be long weekends! Meaning you and your guests would have to take less time off work to attend your beautiful celebration, and you get extra time to party or have a breather before returning to your routines.

The busiest times of spring will probably the end of term holidays — if you want to avoid crowds or traffic you’d probably want to steer clear of those dates.

School holidays (End of Term 3) Spring 2025

Saturday 20 September - Sunday 5 October

Spring 2025 NZ Public Holidays

South Canterbury Anniversary — Monday 22nd September*

Hawke’s Bay Anniversary — Friday 24th October*

Labour Day — Monday 27th October*

Marlborough Anniversary — Monday 3rd November*

Canterbury Anniversary — Friday 14th November*

* Long weekends galore!

Other Spring Things to Think About

D+A chose a spring day, and lambing season meant there were heaps of lambs where they were celebrating their love!

Scenery options, flowers & nature

It’s always so exciting when the bare branches of trees start to bud — before you know it, the swathes of brown in winter gives way to seas of bright green.

Garden weddings are ideal for spring, as flowers and trees are back flourishing. Barn weddings, vineyard weddings, mountain weddings, or even park weddings — anywhere outdoors and lush, really — would also work beautifully.

If you’re wanting to have an elopement, spring is a great time to be in the outdoors without having to deal with hot weather that’d leave you sweaty and uncomfortable.

In terms of flora, blossoms like apple blossoms and cherry blossoms are in bloom in spring, so you can expect to find lots of pastel pinks and whites if where you’re getting married happens to have them. Not surprising, flowers are aplenty this season, including blooms like: hydrangeas, lavenders, peonies, sunflowers, snapdragons, gerberas, roses, tulips, daffodils, freesias, lilies, hyacinths and more!

Allergies & hayfever

The abundance of flowering plants aren’t a good thing for everyone — it’s definitely the worst time for sneezing, runny noses and itchy eyes.

If you suffer from seasonal allergies, this might be a time to avoid — or at least consider what you might have to do to manage your allergies if you choose to have a spring wedding. This might mean having your celebration somewhere indoors and out of the wind and pollen, or choosing a venue that’s not in a high pollen area, like a hotel or church, for example.

Vibes

Spring is known to symbolise a time of renewal, or the start of something new, which pairs beautifully with the idea of getting married and celebrating a new life milestone. If you’re wanting a symbolic marriage, or perhaps if you’re just a cottagecore forest fairy like me, it could really feel like a magical time.

Of course, this is purely subjective, but something to think about!

Spring vs. Autumn Wedding in NZ?

Since they’re so similar, you might be wondering what the difference between a spring wedding or an autumn wedding might be.

Generally speaking, it does rain slightly more in the autumn months. Peak season usually extends into early autumn (March-April) so venue/vendor prices would still be higher compared to spring. Comfort-wise, spring is coming from cold to warm, while autumn is going from warm and heading towards cold — so it’s also a matter of whether you’d rather feel more fresh or cosy.

But to be honest, I reckon it just comes down to vibes! Would you rather have the vibes of newness and vitality, or the sweetness of intentionality and slowing down?

Pros and Cons of Having a Spring Wedding

The tl;dr for the article skimmers (like me)

Pros

• Milder weather (not too hot, not too cold)

  • Warmer temperatures and longer days compared to winter, but not as hot as summer (for a clearer picture of how warm and how long, check out the previous sections on weather and sunrise/sunset times)

• Long weekends galore

  • All of the public holidays in September-November happen to fall on Mondays/Fridays, giving you and your guests more time to travel, party or rest before and after your celebrations

• Beautiful blossoms & greenery

  • A great variety of landscapes are available for your choosing: beaches, mountains, vineyards, rolling fields — the possibilities are endless!

  • Trees, bush, and greenery is lush and thriving — making for great natural backdrops

• Off-peak season benefits

  • Most venues and vendors have cheaper off-peak packages, with some venues even having free venue hire during this quieter time

  • Less demand means you’ll have a higher chance of booking in your dream vendors for your dream dates (eg. weekend weddings) without you having to rush your planning

  • Your wedding would be one of the firsts (especially in early spring) as the wedding season kicks in again for venues and vendors — giving them more breathing room to work on your special day

Cons

• Unpredictable & fluctuating weather

  • Rain showers and other disruptive weather would make it harder to predict the weather conditions on the day of your wedding

• Allergies & hayfever

  • Peak pollen levels of the year, which might trigger people with seasonal allergies

  • You might have to take steps to manage allergies like choosing hypoallergenic flowers, being ready with allergy medication or opting for an indoor wedding.

Tips for Planning Your Spring Wedding in NZ

Spring in New Zealand is truly perfect for a wedding! Although it does comes some unpredictability, so a bit of extra planning can go a long way.

Here’s some handy tips to make sure your spring wedding is as smooth and stunning as you’ve dreamed it would be.

Indoor vs. Outdoor Wedding for Spring

Choosing the right venue is suuuuper important.

Lots of venues have both indoor and outdoor options as ceremony locations, and some even have “outdoor vibes” but are actually fully shaded and enclosed (like the Glasshouse) — so you don’t even have to choose between having your wedding indoors or outdoors if you couldn’t decide between the two.

One thing you’d want to ask the venue is what weather contingency plans they have in place should your day be as unpredictable as our weather usually is. Good venues would have at least a plan B that they would roll into action if your first choice wasn’t possible (or even C and D).

Alternatively, as I previously mentioned, maybe you just would prefer not to deal with the unpredictability of things or the crazy pollen levels and opt for an indoor location entirely.

Weather-proof attire & accessories

Okay, when I said that there was every kind of weather on my spring wedding, I did mean every kind. It was alternating between raining/spitting/showering and bright sun, the wind was billowing, and at one point it hailed.

(And I still got to have my ceremony outdoors under a snug canopy of trees! I did say finding the right venue was important.)

Anyway, that’s why it’s important to be prepared with attire that can stand against the elements. Meaning shoes that are suitable for walking on soft, muddy ground (stilettos probably aren’t the best idea) , or having layers ready (prep for the highest highs and the lowest lows!). Have umbrellas available for you and your guests to pop open if the heavens decide to shower blessings on you. You might also want to have heaters and blankets out during your reception if it’s in the evening.

Managing allergies

Some things that would help make the hayfever/allergies less of an issue are checking if your venue maintains their grass regularly, making sure you’ve got your allergy medication or sprays ready with you at all times, or maybe have someone designated as your personal tissue bearer (handy for those tears of joy as well).

You could also consider flowers that are less likely to trigger allergies, like roses, tulips and snapdragons.

But at the end of the day, you know your allergies and what works for you best, so not at all telling you how to manage them!

Communicating with guests

To make sure everyone has a smooth, safe, and absolute blast at your celebration, be sure to communicate all the information you’ve gathered and prepped for!

This might include giving them a heads up about the weather, dress code advice for the unpredictability of things, travel tips so everyone gets there safely and on time, reminders to prep for potential allergy attacks and so on.

You’ve gone through the deep dive research and prep for your spring wedding, so you’ll be pros at guiding and giving the appropriate advice.

Book in early

While you don’t necessarily have to stress out about reaching out to vendors and venues at lightning speed (you most likely would have to if you chose to have your wedding in summer), it’s best practice to book and reserve your spot as soon as you can.

From my experience, the ideal sequence of vendors you should book typically looks like: venue, photographer and/or videographer, florist, hair & make up, and then other miscellaneous vendors like photobooths, bouncy castles, live artists etc. If you’re thinking of eloping, then the photographer would be first — and usually an elopenent photographer (like myself) would use their expertise to scout out the perfect elopement spot for you.

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Honestly, if you do embrace the uncertainty of spring, it can turn out to be so full of surprises, so memorable and so beautiful that you wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

But hey, if it still isn’t for you, that’s totally fine. Maybe consider an autumn wedding next, or the uber popular summer wedding, or if you’re feeling extra adventurous, think about a winter wedding!

Happy planning my friends!

More cinematic wedding inspiration on IG: