Celebrating the big day at last!

Initial Contact

You will approach a celebrant by phone, email or in person.

First meeting

After initial contact, most probably by phone, a getting-to-know-you meeting should be arranged at a mutually convenient time and place, when you will be able to have a chat and assess whether you and your celebrant are suited to one another. At this stage you may be happy to go ahead, or you may need to have a think about it, and you are under no obligation to proceed at this point.

Second meeting

When you do make a decision to go ahead and book the celebrant of your choice, you will need to contact him or her and arrange a meeting to complete legal paperwork and to begin discussing your ceremony. The celebrant will assist you in filling out a Notice of Intention to Marry (NOIM), and you will pay the celebrant a non-refundable booking fee to get your paperwork under way and to reserve the celebrant for your chosen date.

The NOIM is an important legal document which declares your intention to marry, and your freedom to do so. Your celebrant will need to see documents confirming proof of date of birth and marital status as follows:

• Australian birth certificate if born in Australia
• Birth Certificate or overseas passport if born overseas
• Statutory declaration, if neither of the above is available
• Decree absolute or death certificate in the case of divorce or widowhood

All this will be explained in detail by your celebrant. If you have lost your birth certificate, a new document (an official “extract” of birth certificate) can be obtained from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/ for enquiries in New South Wales).  Please note: an Australian passport is not an acceptable proof of date of birth.

Unless under exceptional circumstances, the NOIM MUST BE LODGED with your celebrant no less than 1 calendar month plus 1 day, and no more than 18 months before the date of your intended marriage.

At the time of our meeting, I will provide you with my Wedding Folder with lots of useful information to help you with your plans, and including a name change kit (see Step 8 below).

Crafting your wedding ceremony

Next step is lots of fun and very exciting - working on your wedding ceremony, either alone or with as little or as much help and support as you need from your celebrant. I am more than happy to have further meetings as necessary, or, if you prefer, we can maintain contact by email and/or phone.

Final pre-wedding meeting

Close to the date of the wedding, usually about a week out, a final meeting with the celebrant will take place, during which all details regarding your ceremony should be confirmed. Further legal paperwork will be filled out and signed at this time, including a statutory declaration declaring that there is no legal impediment to your marriage.

At this meeting, the balance of the celebrant’s fees is due. This sum MUST BE PAID IN FULL before your wedding day. Thinking about outstanding money is the last thing you will be wanting to do on your wedding day, or worse, on your honeymoon.

Rehearsal

While not mandatory, I strongly advise a rehearsal with your celebrant and all members of the wedding party, readers, singers, musicians etc, to ensure that everyone knows what to do and that there are no avoidable dramas on the day. This should be arranged for sometime during the final week before your wedding day, and may be organised to coincide with your meeting with your celebrant.

The Big Day

It is the responsibility of your celebrant to arrive in plenty of time, appropriately dressed, before the ceremony (half an hour is about right.) He or she will be a calm and smiling presence, making sure that everything is in order as planned, and, if previously arranged, will ensure that a table, suitably covered, is set up for the signing of the register. If required, the celebrant will supply, setup and test a PA system with microphones to ensure that the ceremony is audible to all guests. The best systems incorporate a CD player so that music is easily played and heard in an outdoor setting.

Your celebrant will greet members of the wedding party, reassure anxieties and calm nerves. (If she’s wise, she will also have at hand an emergency kit in her bag of tricks to deal with any unforeseen little dramas - safety pins, hair pins, tissues for those tears of joy etc etc) She will liaise with other wedding professionals (photographer, florist etc) to make sure that everything is running smoothly.

At the close of your ceremony, you will sign three documents:  

• The celebrant’s Marriage Register,
• The Certificate of Marriage which is forwarded to the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages
• A presentation Civil Marriage Certificate (Form 15) for you to keep as your personal record that the marriage has taken place

Your celebrant, if using up-to-date registration procedures, will register your marriage on the same day online, and will promptly forward all legal paperwork to the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (required within 14 days.)

The Marriage Certificate and change of bride’s name

The various documents which you are required to sign to record your marriage officially can be a little confusing.  There is in fact a fourth one which you should know about: 

While many brides nowadays choose not to change their surname to that of their husband on marrying, many still do.  They will then want to change details of driver’s licence, passport, bank accounts etc.  In this case, they should be aware that the Certificate of Marriage which they receive on their wedding day, while being a numbered legal document of proof that the marriage has taken place, is not acceptable as a proof of identity document to such authorities as the Passport Office and the RTA.   An official record of the marriage (a ‘Standard Marriage Certificate’) is available for a small fee on application to the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages as soon as the marriage is registered. This is legitimately acceptable for change of name purposes.  Note:  this document is not automatically issued, but must be requested from the Registry as above.

Immediately after your wedding, I will lodge all the information relating to your marriage with the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages online, and follow up with mailing the relevant the documents.  At this time, I am happy to make the necessary arrangements to request the Standard Marriage Certificate.  It will be sent to the newly married bride in a matter of days by the Department.  Minimum of fuss!