Keep It Sweetly Simple!

Simple easy service with one of Canberra's most experienced celebrants. (I have married over 1400 couples.) Your beautiful, memorable and personalised alternative to a Registry Office wedding. Only one one-hour meeting required and the next time we meet, it's your wedding day!

18 August 2011

TV romance is not reality

Hello, and welcome

You can't marry in less than a month and a day
First the bad news. Bec and Matt are getting married next week on 'Winners and Losers'. Not that that's bad news. I am happy for them BUT here's just one more opportunity missed to help the Australian public understand their own Marriage Act. 
Bride-to-be Bec,
played by
Zoe Tuckwell-Smith
Groom-to-be Matt
played by
Blair McDonough
     In the storyline this week, the happy reunited couple found a celebrant (stereotypically, a female) who said something like 'they have a strong relationship' and she apparently gave them permission to marry in a week's time.
     I know this is fiction but it could be based on fact. If shows like 'Winners and Losers' spread the word that you can't marry in less than a month and a day (unless you have an extraordinary reason that satisfies the Registrar, not the celebrant) then celebrants would not need to disappoint couples who think they'll be able to legally marry in a shorter time. 
     This time requirement is nothing new. It's been law since 1961 and that's for the lifetime of most couples I'm celebrant for. I'll be glad when it's common knowledge.


Your paperwork can easily be transferred
If you like watching 'Winners and Losers' as I do, then you'll recall that Bec and Matt planned to marry some time ago. Here was a great opportunity to put something in the script like: 'The church said they can send the papers to our celebrant so we can get married next week'. 
     As a celebrant, I'd like to make it more widely known that your Notice of Intended Marriage must be lodged with your celebrant (church or civil) at least one month and one day before the wedding and, just like Matt and Bec, you can change celebrants if you wish, right up to your wedding.
      Last week there was a small private wedding in the Heart Garden for a beautiful young couple who had already married each other on a Mediterranean beach. They planned to legalise their union in marriage at the Registry Office in Sydney but it suited them much better for me to officiate for them in Canberra. The NSW Registrar's office simply posted the paperwork to me by registered mail. Easy.
     I realise that if you're not happy with the celebrant you've chosen, it may not be so easy to negotiate a new one but the good news is, your request to make a change will not be refused. 
     Our role as celebrants is to give you service. If you ask any celebrant to send your Notice of Intended Marriage to another celebrant, they will. Last year I was asked to send a Notice to another celebrant and I was glad the couple had found someone they felt more comfortable with. I've also received paperwork from other celebrants, mostly because they had to go out of town at short notice or weren't well enough to conduct the wedding. 
     Just for the record - in way over 900 weddings I've never been ill or had to find a replacement celebrant for any other reason.
     Everyone wants your wedding to be a happy successful day. If that involves changing your celebrant booking, go right ahead and do it. It's your day. You only plan to do this once. Everything needs to be just right.
Real-life happy couple Deb and Mick chose me as their
celebrant for their wedding on August 7
I'm very happy to say
     If you decide I'm right for your wedding, I'll be delighted to be your celebrant. Please  feel free to phone me any day between 9am and 9pm on 02 6161 0718, or on my mobile 0406 376 375. Or email me. Click here, or fill in this email contact form.
     If you'd like to know more about the full service I provide, I will post you a package of information, along with a Notice of Intended Marriage (and no obligation to lodge it with me).
     Please note that there are Pages of extra information, top right of this blog, including a page with twelve good reasons that I may be just the celebrant you've been looking for for your very special day.




Till next time
Sincerely 
Michele

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