NZ Wedding Vendor Awards | Awards Process

New Zealand Wedding Vendor Awards

AWARDS PROCESS

NZWVA 2026 Nomination Period: Nominations open at 12 noon on Thursday October 16, 2025 and close at 9pm Wednesday February 4, 2026.

Nominations: Vendors can be nominated by industry peers, clients, or be self-nominated. Nominees must meet specific criteria set out below (e.g., years of experience, client satisfaction, quality of service etc) to qualify. Nominations are submitted through our online nomination page, where nominators can put forward their vendor nominee and provide supporting evidence such as testimonials and service details.

Verification & Evaluation: A finalist panel of industry experts review each nomination to ensure eligibility and assess quality, innovation, and service excellence guided by the criteria below.

Finalists Selection: After deliberation, a shortlist of top vendors in each category is determined based on scoring from the panel and nomination submissions. There will be up to 20 finalists who will be selected per category with a split of up to 10 finalists from the South Island and up to 10 finalists from the North Island. The physical location of the main/registered office will determine which Island the nominee will be representing. In any case where only one finalist is named in a category, a minimum of 50 votes is required for them to be eligible to receive the appropriate Island and National Award.

Voting: The announcement of finalists and commencement of award voting will take place on Wednesday March 11th, 2026. Voting closes on Wednesday May 27th, 2026 with a weighted voting system in place. The weighting is as follows:

5 votes: Couples who have had their wedding between April 1st, 2025 & March 31st, 2026 (inclusive of dates), who vote for a vendor finalist they've used on their wedding day will be allocated 5 votes per vote casted (i.e. potential of up to 10 votes per couple)
2 votes: All other couples who have had their wedding outside 01.04.25 and 31.03.26 who vote for a vendor finalist they've used on their wedding day will be allocated 2 votes per vote casted (i.e. potential of up to 4 votes per couple)
1 vote: General votes (including but not limited to those from industry peers, wedding guests, colleagues, family and friends) will be valued at 1 vote per vote casted.

Couples who vote will be required to attach evidence of their wedding date that includes their names (such as wedding invite, marriage certificate or digital photo album cover).

A valid email address must be provided upon voting with each email address being able to vote only once per category.

Winners Announcement: After the voting period ends, winners are determined 100% by couples and general voting. The finalist with the highest votes in each category will be announced as winners at the 2026 NZWVA Gala Dinner.

Important Dates:

Thursday October 16, 2025: Award Nominations open

Wednesday February 4, 2026: Nominations close/Finalist panel deliberation

Wednesday March 11, 2026: Finalists announced/Voting opens

Wednesday May 27, 2026: Voting closes

CRITERIA

Minimum term of service: at least 12 months of providing products or services for the NZ wedding industry (in business since October 16, 2024).

Client satisfaction: has at least a 4/5 reviews rating score or an equivalent customer reviews rating at time of nomination.

Quality of service: Measured though customer reviews, content across social media platforms, websites, and nominations. Looking for consistency in delivering high quality products/services that exceed client expectations, and the demonstration of professionalism, attention to detail, and expertise.

Industry Reputation: Measured by evidence supplied by nominators in the nomination process and evidence of collaborations with other wedding suppliers on websites and social platforms.

Categories: Evidence that vendors supply services or products belonging to the following categories

Attire for Her
Attire for Him
Cake Design
Catering- Beverage
Catering- Food
Celebrant
Content Creator/Producer
Decor/Theming
Entertainment- Broker
Entertainment- Act
Florist
Honeymoon Destination
Jewellers
Make-Up/Hair/Beauty
MC
Photo/Video Booth
Photography
Planning
Planning- Online Platform
Stationery
Transport
Venue- Ceremony
Venue- Reception
Videography

The Finalist Panel will use the criteria outlined above to determine the minimum term of service and client satisfaction aspects are met by finalists. On the other hand, a points scale system will be used to rate the quality of service and industry reputation aspects of the criteria. This will feature a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 representing no evidence in support and 10 representing an outstanding and overwhelming show of evidence in support.

AWARDS

Award Divisions: North Island and South Island

Categories: Top North Island vendor, Top South Island vendor, and Top National vendor per category

Attire for Her
Attire for Him
Cake Design
Catering- Beverage
Catering- Food
Celebrant
Content Creator/Producer
Decor/Theming
Entertainment- Broker
Entertainment- Act
Florist
Honeymoon Destination
Jewellers
Make-Up/Hair/Beauty
MC
Photo/Video Booth
Photography
Planning
Planning- Online Platform
Stationery
Transport
Venue- Ceremony
Venue- Reception
Videography

Community Awards: Top NZ vendor for each Community determined by voter's designated community

African
Chinese
European
Filipino
Indian
Māori
Pasifika
South American

NZWVA 2026 Vendor of The Year Award: Awarded to NZ's top wedding vendor across all categories

Award Recipient Policy: There is no substitute for attending the event in person, but we also appreciate there are legitimate reasons why finalists may not be able to attend the Awards Gala in person. In the interest of inclusivity and recognition of the very best wedding vendors across Aotearoa we will provide finalists with 3 options that will allow them to still qualify and be recognized as award winners. Upon acceptance of their Finalist nomination they will have the option of attending the awards gala in person, nominating someone or a group to attend on their behalf or attend virtually through livestream. Tickets will be made available from Wednesday March 11, 2026 at 12 noon.

INTEGRITY

Voters email addresses: Email addresses used by voters will be verified using Zerobounce software to eliminate invalid and duplicate email addresses.

Results: Final voting results for the award winners will be made public following the awards. This includes and is not limited to the provision of results (as a percentage of total category votes) made public through Winner Features on social media.

Event Vendors: All event vendors who will be providing services at the NZWVA Gala Dinner will be excluded from the awards. This includes Limelight DJ & Entertainment (the broker).

Representation: Up to 20 finalists will be chosen per category with a split of up to 10 finalists from the South Island and up to 10 finalists from the North Island. The physical location of the main/registered office will determine which Island the nominee will be representing.