Wedding at Fleur’s Place
Moeraki, Otago New Zealand
Fleur's place is a cafe, bar and restaurant at the old jetty in Moeraki, Otago, New Zealand. It’s a 1 hour drive from Dunedin, 4 hour drive from Christchurch, or 3 and half hour drive from Queenstown. It’s also very close 10 min drive to the Moeraki Boulders, a popular stop on many South Island road trips and a tourist bus stop too.
Photographing weddings around New Zealand and the rest of the world has taken us to some pretty amazing places. This particular spot was so good I wanted to take a moment to share it with more people, in hopes to encourage more people to visit this amazing place and/or see that you can have a wedding in a less than usual place and treat your guests to more than just a wedding, treat them to an amazing experience.
Moeraki is a small fishing village that was once a whaling station. The bay is full of small fishing boats.
Fleur’s place sits out on a little piece of land that juts out into the bay.
The exterior of the building is surrounded in the history of this place. Old boats, old jetties, and other signs of the past life of this location are all slowly fading away in the elements.
This is one of New Zealand's most iconic restaurants, and is literally packed to the rafters with old South Island charm. The interior of the venue itself is beautifully worn, well used, welcoming and homely. Fleurs place is authentically rustic, in a way that is getting hard to find in New Zealand. It’s not made to look charming and vintage, it just is.
First thing to note is the walls. They are covered in hand written messages from floor to ceiling (well actually the ceiling is partly covered too). People who come to Fleur’s place write a little note on a free spot somewhere on the walls. At Kath and James wedding one of the guests found a note written by his father many years ago. Many of the wedding guests also wrote messages on the walls too.
There are still a few free spots on the walls
Fleur’s Place is probably most famous for the straight off the boat fresh seafood. And yes, it is some of the best in New Zealand. But the other non-seafood dishes were fantastic as well.
Family style dinner, with big plates of food being shared around friends and family is a favourite of ours, as it’s a great shared experience and it’s great to photograph too.
I want to make something very clear, this is not just one of New Zealand’s best restaurants with amazing food (which Fleur’s place has in spades), it’s a unique experience you can’t find anywhere else in New Zealand. The atmosphere of this place is amazing.
There is a surprising amount of great accommodation available in this small little village. Accommodation options range from the small units at the Holiday Park, to large beautiful houses that can be rented through airbnb or other online booking sites. We found it easy to find a good place to stay. Even though most of the guests from the wedding were also staying in the village there was still accommodation available.
If you are interested in seeing some photos from the James and Kath’s wedding that we photographed at Fleur’s place, just click here to check it out. You can see in that post where they had their ceremony. Or here is one image from their wedding below :)
If you have any question’s don’t hesitate to contact us on hello@timandnadine.com. We would love to hear from you.
We hope you have an amazing wedding day!
