Ann Dally

Ann Dally

Yes, you can be married in Australia with your fiance holding a student visa and you travelling on a tourist visa. 

However, what you must do first and foremost, is select your celebrant,  give them one full calendar month's notice prior to the wedding, sign and lodge a Notice of Intended Marriage form with them and present your original passports for confirmation of date and place of birth, and photographic ID.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Ann Dally CMC  JP

Trainer of Marriage Celebrants

Ann Dally

As a National Marriage Celebrant Trainer approved by the Attorney General, (and a marriage celebrant for 15 years) this is one of the most important questions couples ask. It is equally important that the correct answer is provided.

In order to be validly married in Australia, party 1 and party 2 must, individually, recite the following words.These words cannot be put in any form of “Asking a question by the Celebrant” - they are required to be recited by the individuals being married.

The correct Vows are:

“I call upon the persons here present, to witness that, I (name) take you (name) as my lawful (or) wedded wife/husband/or partner in marriage”. These legal words can be softened a little and made more modern by using the following:

“I ask everyone present, to witness that, I (name) take you (name) as my lawful or wedded “wife/husband/or partner in marriage”.

These are the minimum Vows which must be said by the two parties.

It should also be noted that once in every wedding ceremony, it is mandatory for the celebrant (or parties 1 and 2) to say their full names – again early in the ceremony. This can be done in either “The Asking” which usually precedes the vows but which is not a mandatory legal component – or in the “Vows” which is a mandatory component.

I always suggest to my couples that they can insert these Vows (the mandatory sentence above) into their personal vows by placing them either at the beginning, in the middle or at the end. So they have the legally binding wording followed or intertwined with the lovely romantic personal words designed and written by the individuals (often with a lot of assistance from their celebrant).

It is an important task to get these Vows to be both legal and beautiful. Make sure you engage the services of a true professional who will give you a wide variety of vows to choose from in order to assist you to make your selection.

Important to note: Vows must be recited early in the ceremony and must follow the other legal mandatory requirement of the “Monitum”. The celebrant recites the Monitum, always PRIOR to the Vows. The couple can either memorise their Vows (which is usually too nerve wrackingJ), or they can ask the celebrant to do a “repeat after me” or they can ask their celebrant to prepare palm cards so they can read the Vows to one another.

Also important to note: A marriage is not legal in Australia if it is not witnessed by a minimum of three people: the authorised Marriage Celebrant and two witnesses over the age of 18 years.

Hope this helps explain the marriage Vows and how important they.

Cheers

Ann Dally

Ann Dally

There are religious celebrants and civil celebrants. Most civil celebrants are quite happy to accommodate couples if they would like a religious element of say a bible reading or prayer but the majority of civil celebrants invite a family member to do this whilst not actually participating themselves.

I have had ceremonies where a minister or priest is a guest reader and they have actually blessed the couple, done a bible reading, etc. One couple even took communion in the middle of one of my civil ceremonies. I personally don't have a problem with this. However if we are authorised as civil celebrants we are not to purport to be religious celebrants.

If this is what you would like in your civil ceremony, just ask the celebrants you approach if they are happy to accommodate your request.

Warmly

Ann Dally