Mantells Tāmaki Drive - Wedding Venue Review

I photographed a wedding here a few months ago and I was absolutely blown away. Mantells have transformed what was once an old Navy League building into something really special. They have done such a great job in creating a space that is clean, elegant, and oh so tasteful.

I'm going to walk through what a wedding at Mantells Tāmaki Drive looks like and sharing some photos along the way. This will hopefully give you some insight into this beautiful new wedding venue.

You've probably heard of Mantells before, they're a huge name in Auckland and are renowned for their hospitality. You may have been to a wedding at their Mt Eden space before but this new venue builds on their years of experience creating beautiful weddings.

The Ceremony Location

Mantells Tāmaki drive have opted for an indoor ceremony and when you see the space you'll understand why. It's design perfection. The space is filled with light, the walls and ceiling are all painted white, and it's all tied together with a beautiful wooden floor. A full length mirror wall runs the length of the room, which completely opens up the space, creating an atmosphere that is really magical. My couple who's wedding you're seeing here, brought an arch which was built by the groom, Mark, and as you can see, it looks great! If you don't want to organise an arch, I think the space would also look stunning as is.

Also, what's great about an indoor ceremony space is you're never going to have to deal with any stress of worrying about the weather. No matter what is going on with the weather, your guests will be comfortable and everything will look perfect.

Post ceremony hugs and high fives

After the ceremony, you move through into the bar and mingling area and the drinks and canapes are a flowin' while you're getting your hugs and high-fives on. This space is so stunning and is perfect for this. There's tons of seating on hand so once people have said hello they can grab a drink and take a seat and just relax and enjoy themselves. This area flows out into an outdoor space too, which has stunning views of the water. And don't get me started on the light in this room - so good!

Once everyone's congratulated you, I’ve found that you can then do the group photo in this space. After that's done, we can get all the family to follow us back to the ceremony room. By this point all the staff have cleared out the chairs and it's the perfect place to do all the family photos. In between the mingling area and the ceremony area, there’s an atrium space where we took a photo with the grandparents as they were already seated there and it looks great.

Wedding Party Photo Locations

Now it's time to head out for some photos with your wedding party! These guys didn't want to go too far with their wedding party, so we just jumped across the road for a few quick portraits.

In terms of other nearby locations you could consider, you could head a few hundred metres down the road to the beach. There's a bunch of cool rocks there too that you could get amongst. Another cool spot is where the rocks meet the water.

Then we went up the road with the couple to this really rad wharf/jetty.

After that we missioned a few more minutes up the road to the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial Park.

The Reception

The reception space at Mantells Tāmaki Drive is similar to the ceremony space. It is filled with white tables and uses the same chairs as the ceremony space. Having a feature mirror wall in the reception room too makes for some awesome composition opportunites. I loved getting creative and using the mirrors to create interesting reflections.

And of course food, food, and more glorious food. If you're interested in having your wedding at Mantells it's probably because you're a foodie. The wedding I photographed here had a NINE COURSE shared platter service. And it was incredible. Cue photos of foodie goodness.

The Dancefloor

Mantells set up the cake next to the bar so you can cut the cake and then start cutting shapes on the dance floor. This area is super nice for this because with the outdoor space right there it means people can go outside, grab a seat and chill, while still being near the dance floor if they want to jump in.

At this wedding, I asked my couple if they were keen for a night shot, and I got double thumbs up, so out we went and created something a little special - a night shot with the cityscape in the background, framed by the beautiful Pohutukawas. The location of the venue being so central means that you have a huge variety of photo locations to choose from.

More information

You can check out Mantell’s website here to see more photos and information - www.mantellstamakidrive.nz
Phone: 09 631 0099
Email: mantells@mantells.co.nz
Physical Address: 19 Tāmaki Drive, Orakei, Auckland

If you have any questions for me about anything wedding related feel free to shoot me an email: jonathan@jonathansuckling.com

Or if you’re interested in having me as your wedding photographer then hit that contact button below!