Celebrant · Scenic Rim & Tamborine Mountain · QLD
Celebrant, Scenic Rim & Tamborine Mountain
Tamborine Mountain, Canungra, Beaudesert and the Beechmont ridge are about an hour and a half from Murwillumbah, where Felicity Best is based. Tamborine and Canungra fall inside the included travel; Beaudesert is a little past it, at $1 per kilometre. Ceremonies run $650 for legals only to $1,200 for a full Saturday wedding. Most Scenic Rim venues are vineyards and homesteads holding their own approvals, so a council permit is rare.
Venues
Places I've stood in the Scenic Rim.
- Tamborine Mountain
- Canungra
- Beaudesert
- Cedar Creek Estate
- St Bernards Hotel
- Albert River Wines
- O'Reilly's Canungra Valley Vineyards
- Bromelton House
- Binna Burra
Ceremonies in the Scenic Rim
The same prices as at home, plus the drive.
Scenic Rim & Tamborine Mountain is about 90 minutes from Murwillumbah. Travel within 80 km or an hour and a half of Murwillumbah is included, and $1 per kilometre round trip beyond that. Every price is published in full on the prices page.
The drive, two ways
There are two roads up. The Numinbah Valley road leaves Murwillumbah through Chillingham, crosses the border at the Natural Bridge and comes down through Nerang. It is the prettier and the slower, and it closes in heavy rain. The motorway is Tweed Heads to Oxenford and then the climb, and it is the one to take on a Friday afternoon. Either way Tamborine Mountain is about an hour and a half, Canungra a little more, Beaudesert about an hour and three quarters.
That is the far edge of where I work, and it is worth saying plainly. The allowance is 80 km or an hour and a half, whichever gets you there, so Tamborine Mountain is inside it on the time even though the road distance is past the kilometre ring, and there is nothing to add for the drive. Beaudesert is past both, at about $70 round trip, with no call out fee on top. What it costs in time is arriving early. An hour's margin on a mountain road is not an hour wasted, and I plan a ceremony called for four o'clock from noon.
Vineyards, homesteads and the mountain
The Scenic Rim's venues are the ones Brisbane and Gold Coast couples drive to: Cedar Creek Estate and St Bernards on the mountain, Albert River Wines in the valley below it, O'Reilly's Canungra Valley Vineyards, Bromelton House outside Beaudesert, Binna Burra on the Beechmont ridge. Nearly all of them manage their own ceremony sites, so there is no council booking to make, no site fee to pass through and nobody else's slot to compete for.
A ceremony here is registered in Queensland, which changes the certificate fee and nothing else about the marriage. The paperwork is the same Notice of Intended Marriage, lodged with me at least a month ahead, whichever side of the border the vineyard is on.
Which registry
A marriage in the Scenic Rim is registered in QLD by the Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages: a standard certificate is $58.10 and its own registry ceremony $410.60 on a weekday. What differs across the border.
Questions
Questions people ask
- Do you travel to Tamborine Mountain?
- Yes. It is about an hour and a half from Murwillumbah, either up the Numinbah Valley and across through Nerang or the motorway to Oxenford and then the climb. An hour and a half is exactly the allowance, so Tamborine Mountain carries no travel charge even though the road distance is past the kilometre ring. There is no minimum booking and no call out fee either.
- How much is a celebrant in the Scenic Rim?
- The same as everywhere on this site: $950 Monday to Thursday and $1,200 Friday to Sunday for a full personalised ceremony, $750 or $875 for an elopement, with the drive to Tamborine included. The estimator on the prices page works the travel out for anywhere further.
- Do we need a council permit in the Scenic Rim?
- Rarely. Most weddings here are at vineyards, homesteads and mountain venues that hold their own ceremony approvals, so the only booking is the venue's. Scenic Rim Regional Council books its parks and reserves for the few ceremonies held on public land. The venue or the council will say which applies, and you pay any fee directly to whoever charges it.
- Why is the Scenic Rim its own page and not part of the Gold Coast?
- Because it is a different council, a different drive and a different kind of venue: vineyards and homesteads rather than beaches, several degrees cooler, no sand and no sunset slot to compete for. It is also the far edge of where I will drive, at about two hours, so what the travel includes and where it stops is worth stating plainly rather than left to a quote.
Get in touch
Check my date
Send the date, or the season, and where for a ceremony in the Scenic Rim. I will tell you whether it is free and exactly what it costs. No obligation.
Most days, 9am to 7pm.