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Dame Jacinda Ardern’s��hens do may well have been spotted at a Hastings venue.��

As the former PM��and Clarke Gayford’s Hawke’s Bay wedding��draws near, a source told��Hawke’s Bay Today��that the wedding guests��had already arrived��and Ardern had visited��Hastings Distillers, a boutique bar for tasting its award-winning gins and liquers.��

She was with about a dozen women on Wednesday afternoon, the source said.��

A source says Dame Jacinda Ardern visited Hastings Distillers on Wednesday with about a dozen others, ahead of her Hawke's Bay wedding. Photo / ��һ�ǿ�������

The source said they were seated towards the back of the venue behind long navy blue velvet curtains.��

Hastings Distillers co-owner Kate Galloway said she could “neither confirm nor deny” that Ardern and her wedding party had visited her establishment on Wednesday when approached for comment from��Hawke’s Bay Today.��

It is not yet known where Gayford’s stag do will be held, but it could be related to��his love of fishing.��

Three charter companies approached by��Hawke’s Bay Today��said they had not taken Gayford or his wedding party on the water.��

Ardern and Gayford have been engaged since 2019, but��called off their wedding ceremony amid the Covid-19 Omicron outbreak��in January 2022.��

Hawke’s Bay Today��was told the event will take place at a vineyard in Hawke’s Bay, more than 200km away from where it was understood the wedding was planned to be held.��

• Former PM Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford to marry this month

A source said Dame Jacinda Ardern was seated with a party of women behind a long blue velvet curtain at the back of the venue. Photo / Hastings Distillery��

The couple began dating in 2014 after Gayford, a marine enthusiast and host of��Fish of the Day��and��Moving Houses, contacted the then-Labour list MP about proposed legislation in 2013.��

Gayford popped the question five years later with his��grandmother’s ring on Mokotahi Hill in northern Hawke’s Bay, as Diplomatic Protection Service officers kept watch nearby and a local dog tried to eat the chocolate he’d packed for the occasion.��

The cliff-top proposal came 10 months after the��birth of the couple’s daughter Neve��and 18 months after Ardern became the country’s second-youngest Prime Minister when the then Labour Party leader formed a coalition with Winston Peters and New Zealand First.��

When Ardern��resigned as Prime Minister��almost a year ago, citing exhaustion, the bride-to-be included a special message to Gayford alongside promises to try and find ways to “keep working for New Zealand” and take Neve to her first day of school.��

“And to Clarke: let’s finally get married.”��

A local celebrant says the event will put a spotlight on the region��and encourage others to pick Hawke’s Bay as a wedding destination.��