What kind of ceremony can I have?
I am often asked how my last wedding ceremony went. “So long as I know they are still married,” I reply.
It’s not my opinion which counts but yours because hopefully this only happens once and we want to get it right first time.
The celebrant has the crucial role of ensuring you are legally married with all the profound changes that status invokes under law.
It’s why my colleagues and I put much attention into ensuring all the documents and rules are clear, complete and scrupulously observed. But if that’s all you wanted you could just as easily attend the registry office and get the formalities performed to by a public servant.
As an authorised celebrant, it’s my job not just to join you in legal marriage but also help you conduct the public ceremony which truly reflects your relationship, hopes and values.
It might seem a giddy mix, but the power of ritual is long-lived and robust. You may choose a traditional civil ceremony with the procession, rings and ‘till death us do part’. Or a more customised and unique event, which the guests may never forget, and is a genuine expression of your joint determination to live life your own way.
In some ways, it doesn’t matter. The only legal requirements are that I read in full a short official message called the Monitum, which is Latin for warning. It says in part: “I am to remind you of the solemn and binding nature of the relationship into which you are now about to enter.”
The law also requires you to exchange the following vows. “I call upon the people here present to witness that I,(state full name), take you, (full name), to be my lawful wedded wife/husband.” Apart from signing the wedding register and certificates, along with two witnesses aged 18 or over, the above is all that the rules require.
Of course, the ceremony, anchored by these legal requirements, is also a great canvas on which to create a montage which celebrates your marriage. The palate includes readings of poems or songs or anything which fortifies your faith in each other; music live or recorded which can move our hearts and spirits and any number of rituals old or new which dramatically express this moment.
It is, of course, all your choice. My role is to marry you, and if you want to help you, through my experience and knowledge, to use these options to make your day the very most it can be.
