So you have your big day scheduled and have started planning? Great one!

Three things you MUST have. Literally, you need to have or your marriage is not legally binding or offical.
1. A wedding celebrant or approved person who is registered to officiate the marriage
2. Marriage licence
3. Witnesses to sign the documents with you at the wedding
Let's start from the top, shall we?
There are two types of weddings: Personalised wedding vs Registry wedding.
Personalised Wedding: The celebrant can charge their own fee and design their own packages. This is what I do! Generally, the wedding ceremony is developed around you, with the ability to write your own vows and add all the personal touches that you want within your ceremony. Sometimes, the celebrant will have a sound system available for use, be happy to travel and spend time writing a new ceremony for each couple. This is why every celebrants fee is different due to what they provide/ what is included in their service.
Registry Wedding: This is what people think of as a "courthouse" wedding. Fun-fact, they don't actually do them at the courthouse anymore! You need to provide a location and witnesses. I currently do not officiate registry weddings.
Set fee of $240 which includes the marriage licence ($150) and celebrant fee ($90). There is a set script (which can be found online if you want to look) that must be used. You can not write your own vows. It must be local to the celebrant. It is limited to 20 guests.
Now that we know about they types of weddings, lets move on to celebrants..
A wedding Celebrant
There are two types of celebrants who can officiate your special day:
Organisational Celebrant - They are associated with a church or organisation and perform marriages on behalf of the organisation.
Independent Celebrants - They are not associated with any organisation (this is me!). They have their own individual pricing which varies so make sure you inquire about their packages and fees.
Your celebrant will officiate your wedding, conducting the ceremony and ensuring all the legalities that need to be covered during the ceremony are met. Depending on the celebrant or package you choose it may be a fully bespoke ceremony or a standard script.
If you are in need of a celebrant get in touch! I love what I do and can't wait to start working on your big day.
A marriage licence
You, as the couple getting married need to fill in an application for a marriage licence. This costs $150 and is seperate to what you pay your celebrant for (unless you are having a registry wedding).
The marriage licence only takes 3 days to process and is valid for 3 months. I generally advise applying for the licence 3-4weeks prior to the wedding. That way if we have to push things back
*cough* F**k you COVID *cough* we still have a little wiggle room.
If you don't get married before it expires, you would have to apply and pay again.
For filling this in you will need about 15mins up your sleeve and details about:
yourself (birthday, place of birth, address)
at least one of your parents full name
your partners details (birthday, place of birth, address)
at least one of your partner’s parents’ full name
This is the legal paperwork your celebrant needs prior to the day which allows them to go ahead and marry you! It can be sent straight to your celebrant during the application process.
I also advise couples to add on their marriage certificate for $33 during the application process. The marriage certificate is your proof the the marriage is valid so you should get one! It is a tick-box near the end of the application and this means the marriage certificate will just arrive in the post after the wedding. The processing of the paperwork can take about two weeks so please be patient!

Witnesses
On the wedding day you need two witnesses to sign the legal documents with you. They need to be of sound mind, not drunk (watch the pre-drinks please witnesses!) and able to understand what is happening.
You can use children who are old enough to understand what they are witnessing and are able to explain this later in a court if required.
I generally recommend using adults to avoid any possibility of questioning the validity of a witness.
A witness can be anyone! Grandma, your best-man, or the person at the back who raises their hand the quickest! It is up to you.
On the wedding day both witnesses fill in two sheets of paperwork requiring:
-Their full name
-Full residential address
-Signature
The bride and groom each sign both pages of paperwork, along with the celebrant filling in all their details.
Too easy right?!
Give me a yell if you want any more information on these points! Good luck with your planning and hope to hear from you soon.
Kelsie x

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