Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford are embroiled in a stoush with an angry venue owner after the couple ditched their original wedding location.
Robin Pierson, who is the owner of the Bushmere Arms venue, located just out of Gisborne says Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford booked the venue two years ago - but talks have broken down after a stoush over catering by a Kiwi celebrity chef.
"Jacinda and Clarke came here two years ago, she sat on the barstool and said, 'We'd like to book our wedding here,'" Pierson told the Herald on Sunday.
"Jacinda told me, 'Peter Gordon has always said he wanted to be involved in my wedding' to which I said, 'I'll have a free cooking lesson any day,' thinking it would be a collaborative effort and we would be working together."
The stoush started when Pierson noticed she wouldn't be involved with the catering and it would be left solely up to Gordon.
"I got sent a proposed menu from Peter Gordon's 'man,' which had been worked out with the bride and groom," Pierson told the NZ Herald. "It was then I suddenly realised I wasn't involved in the catering at all and that Peter Gordon had clearly been contracted to do the food."
Pierson says dealings with the couple were "insulting" and claimed the couple is refusing to pay a cancellation fee, according to the NZ Herald.
A spokesperson for Ardern confirmed her and Gayford's first choice wedding venue hadn't worked out.
"The Bushmere Arms was the Prime Minister and Clarke Gayford's first choice as a wedding venue, but unfortunately as is the case with many weddings, not every initial arrangement works out as planned," the spokesperson told the Herald on Sunday.
