UPDATED MAY 2026
For your information
We'll have a meeting at least one month before your wedding. All the preparation that we need to do together can be done in this one meeting, lasting up to an hour and a half. You'll lodge with me, your celebrant, your Notice of Intended Marriage. (Not with the office of the Registrar.)
This Notice remains with me until after your wedding, when I submit it with your other marriage details to the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, through the Access Canberra portal. (Or I scan and email your paperwork for the Registrar in NSW.)
Early in our meeting, as all celebrants are required to do by law, I will speak with each of you separately and privately. I must be confident that each of you is voluntarily choosing to get married, and that no-one is coercing you or putting any pressure on.
Before your marriage can take place - probably just before the ceremony - you'll sign Declarations about your eligibility to marry legally, with me as witness to your signing. I'll tell you about your Declarations at our meeting.
During your ceremony, your celebrant must declare as a reminder, that marriage in Australian law, is a union of two people, that's voluntary, exclusive and permanent (for life). This is called The Monitum.
You must have at your wedding, at least one witness each, to hear this reminder to you both, and then to witness as your full legal names are declared, and as you make your legal vows of marriage to each other. (Rings are optional. They're customary in Australia, not law.)
Your witnesses must be 18 or over, with a good understanding of English. They can be your relatives. (Most people consider witnessing an honour. Please choose your witnesses with care.) If you plan to elope, I can help you find two witnesses who would respect your privacy and enjoy witnessing your ceremony.
After your ACT wedding, you'll still have access to the portal. You can check the progress of your registration, after I've completed your application. I have fourteen days to do this but I'll do it within a couple of days. In my recent experience, registration takes about a week, maybe two.
Once your marriage is registered, you can buy a certificate from the Registrar (through Access Canberra) with your registration number on it. (The personal certificate you receive at your wedding is completely legal, but shows no official registration.)
Your Wedding with Michele the Celebrant
~ beautifully simple and simply beautiful ~
I hold meetings on Monday and Wednesday evenings at my home in Weston, beginning at 5.30, 6 or 6.30. Plan for an hour and a half.
Ideally, the three of us get together but there can be an option. The Notice of Intended Marriage, can be lodged by only one party to the marriage by email, MMS or via the new Access Canberra portal. It can only be lodged if the signature/s are witnessed.
The Marriage Act has been amended to permanently provide couples with the option to have their Notice of Intended Marriage (NOIM) witnessed in person (as usual) or remotely by means of a facility that enables audio and visual communication between persons in different places, like Zoom or Facetime. (But only if you're both in Australia.)
Your witness is usually your celebrant, at your meeting, but there are other options the Attorney-General will accept. (See Page 4 on the Notice)
Please bring to our meeting:
✅Birth certificates if you have them, or extracts. These can be copies. They can be digital.
And/or passports, either Australian or from overseas.
Must be the actual passports. Not digital images.
If you can’t find one of these for our meeting, or both, don’t stress. You can bring them with you on your wedding day to be sighted before the ceremony.
Birth Certificates are preferred. They’re ‘primary documents’ and have more details. Your passport will serve as evidence of your date and place of birth, as well as your photo ID.
✅Photo ID for both of you. This is usually your passport or driver licence but the notes on your Notice of Intended Marriage Page 2 will show you more options. In extraordinary circumstances, a formal Stat Dec can be sighted.
✅Divorce or death certificate/s, if applicable. (A divorce certificate may be a copy.)
Change of name certificate or stat dec, if applies.
If you now use a married name but you’d prefer to use your birth name on your Notice (and your three certificates of marriage), you must bring evidence of name change from your birth name by previous marriage.
This can be your personal Marriage Certificate which you received at your wedding, or a full certificate you bought from the Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages in the state or territory – or other country – in which you married. (Your divorce certificate will not contain this information.)
Make sure you see five pages.
Fill them in through the new portal before the meeting but don’t sign yet. Or bring a copy that you've filled in online and printed, or a copy that you've printed and filled in by hand.
Before we have our meeting, I'll arrange for you to receive a link by text or email from Births, Deaths and Marriages ACT, via Access Canberra, so you can visit the Access Canberra portal and fill in all your details. (Check your Junk folder if you don't see it.)
If you have visited the portal, I'll print your Notice for you to sign at our meeting.
I’ll already have the Date Received filled in when we meet. This must be one month before your wedding day.
But if you have an exceptional reason for a shortening of time, there's an application process. We'd need to apply to the Registrar for this. (Celebrants can't grant a shortening of time.) If you seek a time shortening, please contact me ASAP and we'll discuss your options.
✅ Payment please
(Extra travel cost may apply.) Please pay by cash at our meeting, or Pay ID or transfer. (I'll give you transfer info at our meeting.)
If paying by PayID or transfer, please pay by phone during our meeting, or you may like to pay beforehand. Thanks.
I’ll give you a receipt, along with a page headed ‘Our Agreement’, with the details of your wedding plan that we've worked out together (such as whether I'll need my PA system or not).
PayID 0406 376 375
(A refund of $350 may apply if your wedding plan changes)
