Micro Weddings
and Elopements
A day that feels exactly
like the two of you.
The micro wedding and elopement market is growing because couples have worked out something the wedding industry has been slow to admit: smaller is better. Since COVID and with the rising cost of living, we have seen a shift in the market and how people want to celebrate their love; intimate and bespoke.
The team at Tuckers Lane is committed to connection and personal touches just for you. Our spaces, architected with you in mind, are designed to ensure your special day is exactly as you imagined and surrounded by loved ones.
So, Who are we?
We’re Carolyn and Paul Shields, the owner-operators of Tuckers Lane Boutique Accommodation and Tuckers Lane Custom Furniture. In 2016 we left our corporate lives in Sydney, bought 43 acres in the Hunter Valley, and set about building something we’d always imagined: a property that genuinely reflects the way we think beautiful things should be made.
Every cabin, every bridge, every beam in the Ironbark Pavilion was conceived, designed, and built by us. It’s not a project we handed off. It’s a place we’ve made, and it’s the reason nothing at Tuckers Lane feels like anywhere else.
How to Choose: an Elopement or a Micro Wedding?
The entire property is exclusively yours for your wedding day, and you get to decide how it is choreographed.
An elopement at Tuckers Lane is about the venue.
You bring your people, your celebrant, your photographer, your florist if you want one. We provide the Ironbark Pavilion, the 43 acres, the private cabin and spa, and the kind of backdrop that makes every photo feel like it was taken on another planet. The day is entirely yours to shape. Perfect for couples who want to arrive, breathe, and do it their way.
A micro wedding at Tuckers Lane is a fully coordinated package.
We handle the pieces, working with our curated network of local caterers, florists, photographers and celebrants to bring your vision together from ceremony through to celebration. You make the decisions. We make them happen.
Perfect for couples who want the intimate scale without the logistics.
Elopements — Just the two of you
If the thought of eighty guests makes you both quietly exhausted, an elopement at Tuckers Lane may be exactly what you’re looking for.
Walk across our handmade timber bridge. Exchange vows at the Ironbark Pavilion with the dam as your witness and 43 acres of native Australian bushland stretching out beyond you. Take photographs in landscape that no amount of floristry or venue dressing could replicate: kangaroos at dusk, swans on the water, golden light through the eucalypts.
Then retire to your cabin. Your private outdoor spa will be waiting. The kitchenette will be stocked. There is absolutely nowhere you need to be.
Elopements at Tuckers Lane are available year-round. Reach out to Carolyn to talk through what your day could look like; there are no packages here, just possibilities.
What is a Micro Wedding?
A micro wedding is an intimate ceremony, typically 20 to 50 guests, where every detail gets the attention it deserves because the list is short enough to deserve it.
At Tuckers Lane, we can accommodate up to 34 guests comfortably for wedding celebrations that need a little more room. The weddings we fall in love with are the ones where everyone in the room is someone who really matters. If you do have more guests you would like to invite, please have the discussion with us as we want to accommodate where we possibly can.
The format is entirely yours.
A ceremony only, followed by a long lunch with the entertainer.
An afternoon cocktail hour under the ironbark beams.
A full sit-down dinner for your closest people under the Hunter Valley sky.
We work with a handpicked network of local suppliers including caterers, florists, photographers, celebrants, and our team will help you bring every piece of it together, from the first enquiry through to the last dance.
Why Couples Choose Tuckers Lane
Our Ironbark Pavilion was built by hand, by Paul and his son Cooper, from century-old ironbark timber salvaged and shaped with the kind of care you simply cannot commission from a catalogue. It seats an intimate gathering looking out over one of our dams and holds them in one of the most quietly extraordinary ceremony spaces in the Hunter Valley.
Just your people, a handcrafted space, and a day that feels exactly like you always imagined it, but better.
Then there are Carolyn and Hayley, who make sure it’s about you from the moment you arrive and all the details are to perfection. Carolyn’s attention to detail and going above and beyond are in her DNA because once you stay at Tucker’s Lane, you become family.
Tucker’s Lane is a proudly inclusive venue. Every couple, every love story, every kind of commitment, welcome here.
Our Spaces
The Ironbark Pavilion
Walk across our solid timber bridge and down a 35-metre curved aisle to our purpose-built ceremony space, set against the backdrop of our large open dam.
The main features of the intricate roof structure were hand-built by Paul and our son Cooper in our onsite workshop. The timber is over 100-year-old ironbark, salvaged from the original Wingham Library in northern NSW and shaped into something entirely new. Enveloped by Australian gums and ironbark trees, it seats up to 30 guests, or 60-80 standing, for your ceremony in one of the most quietly extraordinary spaces in the Hunter Valley.
The Entertainer
Our expansive outdoor timber deck overlooks the grounds and is furnished with solid timber tables, comfortable chairs, and a woodfire pizza oven. Fully enclosable with weatherproof screens, it works beautifully in every season — and the styling possibilities are endless. Rustic and elegant. Native and earthy. Soft and romantic. Whatever the vision, this space delivers it with mood lighting, outdoor fans or heaters, and scenery that does most of the work for you.
The Wedding Preparation Suite
A dedicated space for hair, makeup, and getting ready, purpose-built to feel like exactly the right place to spend the morning of your wedding.
Relaxed, beautiful, and private.
If you have massage or beauty therapists joining you, this space works perfectly for that too, and transforms into a private day spa for guests staying on-site.
The Cabins
Five self-contained adults-only cabins, three one-bedroom and two two-bedroom, sleeping up to 16 guests on-site. Each one is fashioned from recycled shipping containers and fitted with a private outdoor spa, BBQ deck, full kitchen, and everything you need to settle in and stay a while. Your wedding guests don’t need to go anywhere. And they won’t want to.
The Property
43 acres with two open dams, landscaped grounds, large gum forests, handmade timber bridges, and more photographic moments than you’ll have time for. Kangaroos at dusk. Swans on the water. Sunsets that need no filter.
Ready to talk about your day?
Frequently Asked Questions, Micro Weddings Hunter Valley
Where is Tuckers Lane?
Tuckers Lane is located in North Rothbury in the Hunter Valley wine country, approximately 2.5 hours from Sydney. We recommend exiting via Wine Country Drive. Note that the final approach includes some unsealed road, part of the experience of arriving somewhere genuinely away from it all.