The Marriage Process
The Marriage Act 1961 has certain requirements that marriage celebrants must comply with in dealing with couples planning their marriage.
A Notice of Intended Marriage (NOIM) must be lodged with the celebrant no less than one calendar month and no earlier than eighteen months prior to the proposed wedding date. These forms are available from your celebrant or if you prefer you can download one by clicking NOIM. You will require Adobe Reader 7 to access this PDF file.
My role as a marriage celebrant is to work with couples to assist them through this very important and special life event. I do this by:-
Having an initial meeting with the couples where we get to know each other, discuss marriage in general and discuss what couples are looking for in relation to engaging a celebrant.
Once a couple have decided to engage me as their celebrant, I provide a resource kit to help plan their wedding ceremony and we complete the necessary legal documentation.
At a second meeting we discuss the law in relation to marriage in Australia, my role as your celebrant, we plan the wedding and we spend some time discussing the style of ceremony you would like and we actually go through the process of writing the ceremony.
An additional meeting can be scheduled if required.
If it is required a rehearsal can be arranged but generally these are not necessary.
Leading up to the wedding day close contact is maintained with the couple and the final format for the ceremony is provided to the couple for approval.
Assistance in developing an Order of Service is provided.
Collaborating with the wedding photographer to ensure that the couples photographic record of the wedding ceremony meets their expectations.
Most ceremonies, including the certificate signing, last approximately 20 minutes. This depend upon the couples requirements for readings, music etc.
Remember that couples are able to design their own special wedding ceremony. The Marriage Act 1961 only requires the inclusion of some phrases in the ceremony for the marriage to be legal under the law, as your celebrant I will work around this requirement and work with you to make your ceremony "special".
The following basis wedding ceremonies and vows are provided to provide couples with some ideas. I also have others available for us to work with.
And some other samples resources:
Remember I will help you plan you wedding and ceremony so that your day is special for you.
