Registry or Elopement Wedding

Registry or Elopement Wedding

Well, sadly, it seems that 2021 isn’t shaping up to be everything we’d hoped for – with lockdowns and border closures clearly set to continue for some time.

 

What does this mean for your wedding plans – especially if you have already been in a ‘holding pattern’ or changed your previous date.

 

You have already found the person you want to spend the rest of your life with – maybe it’s   worth considering a short and sweet Elopement Style or Mobile Registry Wedding?

 

And then in a year or two, when life is more certain – have your Big Wedding Day, complete with guests, celebrant, vows, exchange of rings and everything you ever dreamed of.  The only thing missing will be the legal words of the Monitum stated by the Celebrant.  Everything else can be the same.

 

Australia is one of the simplest places in the world to have a legal marriage.  Below are the usual steps to be taken in order to fulfil the legal requirements:

 

Step 1:  Lodge a Notice of Intended Marriage: You can either meet with me for this purpose – or have an approved person witness your signatures-  and then you email the document back to me. The date that I receive your email, is the date that the NOIM is ‘lodged’.

 

Step 2: We organise a date.  We agree a price, depending on the date, time, place and number of people planned to attend.  (Prices start from $300).  You pay a deposit in order to secure that date and time, with the balance due 6 weeks prior to the ceremony.

 

Step 3:  Before the ceremony, the celebrant must sight…. ORIGINALS of your passports.  Plus any Death, Divorce, or Name Change Certificates as relevant.

 

Step 4:  We then meet for your ceremony at a place of your choosing.  A restaurant, Kings Park, a beach, your home, on a boat – in fact just about anywhere.  We will need 2 adults over the age of 18 to witness your signatures; but if you want to be really discreet, I can provide these witnesses for you.

 

THAT’S IT.  SIMPLE. ?   ALL YOU NEED, TO BE LEGALLY MARRIED IN AUSTRALIA.

 

If you want to have a more traditional ‘wedding’, of course I can help with that too: just give me your location, number of guests etc and I can give you a separate quote for this.

 

NB. I don’t charge a fee for actually lodging this Notice of Intended Marriage.  I provide this as a goodwill service – so perhaps do this part as soon as you can, then it’s another thing you don’t have to worry about later.  Nothing is payable to me until you decide on a time and date.  So for now, it’s probably a good idea to lodge the NOIM, as it lasts for 18 months from the date I receive it.  If you choose a different Celebrant for any reason, I can simply pass this NOIM on to them, or you can complete a new one.  Let me know if you have any questions about the above.

Wedding or Elopement