Your Responsibilities...

Under the marriage Act 1961 there are certain obligations that you, as a couple intending to get married, must meet prior to a marriage ceremony being solemnised:

A Notice of Intended Marriage (NIM) must be lodged with your Marriage Celebrant no less than one month and one day and no more than eighteen months prior to the marriage being solemnised.

Under normal circumstances the Notice of Intended Marriage would be completed at your first meeting with your chosen celebrant, or certainly before the marriage can be solemnised and within the above requirements. You can download the NIM from the following link: Notice of Intended Marriage

You are required to produce your original Birth Certificate, or authorised extract of such certificate. Persons born in Australia MUST produce their birth certificates

Persons born outside Australia are also required to produce birth certificates. However, in the absent of that document they can produce their overseas passport ( refer to Visitors Marrying in Australia).

In the case of persons who have been previously married a copy of the Decree Absolute or Death Certificate, whichever is applicable, must be produced. Some overseas countries do not have a divorce system, rather they have an annulment process, the Philippines is one such country. There must be produced an order of annulment in regards to any dissolved marriage in such countries.

Prior to your wedding both partners will be required to sign a declaration, under the Marriage Act 1961, stating that you believe there is no legal impediment to the marriage between yourself and your partner. This is a legal document and under Section 11 of the Statutory Declaration Act 1959 it is an offence to make false statement and is punishable by imprisonment for a term of four years.

Under the marriage Act 1961 two persons under the age of the eighteen cannot marry/ a person of age sixteen or seventeen can marry a person eighteen or over but they must obtain parental consent and approval of a court of law. Persons of sixteen and under cannot marry under any circumstances. Feel free to talk to me about this.