Paper Plus Wanaka manager Chris Lumsden said the courier was late delivering the magazines yesterday morning and only half of the 200 magazines ordered half arrived.
Mr Lumsden had to reopen the order book as all 100 magazines the courier delivered had to be put aside for pre-orders.
The magazine Woman's Day bought the rights to cover the wedding of former All Black
McCaw and New Zealand hockey player Flynn at The Olive Grove on Saturday.
The special issue went on sale in the North Island on Monday but South Islanders had to wait until yesterday to buy their copy.
Mr Lumsden ordered four times his usual quota to meet demand and the first customer was waiting for the shop to open at 8.30am.
Most customers took the extra wait ''in their stride'' but one Wanaka man said his wife told him ''don't bother coming home without it''.
Four Square Kurow shop assistant Roz Gillingham said the shop usually ordered four copies of the magazine each week but 42 issues arrived yesterday.
More than 20 of the special issues had sold by 3pm, she said.
If some of the stock failed to sell, she intended to take her first look at the wedding photos before returning excess copies to the publisher.
Fresh Choice Green Island grocery manager Jeremy Bray said the Dunedin supermarket usually ordered about 80 copies of the weekly magazine and 120 copies arrived yesterday.
Nearly 50 copies had sold by 3pm.
He was surprised more copies had not sold.
''I thought as it was a special one it would have flown off the shelves.''
-Additionally reported by Kerrie Waterworth
