WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO GET MARRIED IN AUSTRALIA
If you’re intending to marry in Australia, the most important document you need to ensure is filled out correctly, and LODGED with your celebrant, is the Notice of Intended Marriage (NOIM) form. You can get the Notice of Intended Marriage form signed by a person who is a Commissioner of Declarations, a Barrister or Solicitor, a legally qualified medical practitioner, or a member of the Federal, State, or Territory Police. You’ll need to ensure that you lodge the NOIM form with your celebrant, no longer than 18 months prior to your wedding date, and no less than one month before. Your celebrant will ensure this is done for you.
The Attorney General has temporarily allowed for celebrants to remotely witness the Notice of Intended Marriage. This means you’ll be able to fill in your details, sign the document as your celebrant witnesses you sign the NOIM over Zoom or Skype. Then send a copy via email to your celebrant to sign as the witness to your signature. They will then write the statement:
‘Made in accordance with the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Modifications-Statutory declarations and Notices of Intention to Marry) Determination 2021.’
You also need to ensure you have the right celebrant for you, one with whom you both get along with well, after all, they are handling the biggest day of your lives, so it’s important they fit in around your personalities! You also need to feel comfortable with their ability to be organised as they are handling all your legal paperwork.
You will need to fill in a document entitled the ‘Declaration of No Legal Impediment’, before your ceremony, (this needs to be done as close to the ceremony as possible.)
You can both sign the form on the day of your wedding BEFORE you say I do! The reason why you need to sign this so close to the ceremony, is because, some people may have filled in the Notice of Intended Marriage form with a divorce pending, and when it’s time to marry, they need to declare that there is no legal impediment to marry.
You need two witnesses aged over the age of 18 to sign the marriage certificates.
On your wedding day, you need to sign three marriage certificates. The first is the ‘pretty’ certificate that your celebrant will present to you on the day of your wedding, the other two are your official marriage certificates. (One is lodged to the government department of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the other is a copy for your celebrant to keep as a record.)
Your celebrant is responsible to lodge the official documents of your marriage with Births, Deaths and Marriages. They have fourteen days to lodge your marriage, but most will register your marriage within a few days of your wedding. After approximately four weeks (in peak period) Births, Deaths and Marriages will have your marriage registered on their database, and you can then apply for a copy of your official registered marriage certificate. At the time of this post, it costs $54.10 including postage.
If you’re then wanting to change your name(s) you can take the official marriage certificate into the prescribed authorities i.e., VicRoads/Passport Office/Bank as it will be needed to make the required change. This can be quite a long task, but worth it if you’re wanting to have your spouse’s name!
