Sandra Crisp and partner John Taina already have 65 per cent of the cost of their wedding covered by sponsors.

Sandra Crisp and partner John Taina already have 65 per cent of the cost of their wedding covered by sponsors.

Forget the proverbial free lunch - Sandra Crisp is well on her way to a free wedding.

The 28-year-old office worker and her partner, butcher John Taina, 24, have met with a strong response from businesses as they prepare for New Zealand's first sponsored wedding next April.

Three months after their wedding planner, Janet Hannah, began approaching potential sponsors, 65 per cent of the wedding's estimated $19,000 cost has been covered.

Sponsors have lined up to provide services ranging from the wedding disco, to the cake, to chocolate favours for the couple's 100 guests - goods and services valued at $12,000.

It was sports team sponsorship that put Crisp on to the idea.

"We didn't realise how much a wedding costs and I was getting a little disheartened because I knew that with what we have to pay now, it would be impossible."

With four children between the pair and $20,000 in student loans, sponsorship offered a way to pay for her dream wedding.

Crisp picked a wedding planner out of the yellow pages and tried her luck. "I thought she's either going to laugh at me or hang up, but Janet was lovely."

Crisp and Hannah said the enthusiasm from potential sponsors was a shock. Hannah took a package to local businesses which offered to name sponsors on the invitations and order of service, place business cards on the table and put links to sponsors' websites on a site being prepared - sponsored, naturally - for the big day.

The couple will also thank sponsors in the wedding speeches. "We have had an excellent response. It has been quite amazing," said Hannah, who had to choose from three photographers who offered their services.

Butterfly Creek director Mark Cummings, whose company is providing the reception venue and food, said as a new business, the "fresh idea" had appealed as a marketing tool.

With the wedding already attracting some media interest, he is confident Butterfly Creek's involvement will pay off as a branding exercise. "At the end of the day, it is a commercial decision." Normally, the venue would charge between $8000 and $10,000 for a wedding.

The company providing Crisp's wedding gown and flowergirl dresses, A Silver Sixpence Bridal, had different reasons for saying yes.