- A Notice of Intended Marriage (NOIM) must be given no earlier than 18 months and no later than one month before your wedding (unless exceptional circumstances apply).
This Notice should be filled out and signed during the initial meeting with your celebrant (although provision exists for the Notice to be lodged as partially complete or – for overseas couples – as an email attachment, provided that the original Notice is given to me before the actual ceremony).
The couple can be married at any time once a minimum of one calendar month from the date that I receive the Notice has elapsed, and up to 18 months from the date that I receive the Notice. The Notice becomes “stale” after 18 months, but a new Notice can submitted by the couple at any time if they need to do so.
💕 🎉 Victoria’s restrictions have been eased, and weddings are currently permitted throughout Victoria (including metropolitan Melbourne). See the Update and Issues page for details.
How to get the NOIM
- Use the Notice of Intended Marriage checklist form. By your filling out this online form, I can generate the correctly completed NOIM in printed form, checking the format and details to ensure legibility, accuracy and neatness.¹ I provide the required copy of the Notice of Intended Marriage with as many details filled out beforehand as possible. You will sign the completed NOIM in my presence, and I will complete the “PARTICULARS TO BE COMPLETED BY AUTHORISED CELEBRANT” section. It can then immediately be considered lodged and the one-month waiting period before you can marry commences immediately.
- Fill out the NOIM when you meet me. (I provide the blank NOIM.) You will sign the completed NOIM in my presence, and I will complete the “PARTICULARS TO BE COMPLETED BY AUTHORISED CELEBRANT” section. It can then immediately be considered lodged and the one-month waiting period before you can marry commences immediately.
- You can download the NOIM from the ">Attorney-General’s website as either a 🔗 " target="_blank">PDF form or as a 🔗 " target="_blank">DOC form. In either format you can fill out the fillable form on your computer² and print it out to bring to your meeting with me, or which you can print it out as a blank NOIM to complete by hand. You should only fill out page 3. You will sign the completed NOIM in my presence, and I will complete the “PARTICULARS TO BE COMPLETED BY AUTHORISED CELEBRANT” section. It can then immediately be considered lodged and the one-month waiting period before you can marry commences immediately.
- If you are overseas and cannot sign the NOIM in my presence, you can sign the filled-out NOIM in the presence of a person in whose presence the Notice of Intended Marriage can be signed outside Australia. You can then immediately scan the signed and witnessed NOIM (pages 3 and 4), save as a PDF or image file, and send to me as an email attachment. (It is also strongly recommended that you include scans of your required documentation for me to note the required particulars, check details, and ensure that the documentation is as required.) I will complete the “PARTICULARS TO BE COMPLETED BY AUTHORISED CELEBRANT” section. The NOIM will be considered lodged from the moment I receive the scanned NOIM. (This is a conditional lodgement. The actual ORIGINAL signed and witnessed NOIM must be given to me when you arrive here, and I must sight your original ID documentats and other required documentation before the ceremony can begin.)
- If one of the parties (either the bride or the groom) cannot sign the NOIM when you both intend to give Notice of your forthcoming marriage, the NOIM can be lodged incomplete with me (with only one party having signed before me). The second party can then sign later in my presence, as long as this is before the actual ceremony. You will sign the completed NOIM in my presence, and I will complete the “PARTICULARS TO BE COMPLETED BY AUTHORISED CELEBRANT” section with your particulars. It can then immediately be considered lodged and the one-month waiting period before you can marry commences immediately. This is conditional upon the second party signing the NOIM in my presence and my sighting his/her proof of birth, photo ID and any other required documentation before the actual ceremony.³
- At some point before the ceremony, as close as possible to the ceremony but before the ceremony takes place (and it can be on the actual day of the ceremony, as long as it is before the ceremony itself), the two parties / bride and groom should each complete and sign a DECLARATION OF NO LEGAL IMPEDIMENT TO MARRIAGE (according to regulations 38A and 46 Marriage Regulations 1963 (Cth)). This is a Statutory Declaration in a prescribed form. Under Australian law, you do not need a Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage (CNI) for a marriage to be valid in Australia; your declaration that ❝neither of you is married to another person, neither of you is in a prohibited relationship, and both of you are of marriageable age, and there is no other circumstance that would be a legal impediment to the marriage❞ is taken as prima facie evidence of no legal impediment to the marriage.⁴ I provide this form.⁵
- The couple will receive from me the Form 14A brochure entitled Happily Ever Before and After, which outlines the obligations and consequences of marriage and stating the availability of marriage education and counselling (available in a good variety of languages). This information is provided pursuant to subsection 42(5A) of the Marriage Act 1961 and regulation 39A of the Marriage Regulations 1963. This is to be given to couples who have lodged a Notice of Intended Marriage form with an authorised marriage celebrant.
I am committed to helping couples bring the joy of their marriage ceremony into the rest of their lives. As part of this commitment, I include, in addition, a Premarital Education and Marriage Counselling booklet in the documentation you receive from me upon lodging your NOIM. - Additional documentation you may receive from me includes resource books or booklets containing ceremony ideas, cultural elements, vows, readings, music, full ceremony scripts, and more. The particular documentation may vary depending on what will best suit your needs.
- After the vows have been spoken during the marriage ceremony, the bride and groom / both parties, two witnesses and I (as your Marriage Celebrant) must sign three copies of your marriage certificate. The first – the Certificate of Marriage (Form 15) - will be given to you immediately the marriage has been solemnized (on the day). This certificate is also known as the Party Certificate. The second – Official Certificate of Marriage (Form 16) – will be sent by me to the Registrar (for registering your marriage). The third – also an Official Certificate of Marriage (Form 16) – is retained by me as per Regulation 42A (3) of the Marriage Regulations 1963.
Your Certificate of Marriage (Party Certificate) will be beautifully printed in calligraphy lettering, a lasting record of this wonderful moment in your lives. It is an important document with a unique identifying number⁶, and is evidence of marriage and that your legal status has changed. However, it does not obviate the need – if you must prove your marital status in terms of identity, or to prove your marriage to an overseas government, for instance – to obtain an official standard marriage certificate certified by the Registry once the marriage has been registered by them. This Standard Certificate would be used as legal proof of your marriage and is available from the Registry usually after 20 working days. - Please note that the Registry does not automatically issue you with a certified standard marriage certificate. If you find that you require this, note that this is available only upon application.
After the ceremony
¹ Using the checklist form ensures consistency of detail over all the documents to be filled out by me as the authorized marriage celebrant. It also provides a solution that occurs when the couple attempt to complete the downloadable NOIM form but find that, because some of their information is quite long (in the name or address fields, for instance), that information is truncated in the fillable fields when it is printed out. The NOIMs that I generate and print out for the couple to sign have no such issues, and all the information is correctly presented. ➥
² As noted in ¹ above, there is a known issue with this NOIM form where some information may be truncated because the length of the fields is too short for the full information to be entered. You should carefully check the printed NOIM to see if this has occurred. An easy solution is to use the online checklist form, or to fill out the NOIM by hand. ➥
³ This applies when one party cannot conveniently sign the NOIM at that time due to their being interstate, out of the country, engaged in shift work affecting their present availability, and so on. It does not negate the requirement for both parties’ full knowledge of and consent to the marriage at the time of the NOIM being given. ➥
⁴ This is applicable in terms of marriages performed in Australia being valid in Australia. However, if you are an Australian citizen or permanent resident wishing to marry overseas, the foreign government may request that you have a Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage (CNI) issued. Also, if you are a citizen of another country wishing to be married in Australia, the government of that country may have additional requirements that make it easier to establish the validity in your country of your marriage solemnized in Australia. Check with your government to be certain, as this will avoid delays or problems. ➥
⁵ The DECLARATION OF NO LEGAL IMPEDIMENT TO MARRIAGE is not an ordinary statutory declaration. It is on the reverse side of the Official Certificate of Marriage. All Certificates of Marriage can only be obtained by authorised celebrants. I prepare this form for the couple based on their information, ready for them to check and sign. ➥
⁶ The Certificate of Marriage (Party Certificate) should be kept in a safe place with other official documents. Unlike the Standard Certificate, the Party Certificate cannot be replaced if it is lost. ➥