7 Surprising Facts about
Getting Married in Australia
Categories: | Wedding Legals | Wedding Planning |
Australia is one of the easiest countries
in the world to get married in simply because couples
encounter so few of the rules that are common in other
countries.That there are so few rules comes as a surprise to many marrying couples, and often triggers conversations about things they expected were a rule, and aren't!
1. Your visa status is
irrelevant
out
It doesn't matter whether you are an Australian
citizen by birth or by naturalisation, a permanent
resident, a tourist, here on a work, study, or
bridging visa, or even illegally in the country.
Anyone who meets the legal criteria for getting
married in Australia (at least 18, not in a close
relationship by blood or adoption, not married to
anyone else, and marrying freely and willingly after
giving a month's notice and proving ID) can marry. 2. You can marry in secret
out
No-one,
other than the two of you and your celebrant needs
to know that you are getting married ahead of
time. You must lodge your Notice of Intended
Marriage with your celebrant at least a month
before, but it goes nowhere. Your celebrant keeps
it until after you are married, and only then, at
the point where your marriage papers are forwarded
to Births, Deaths, and Marriages in the state in
which you got married to register your marriage,
is a government authority informed that you are
married. This means you can get married in secret.3. You must have two
witnesses, no more, no fewer
out
You must have two adult witnesses present for the whole
ceremony, but they don't have to have advance warning,
so asking them to be your witnesses one minute before
the ceremony is fine (just enough time to explain and
for them to consent to being your legal witnesses).4. Your witnesses witness your
marriage, not your signatures
out
Your
witnesses are witnessing your marriage, so when they
sign the certificates they aren't witnessing your
signatures, they are attesting to the fact that the
marriage took place in their presence.5. You marry yourselves
out
Your celebrant doesn't marry you, you marry yourselves.
And you do that by saying the required words laid down
in the Marriage Act in the presence of an authorised
celebrant and two witnesses. Once you both have said
those words you are legally married. Signing of your
certificates after you have said those words just
documents the fact that you are married, and registering
your marriage ensures there is a public record of your
marriage.6. Your civil ceremony doesn't
have to be completely secular
out
When marrying in a civil ceremony with a marriage
celebrant, while most people choose to have a completely
secular ceremony it is perfectly permissible to include
some expression of personal religious or spiritual
beliefs though your civil celebrant can't force you to
include religion. You can also omit all of the
traditional elements that are generally associated with
a wedding ceremony - including special clothes, rings,
pronouncement, kiss.7. Sex is optional
out
Australia does not require consummation of a marriage in
order to make it stick. With wonderful sensitivity our
law makers realised that there would be no way to
ascertain that consummation of a marriage was
consensual. So, if you marry the only way to end the
marriage is by divorce. Annulment is only for marriages
that should never have taken place because they were
unlawful.Thanks for reading!
