Frequently Asked Questions

A wedding ceremony is one of the most important parts of your wedding day. Why? Because without it you’re not married! It can be as big or small as you want it to be. You must have two witnesses to your ceremony to be legally wed, and of course, you need a celebrant!

There are legal requirements you must meet, and the rest is all yours to do what you want.

You’ll need a celebrant who is creative, and will listen to you so you can have exactly the type of ceremony you want – one that will make sure your guests laugh and cry, and go home with a head full of amazing memories of your wedding day.

Your wedding ceremony should be special. When it really reflects the two of you and how you feel about each other, it will be one of the best moments of your life …… followed by an incredible wedding party of course!

Some people like to get married romantically, intimately, and quietly – with very little fuss. They want it to be all about them. I’ve done many of these types of ceremonies, and they are just beautiful. And every single ceremony is bespoke and relevant to the couple’s needs and desires. In the ceremonies I’ve presented, the couple have dressed in beautiful wedding outfits – they’ve had their hair and makeup done, they’ve booked a great photographer, a brilliant celebrant who will really listen and create the ceremony they want, and their marriage ceremony is just perfect.
I can provide an elopement package for you, just click on the elopement button of the side of my page, and I’ll send you my package.

There are five key steps to following to ensure your wedding is legal. They are:

1. Complete the Notice of Intended Marriage.
2. Complete a form called “Declaration of No Legal Impediment to Marriage”.
3. On Your Wedding Day I must say my full name and that I am an authorised Marriage Celebrant, I need to say your full names at least once during the ceremony. And I must say the Monitum – word for word, no exceptions!
4. Two copies of the ‘Official Marriage Certificate’, and the ‘Couples Certificate’ need to be signed during your marriage ceremony, and the ‘Declaration of No Legal Impediment to Marriage’ must be signed before your ceremony (my couples usually sign this document at their rehearsal).
5. Your celebrant must sign and submit your legal paperwork to Births, Deaths and Marriages within 14 days of your wedding date.

The Notice of Intended Marriage is a document that you and your partner need to complete and give to your authorised celebrant between one month and 18 months before your wedding date. 
Here is a link to the Notice of Intended Marriage so that you can print and complete it, and bring it to our meeting if you decide you would like to choose me to be your celebrant. 

Notice of Intended Marriage Form

If you forget to book your celebrant for your wedding day, and haven’t completed a Notice of Intended Marriage form, you may need to push your wedding day out so that you have one month’s clear notice. Legally, you have to lodge the Notice of Intened Marriage at least one month before your wedding date.

However, there are five reasons you can apply for a Shortening of Time for your marriage ceremony.  They are:

1. employment-related or other travel commitments
2. wedding or celebration arrangements, or religious considerations
3. medical reasons
4. legal proceedings,
5. or an error in giving notice.

To obtain a shortening of time, you need to apply to a prescribed authority with a copy for your Notice of Intended Marriage that has been signed by your celebrant to see if they can approve your application.  (I can give you details relating to who is a prescribed authority in Victoria).

Please remember though, this doesn’t mean that your application will be automatically approved.  Some things you need to be aware of are …..

• the reason for seeking a shortening of time must fall within one of the prescribed categories (described above, at 4.3.1) before the application can be considered
• a prescribed authority has no discretion to grant a shortening of time outside the circumstances covered by these categories
• the granting of a shortening of time is not automatic
• a prescribed authority may charge an application fee – celebrants should suggest that the couple check if a fee is charged when making an appointment with a prescribed authority.

If you have any questions relating to ‘Shortening of Time’ for your wedding ceremony, please give me a call on 0488 452 126, and I will help answer any questions you may have.

There are various identity documents that I need to sight the originals of, to be able to marry you. They include, but are not limited to:

• Passport
• Driver’s Licence
• Birth Certificate
• Divorce Certificate
• Death Certificate
• Change of Name Certificate

If your documents are written in a language other than English, they will need to be translated by an organisation such as NAATI – The National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters Ltd (NAATI) is the national standards and accreditation body for translators and interpreters in Australia.  Their website – https://www.naati.com.au/ provides a searchable online directory of translators and interpreters.  The Attorney General’s department recommends that the translator or interpreter is accredited at Level 3 or higher.

Wherever you want! That’s the easy answer.

You can get married in a garden, on a beach, on the top of a mountain, in a national park. You can get married in your house, your parent’s house, your friend’s house, even my house! There is no limits on where you can get married.

The important thing to remember is you must have an authorised Marriage Celebrant, and prepare all legal paperwork accurately, and on you wedding day, there are certain things you need to say at your ceremony – check out my blog – 7 things you have to do legally at your wedding ceremony.

I sure can. 
And its not a list of the people I like, it’s a list of the people my couples have used and loved!

After every wedding ceremony, I send a questionnaire to my couples, and ask them to tell me which suppliers they loved, and why.  Only the top suppliers make it to the list, and they seriously are people who do a great job. 
I figure this is the best and most honest list of wedding suppliers available today.  If you want to know who’s on the list, drop me an email – annette@celebratelovetogether.com

I’ll help you.
Just a quick call to me, telling me about your dreams for your wedding ceremony, and what you have seen at other ceremonies that you liked and didn’t like, and together we’ll start to talk about all the different things you can have in your ceremony. 
Better yet, I have a great document called ’30 Great Ideas for your Wedding Ceremony’ and I’m happy to send it to you. 

Of course I am! I’ll go wherever you need me.  The only thing I ask is that if your wedding ceremony is outside the Melbourne Metropolitan area or west, or North of the city, that you cover my mileage.  To give you a bit of an idea of how much that would be …….

• $70 to Sunbury and Healesville
• $100 to Daylesford and Yea
• $120 to Shepparton, Castlemaine, Lorne, Bendigo and Ballarat
• $150 to the Murray, Lakes Entrance (more for Mildura and Swan Hill!)

Hope this gives you a bit of an indication.  If your location is not listed, but you are getting married at a place similar to the ones above, it may help you get an idea of my travel fees.
For places further than a 2 hour drive from my home, there’s also an accommodation charge – but don’t worry – we have a caravan and love to get away in it, so the nightly fee won’t be too much!