Australia Is The Easiest Place In The World To Get Married!

Posted by Liz Hayes on Jan 3, 2020 in Weddings | Comments Off on Australia Is The Easiest Place In The World To Get Married!

Below is some helpful information around getting married in this beautiful country….

1. Traditional Weekend Weddings – at any number of beautiful venues and locations around Western Australia. Only limited by your imagination – on a boat, in a restaurant, in an aeroplane, at home, in a tree house – it really doesn’t matter. You just need to find the right celebrant for your style.
2. Traditional Weekday Weddings – these are as above but are conducted midweek. This is a really good way to save money, as most vendors are happy to offer a small discount on weekday weddings as there isn’t usually such high demand. The British Royal Family used to have their weddings on Thursdays – but I doubt it was for the discount! Another advantage to the weekday weddings is that the venues themselves are often quieter. I recently conducted a Monday wedding at Caversham House and the couple and their guests had the whole place to themselves – it was beautiful!
3. Registry Office Marriages – traditionally these took place at the government office in the city (Births, Deaths and Marriages). This does involve dealing with parking, traffic, office workers with coffees in hand, sharing the lift with the happy couple! Current fee is $390 and 2 appointments needed, so that the one month lodgment rule is fulfilled. Nowadays, Marriage Celebrants also conduct Registry Style Weddings – but these are more flexible and can be more fun/romantic. The celebrant can receive and lodge the Notice of Intended Marriage via email, or with a face to face meeting with the couple. The Marriage Ceremony itself can then be conducted in any location of the couple’s choice. Kings Park, Cottesloe Beach, in the couple’s home, at a local café, or even at The Lucky Shag!
4. Overseas Weddings – including UK and Europe, but also Bali, Thailand etc. Many overseas countries have rules around their legal marriages, that can make getting legally married there, quite a challenge. For example in Indonesia (Bali), a couple must be of the same religion – and there is always a religious component involved. In the UK, I believe that the couple has to be physically in the country before a legal marriage can take place. The most common and simplest way to have an Overseas Wedding, is to actually have the Bali Wedding, or the Wedding Back Home as normal, but leave out the legal part until returning to Australia to ‘tidy up the paperwork’. Your Real Wedding is the day that you have a Celebrant conducting your ceremony; where you exchange your vows and rings in front of your family and friends and where you declare your love and commitment to each other. Then you can meet with a celebrant (or go to the BDM Office) and have a 5 minute legalising ceremony on your return to Australia (I can help put you in touch with celebrants in England, Bali or Lombok for those who might be interested).

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS FOR A LEGAL AUSTRALIAN MARRIAGE

1. A Notice of Intended Marriage needs to be lodged with a Celebrant, or with the Office of Births, Deaths and Marriages (or with your authorised Church Minister) at least one month before the Marriage can take place. You do not have to be in Australia to comply with this: it can be lodged via email, but the witness for your signatures would need to be a Notary Public or someone of the Australian Consulate or Embassy in the country where you are staying.
2. There is no requirement for the couple to physically be in Australia for any length of time before the wedding takes place. Effectively, a legal ceremony could take place at the airport as soon as you clear Immigration!
3. On the day of the wedding, 2 people over the age of 18 need to witness the ceremony and sign the certificate to state that they have done so. These witnesses can be known to the couple, or not known.
4. The legal part of the ceremony is simply the Monitum, spoken by the celebrant and 4 lines of legal vows spoken by the couple. That’s it. Sign the certificate and you’re on your way…. Usually we like to add more tradition and creativity, but above is the basis for the legalities.

STEPS NEEDED FOR YOU TO FULFIL LEGAL REQUIREMENTS FOR A LEGAL AUSTRALIAN MARRIAGE

1. Lodge a Notice of Intended Marriage.  You can contact me (or any celebrant) and ask for this to be emailed to you, or you can download from the website of the BDM office.  Complete this document, either with me – or if it’s easier, have a police officer, a medical doctor, a JP or a lawyer witness your signature and email it back to me. The date I receive the email is the date that your NOIM is ‘lodged’.
2. Before the Wedding takes place, you will need to show the Celebrant your passports as proof of ID. You will also need to show Original Certificates, as relevant, if a divorce or death ended any previous marriage – or if there have been any legal name changes.
3. Just before the ceremony takes place there will be another Declaration to sign – either on the day, or at another earlier time.
4. On the day of the ceremony, the ceremony takes place and the celebrant will give you your Presentation Certificate and will then register your marriage for you.