Your Notice of Intended Marriage
Avoid the usual “how to” mistakes that couples make
When you marry, I do all the legal stuff for you from A-Z, including registering your marriage
with the Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages.
Many of the couples I marry do not live in Sydney so we have to make the legal arrangements on-line.
This section is to help you understand the legal stuff and how to lodge your Notice of Intended Marriage with me.
You are not permitted to get married in Australia unless you have lodged a “Notice of Intended Marriage”
at least one calendar month before the day of your wedding.
There are circumstances which allow you to shorten this time - but don’t count on it.
Ask your Marriage Celebrant (“Officiant”) for advice if this is you.
Getting married here in Australia, getting your marriage registered at the Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages,
and getting your Official Certificate of Marriage is an easy process if you use an
experienced Marriage Celebrant (“Officiant”) like me.
Firstly, bear in mind that I am not a lawyer and I am not giving you legal advice.
I am simply telling you the common mistakes that couples make and how to avoid them.
This advice will be particularly useful to couples who are coming to Australia to marry, even to elope.
Why do we have a Notice of Intended Marriage that you must “Lodge” one month
before the day of your marriage?
I guess it’s to stop people getting married after a few dinks without thinking it through.
It’s like a “cooling off period”.
The information I go through here only applies to marriage in Australia. The marriage rules and regulations
in Australia are Federal laws - the same rules and regulations apply throughout Australia.
You can save yourself a lot of headaches if you understand how the system works, particularly if you are
coming to Australia to get married. We love elopements!
Australia is the only country in the world where the Marriage Celebrant does everything regarding
performing a legal marriage ceremony, and then tells the authorities that you are married.
They do that when they register your marriage at the Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages after
your marriage ceremony and they apply for your Official Certificate of Marriage from
the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
In other countries you must go to City Hall or a Registry, to register your documents - and in some countries you
are even obliged to hold the ceremony in a registered place.
Not so Australia! Here anything goes!
You can get married in any location you choose, in a public park, in a church, in a hot air balloon or in a submarine.
Want to get married on top of Sydney Harbour Bridge? No problem!
Lodging your Notice of Intended Marriage is a three-step process.
You can print a copy of the Notice of Intended Marriage, and find instructions on how to fill it in here.
It is a four-page document. Pages one and two are notes and instructions, page three has
20 data fields of personal information that you must provide, and page four is for the
legal stuff that your Marriage Celebrant must provide/complete.
Don’t bother to print this if you have engaged an experienced “Authorised Marriage Celebrant”
- someone like me - as they will do all this legal stuff with you.
Step one. Fill in your personal details on page three in fields #1 to #20 of the Notice, in clearly legible writing
preferably in block capitals.
It is a common mistake for couples not to write clearly in block capitals.
Your Marriage Celebrant will use what you write to enter your details in the Registry of
Births Deaths and Marriages database.
If they make an incorrect entry, because they can’t read your writing, this error will appear in your
Official Certificate of Marriage. Errors will be hard to correct, and the errors will cause all sorts of problems.
In Australia, you don’t have to produce a document that proves you are free to marry.
The authorities take your word for it, but impose strict penalties if you lie about you conjugal (marriage) status.
in data field #20, it is a common mistake for couples to fill in the box that asks for
your mother’s name using their mother’s present married name.
No, it’s asking for her maiden name, her birth name.
If you have been previously married, there is a request for information in the section at the bottom of the page
about previous marriages and children. There are some complications about previous marriages and children
that your Marriage Celebrant will sort out for you, so leave this section blank.
If you think you are divorced, make sure you have you divorce orders, proof of divorce, available well before your wedding.
Sometimes people think they are divorced and don’t have the documents to prove it, and this causes much anguish.
It’s not uncommon for people who have had marriages annulled (as opposed to divorce) to run into problems as
sometimes marriages have been annulled by their religion but the couple remain legally married.
If this is you, discuss this with your Marriage Celebrant.
In Australia you are required to produce your divorce orders which you can easily get on-line from the Family Court.
If you have been married multiple times, you only need the paperwork for the termination of your last marriage.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you need to get previous marriage certificates and divorce orders.
All you are required to produce are the termination details of your last marriage.
Step two. Get your signatures witnessed by a person authorised to witness your signatures.
If you have access to your Marriage Celebrant, your celebrant will witness your signatures.
If not, there are many people authorised to witness your signatures and they are listed on page four of the Notice of Intended Marriage.
If you are outside Australia, you need to get a Public Notary to witness your signatures. Alternatively you can go to an
Australian Embassy - where I am told they do it for no charge.
The person who is witnessing your signatures on the document is only witnessing your signatures.
They are not responsible for checking the accuracy of any information on the document or filling in any information
regarding your identity, conjugal status (marriage details) and so on.
Don’t make the mistake of waiting for your paperwork to be available.
Your Marriage Celebrant is required to see your documents before the marriage can take place, but don’t allow that to
deter you from lodging your Notice of Intended Marriage.
You can lodge your Notice of Intended Marriage without your ID documents, your divorce paperwork and so on.
So don’t delay, get your signatures witnessed by an authorised person and lodge it with your Marriage Celebrant.
Step three. Lodge your Notice of Intended marriage with your Marriage Celebrant by signing it in their presence,
or emailing a scan of the document to them.
Keep the original safe so that you can give it to your Marriage Celebrant when you meet.
HUGE MISTAKE: It is a critical mistake to think that the “one month” applies from the date you signed
and had your Notice of Intended Marriage witnessed.
NO, NO. The one month applies from the day the Notice was received by your Marriage Celebrant.
Make sure that they receive the Notice of Intended Marriage at least one calendar month before your wedding day.
Note: be aware that you can lodge the Notice of Intended Marriage without any supporting documents.
Your Marriage Celebrant must see these documents before the marriage can take place, but that (technically)
could even be the day of the marriage ceremony.
Scan or take a picture of your supporting documents, your ID (usually your passport) or - your Birth Certificate
and your Drivers Licence - so that your Marriage Celebrant can check their validity.
Once you have emailed these scans, if your Marriage Celebrant is satisfied, you don’t need to produce the originals.
Your Marriage Celebrant is authorised to use a passport that expired in the past 2 years.
Your Marriage Celebrant does not keep any copies of your supporting documents.
They simply sight them, validate them and note that they have sighted them on your Notice of Intended Marriage.
It is a mistake to expect your Marriage Celebrant to validate your details using photocopies of documents.
They are required to see the original documents.
Ask them for their advice.
Step four. Enjoy your marriage ceremony at any of the wonderful locations we have in Australia.
Any location is a suitable location for the purposes of getting legally married.
it’s up to you to find a place that you like - and there are a huge number of great locations for tiny weddings
like elopements to weddings with hundreds of gusts.
Your Official Certificate of marriage. Your Marriage Celebrant can obtain that for you
and send it to your home address, or if you need it in a hurry can get it issued for you in a day.
Important note for visitors from overseas. Good News.
There is not residency requirement for your marriage in Australia.
By contrast, some countries require you to reside in the country for a period of a week or two
before you are permitted to marry there.
You can get married straight off the plane - as long as you have lodged your Notice of Intended Marriage with your
Marriage Celebrant one month before you arrive in Australia.
And as I have just explained, you can do that on-line, using the services of an experienced Marriage Celebrant.
Good luck, have fun, and contact me when you need some help.
I can design a great marriage ceremony with you on Zoom.
Elopement ceremonies don’t need to be dull and boring!