Is your
Celebrant allowed to Cancel?
The
Marriage Act is very clear on when it is allowable for
your Notice of Intended Marriage (and therefore the
officiating of your marriage) to be transferred by the
celebrant you booked with, to another celebrant. Basically, the circumstances must be unforeseen and exceptional - the celebrant has died, is ill, is absent from the place of the intended marriage, or it is impracticable (practically impossible) for the celebrant to solemnise your marriage.
Recent changes now allow celebrants to transfer your Notice of Intended Marriage to another
celebrant electronically, where a physical handover is not possible in time for the marriage to go ahead, for example, where a natural disaster has occurred.
What the Act does not cover (but Contract Law does) is circumstances that are clearly stated in your contract with the celebrant to be grounds termination of the contract. .