Elopements · Murwillumbah & Tweed Valley · NSW
Elopement celebrant, Murwillumbah & Tweed Valley
An elopement in the Tweed Valley with Felicity Best is $750 midweek and $875 Friday to Sunday, with no travel charge anywhere in the shire. Crystal Creek, the swimming holes above Uki and the paddocks under Wollumbin all take small groups, and a Tweed Shire permit applies where you are on public land. Allow eight weeks.
What it costs in the Tweed Valley
| What you get | Mon–Thu | Fri–Sun |
|---|---|---|
| Elopement A ceremony written to tell your love story, a planning meeting, help with your vows, the legal paperwork, PA and wireless microphone, your commemorative certificate. | $750 | $875 |
Australian dollars, no GST. Travel within 80 km or an hour and a half of Murwillumbah is included, whichever gets you there; beyond both it is $1 per kilometre, round trip. Booking fee $250, which comes off the total. Witnesses supplied at $60 each. Council permits for beach and park ceremonies are booked and paid for directly with the council, and are not included.
The Tweed Valley is home, so nothing here carries a travel charge. Allow about two months for a weekend date in season.
Venues
Where in the Tweed Valley
- Crystal Creek
- Crystal Creek Rainforest Retreat
- Uki
- Tyalgum
- Mount Warning Rainforest Park
Ceremonies on public beaches, reserves and parks usually need a permit, which you book and pay for directly with the council or land manager. The requirements and fees vary between councils and sites, and they are not included in the ceremony fee.
The three sites worth looking at first
Crystal Creek is the reliable one: rainforest, running water, deep shade at any hour, and a road a hire car can get up. The retreat above it has a covered deck, which answers the weather question and the lunch question in one booking. The swimming holes on the Uki side are more beautiful and more work, because it is a short walk in, there are no facilities, and the surface is wet rock rather than lawn.
Tyalgum is the wet weather answer and a good ceremony in its own right: a hall, a pub, a main street of four buildings, and paddocks in every direction with the mountain behind them. Past those three, the most common elopement site in this valley is somebody's family property, which needs no permit and no council at all.
Reception, and phone reception
Coverage is patchy above Uki and past Tyalgum, and an elopement is exactly the kind of day where everybody arrives separately. Agree a meeting point rather than dropping a pin, print the run sheet, and give every supplier one number that belongs to somebody who will already be there.
There is not much open late up the valley, which suits a small group better than it sounds. The pubs at Tyalgum and Uki do lunch, Murwillumbah has the town, and a ceremony at four with a long table booked for six is the shape most of these days end up taking.
The paperwork, in NSW
A ceremony in the Tweed Valley is recorded by the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, because a marriage is registered in the state it took place in. A standard certificate there is $70, and its own registry ceremony is $482 on a weekday. What changes across the border, and the NOIM in full.
Questions
Questions people ask
- Where can you elope near Murwillumbah?
- Crystal Creek and the rainforest retreat above it, the swimming holes on the Uki side, the Tyalgum hall and pub as a wet weather fallback, and any number of private paddocks with Wollumbin behind them. The hinterland light is best in the two hours before sunset, which is also when the permits get booked out.
- Is a hinterland elopement cheaper than a coastal one?
- My fee is the same, but the permits are usually lower and the photographers travel less, so the day tends to cost less overall than Kingscliff or Byron. What you trade for it is the drive for your guests and phone reception that comes and goes above Uki.
Get in touch
Check my date
Send the date, or the season, and where for elopements in the Tweed Valley. I will tell you whether it is free and exactly what it costs. No obligation.
Most days, 9am to 7pm.