The nine costs below are not in any Fiji wedding package price, and most of them are not in any competitor's budget guide either. Together they can add 20 to 30 per cent to a quoted figure. One of them is three weeks old at the time of writing and almost nobody has updated for it yet.
Start with that one, because it changes the arithmetic on every quote you have been given.
1. The new Tourism Services Tax — and the booking date that decides whether you pay it
Fiji introduced a 5 per cent Tourism Services Tax (TST) on 1 September 2026. It applies to tourism operators — hotels, tour operators, cruise companies — with annual turnover above FJ$2 million, which covers every resort a destination wedding is likely to use.
It sits on top of VAT, which has been 12.5 per cent since 1 August 2025. A resort invoice from a large operator now carries a cumulative 17.5 per cent.
Two details matter enormously and both are published by Fiji's Ministry of Finance rather than by any resort:
- It is being introduced as a temporary measure, for 12 months, running 1 September 2026 to 31 August 2027.
- It applies only to new bookings made on or after 1 September 2026. Bookings made before that date are not subject to TST "even where the tourism service is provided after that date".
So if you contracted your venue in August 2026 for a 2027 wedding, TST should not appear on your invoice. If it does, ask. And if you are contracting now, the 5 per cent is real and should be in your budget, not discovered later.
What you should not be charged: Service Turnover Tax and the Environment & Climate Adaptation Levy. STT was removed in the 2020–21 budget and ECAL's services provisions were deleted from 1 April 2022. Any quote, blog or checklist still listing "VAT + STT + ECAL" is running on pre-2022 information. Several still are.
Be equally alert to stale VAT. Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort's intimate wedding package page, valid to 31 March 2027, still states "Price is inclusive of 15% taxes" — a rate that ended in July 2025. That is a page that needs updating, not a trap, but it tells you how carefully to read.
2. Ferry fuel surcharges, charged per person per sector
If any part of your wedding is on an island, every guest pays a fuel surcharge on every leg, and it is not in the ferry fare you were quoted.
| Sector | Adult | Child (2–15) |
|---|---|---|
| Resort transfer, Mamanuca islands | FJ$10 each way | FJ$10 each way |
| Resort transfer, Yasawa islands | FJ$15 each way | FJ$10 each way |
| Between Mamanuca and Yasawa | FJ$15 each way | FJ$10 each way |
| On any Package or Pass | FJ$20 per person | — |
Effective for travel from 1 September 2026, published by Yasawa Adventures Fiji and South Sea Cruises, and explicitly under periodic review.
On a 40-guest Yasawa wedding that is FJ$1,200 in surcharges alone, before a single ferry ticket. The ticket itself is separate: Lomani Island Resort publishes FJ$121 per adult one way, Malolo Island Resort FJ$152, VOMO Island FJ$305. The island matters more than the resort does for transfer cost.
3. The exchange rate your venue used, not the one you'll get
Resorts quote in AUD and NZD as a courtesy, and they lock those conversions to a date. InterContinental Fiji publishes, on its own package page, that "Australian dollar prices are indicative and based on the exchange rate with Fiji Dollar on 24 July 2025" — over a year before the package's validity ends.
Castaway Island Resort quotes AUD to the cent alongside FJD, which means the AUD figure is auto-converted and moves.
Treat the FJD figure as the price and everything else as indicative. If you budget from a stale AUD number and the rate moves against you, the gap is yours. Fix your own budget to FJD and convert on the day you pay.
Conversions are not stated in this article because the Fijian dollar moves; take yours on the day. The Reserve Bank of Fiji publishes an indicative daily rate and states explicitly that it does "not necessarily reflect the rates at which the licensed commercial banks and foreign exchange dealers are willing to deal with customers".
4. Card surcharges — legal, uncapped, and inconsistently published
Fiji has no cap on card surcharging. The Reserve Bank of Fiji withdrew its no-surcharge instruction to commercial banks on 31 October 2013 and asked only that surcharges be appropriately displayed. There is no Fijian equivalent of Australia's cost-of-acceptance rules.
What that looks like in practice: Yasawa Adventures publishes three different figures on its own websites — a 3 per cent administration fee on all international debit and credit card transactions on one page, 2.5 per cent for Visa and Mastercard with 3 per cent for Amex on another, and "2.5–3%" on a third.
Add 2.5 to 3 per cent to every supplier payment you make by card, and ask about bank transfer for the large ones.
5. Corkage, or an outright BYO ban
Almost no Fiji resort publishes a corkage policy, which means you find out when you ask. Two that do publish tell you how wide the range is:
- VOMO Island Fiji: FJ$30 corkage per bottle, with guests welcome to bring personal quantities in their luggage.
- Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort: "BYOB is strictly prohibited at private functions."
Duty-free spirits bought at Nadi are not a saving if the venue will not let you serve them. Ask before you buy.
6. Minimum nights you didn't know you'd agreed to
No Fiji resort publishes a standalone minimum-stay rule for weddings. What they publish is accommodation bundled inside the package, which does the same job:
- Fiji Marriott Resort Momi Bay: two nights in the Dreamy package, three in the Tropical and Grand.
- Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort: four nights for the couple in both the Intimate and Dream packages.
- Castaway Island Resort: four nights in an island bure for the couple.
- Yatule Resort & Spa: three nights in the elopement package, plus return Nadi airport transfers.
- Fiji Hideaway Resort & Spa: all guests must be staying at the resort for the Paradise package to be valid.
That last one is the one to read twice. A package priced for 30 people that requires all 30 to be in-house is an accommodation commitment dressed as a wedding price.
7. Per-head charges above the package headcount
Package prices are quoted at a guest number. Above it, you pay per person, and the rates are published where the packages are:
| Venue | Package basis | Each additional guest |
|---|---|---|
| Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort — Intimate | 10 guests, max 29 | FJ$170 |
| Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort — Dream | Min 30, max 100 | FJ$180 |
| Yatule Resort & Spa — All Inclusive | Up to 30 | FJ$215 adult, FJ$99 child |
| InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa — Nuku Vulavula | Published package | FJ$353 adult, FJ$204 child under 12 |
Eight unexpected acceptances at InterContinental's rate is FJ$2,824. Build the ceiling into the budget, not the invitation list.
8. Blackout dates, seasonal loadings and public holidays
InterContinental Fiji publishes both a seasonal price step and hard blackouts: its Nuku Vulavula package is FJ$17,608 in the January–March and October–December windows and FJ$19,564 in the April–July and July–September windows, with weddings unavailable 4–17 July 2026, 26 September – 9 October 2026 and 23 December 2026 – 4 January 2027. Outrigger excludes 24, 25, 26, 30 and 31 December and 1 January.
A nearly two-thousand-dollar swing sits on which side of a date line your wedding falls.
On public holidays, a warning rather than a list. Fiji's official 2027 public holiday schedule has not been published — the government's holidays page still lists 2026 only. Any 2027 Fiji holiday list you find right now is a third-party projection, not a gazetted date. If you are planning a 2027 wedding, you cannot yet check it against official holidays, and you should ask your venue whether holiday loadings apply before you sign.
9. Apostille, and the paperwork tail after the wedding
Some countries want your Fijian marriage certificate apostilled before they will recognise it. This is cheap and easy in Fiji and slow and annoying from home.
Matamanoa Island Resort is one of the few to publish a price: FJ$337.50 including tax for the apostille stamp. Castaway Island notes only that "Apostle stamping for acknowledgement required in some overseas countries".
Ask your coordinator before you fly home. Also budget the marriage licence itself — modest, but the published Fiji government figures conflict with each other, so confirm the current fee rather than trusting any page. Can you get married in Fiji without residency? sets out that conflict in full.
Legal, immigration and tax details here are a guideline only. Confirm tax treatment with the Fiji Revenue & Customs Service and marriage requirements with the Registrar-General's Office, Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry.
What to do with this
Take your current quote, then add: 17.5 per cent tax if booked from September 2026, ferry surcharges times guests times sectors, 2.5–3 per cent on card payments, your realistic over-headcount number, and an FX buffer. If the total still works, you have a real budget rather than a brochure.
Then read Fiji Wedding Cost Breakdown: Every Line Item and What a Fiji Wedding Actually Costs, build it in The Fiji Wedding Budget Spreadsheet, and check whether Wedding Insurance for a Fiji Wedding is worth it for your dates.
