Getting married in Canberra or nearby NSW? Let's make contact! Here's lots of information.

2025-08-14T03:04:00.009+10:00

UPDATE FOR ACT WEDDINGS - the new Marriage Portal 2026

The Registrar of Births Deaths and Marriages now has a portal on Access Canberra. Contact me by phone call, text or email, and I'll arrange for you to get a link to the portal by phone or email. Go to the portal, fill in your Notice of Intended Marriage and Save.

Or we can still use the standard form for you to fill in online and print, or print and fill in. Either way, your Notice must be lodged with your celebrant at least one month before your wedding. Usually you'll lodge your Notice at our meeting.

After your wedding, I'll post the details of your marriage in the portal and you can watch the progress of your registration with the Registrar's office. Registrations from two recent marriages where I was celebrant were completed within a day!

You can then buy an official certificate through the portal and it will be sent to you by registered post. (The certificate you'll receive at your wedding is personal. It's legal but can't be used for legal purposes.)

I'll have a printed copy of your Notice, ready for our meeting, if you choose to use the portal. Or bring your filled-out printed Notice to our meeting so the three of us can sign.

For lodging, you must still sign your Notice of Intended Marriage, live, with an authorised witness, attending in person. (Only one of you needs to do this for your lodgement, but both is better.) Your authorised witness is usually your celebrant.

Your witness for your Notice is usually your celebrant but there are other options, if needed, so that you can lodge your Notice on time. (See Page 4 of the Notice for a list of authorised witnesses.)

The Marriage Act has been recently and permanently amended to provide couples with the option to have their Notice of Intended Marriage (NOIM) signed and witnessed remotely by their celebrant by Zoom or FaceTime. (But only if you're both in Australia.)

Welcome!

Will I be the celebrant who’ll have the privilege and pleasure of officiating at your wedding? I'd love that!

My congratulations to you both!

I've been celebrant for nearly 1500 couples, and I've never needed to change the plan due to illness or any other reason. Six other civil marriage celebrants have chosen me as celebrant at their own weddings. How special is that?!

I specialise in simple weddings in Canberra and local NSW, on any day at any time, with any number of guests.

I only have in-person meetings with couples who have booked me as their celebrant. If you're still making your celebrant choice, would you like for us to share a chat together on Zoom or FaceTime, for about fifteen minutes, with no obligation implied? Just phone or text me on 0406 376 375. Please phone me between 9 and 9 on any day, or text anytime.

Or send me a message on Messenger through my celebrant Facebook page.

Or let me know your details in this contact form and very soon I'll phone or email back.

At our meeting at my home in Weston, on a Monday or Wednesday evening, you'll lodge your Notice of Intended Marriage and I'll sight your ID information. We'll need about an hour and a half together, and then the next time that we meet, it's your wedding day!

We'll cover all the legal requirements for getting married in Australia. You must lodge your Notice with your celebrant at least one month before the day you plan to marry.

You can lodge online or by phone before our meeting if you need to, so you don't miss the noting of that crucial date.

As I noted in the Update above, to make sure you lodge on time, you can send a scan or image of your signed Notice with an email or by phone, or in a message on Messenger, at no cost and with no obligation to book your wedding with me. (The law allows for one celebrant to send a Notice of Intended Marriage to another celebrant, keeping the original date of receiving the Notice.)

This is what you'll need to bring to our meeting.

As the last part of our meeting, you'll personalise the simple ceremony which I’ve put together. It has every option the Attorney-General will legally allow. (Most celebrants won't offer you this choice - you'll have to make the standard vows.)

There are other choices you can make as well, such as the font you would like for your certificate. I’ll prepare your ceremony for your wedding and because I specialise in simple weddings, it will probably fit on one A4 page!

For your wedding, I’ll print your ceremony on parchment paper, and match your font choice for your certificate. I'll read from this script during your ceremony, and then give it to you to keep, in a plastic wallet, along with your certificate.)

You're most welcome to bring personal vows to your wedding. You’ll share these special vows with one another, before you make your legal vows of marriage.

About two thirds of the weddings I attend as celebrant are small and private, so I don’t put any images from these weddings online. When I have permission, I enjoy taking Just Married photos and you’ll find them on Instagram. I also post on Facebook with new photos and videos. My most recent posts and photos are on my Facebook page.

In these YouTube videos from a while ago, you can see how I look and hear how I sound. I recorded a relaxation audio when I was a Stress Management Consultant, so you may like to listen to that on YouTube. It works really well to keep you calm for your wedding - runs for about twelve minutes.

Here's a video, recorded by a guest at a wedding in February 2025. I've taken out a minute that will show you how I look, and let you hear my voice. I'm reading The Monitum, which by law, every celebrant must read at every wedding. I present the newlyweds at the end, before they walk down the aisle.

I’m a very experienced celebrant and I truly love this work.

By 2026, I've been chosen as celebrant for almost 1500 weddings, usually by word-of-mouth. I've never paid for advertising or online promotion. I don't require newly married couples to provide a testimonial for me but occasionally a couple will volunteer a review on Facebook or my Google page. I appreciate their kind words.

Click on 12 Good Reasons and you'll see more details about me and what I offer you. I've also added some notes about my unusual celebrant experiences.

I've streamlined all we need to do to prepare for your wedding into one meeting. We'll need about an hour and a half.

I hold meetings at my home in Weston on Monday and Wednesday evenings, starting at 5.30, 6 or 6.30. Next time we meet it's your wedding day. 😊

If you wish to marry ASAP, you'll still need to wait the statutory one month from the date of lodgement. I can help you lodge your Notice of Intended Marriage with me on the day you contact me – you can lodge with me by email, Messenger, or MMS anytime up to just before midnight. You can legally marry in one month's time from the date that I receive.

BTW You don't need to send me any payment when you lodge your Notice of Intended Marriage with me. Payment is due at our meeting. (Also, there's no obligation to use me as your celebrant on your wedding day if there's a change of plan. Celebrants can exchange Notices, even up to the last minute. The lodgement date stays the same.)

I offer you what I call a beautifully simple, simply beautiful service on any day, at any time, in any location, with any number of guests. My fee of $700 includes travel in the local area of Canberra and Queanbeyan. I'm happy to travel further for your wedding and there's a an extra fee for this. ($1/km outside the local boundaries)

There have been nearly 300 weddings in my big beautiful Heart Garden. At the end of 2024, I closed the garden as a wedding venue. I no longer host weddings in my garden but I still hold pre-wedding meetings in my green room, where many lovely winter weddings have been held.

Thank you so much for visiting Michele the Celebrant. I look forward to more contact with you about your happy plan, and my congratulations once again!

💕💞💞💞💕

BTW I love elopements! (and I can help you with two witnesses who'll keep your wedding confidential) Below is a lovely image from an elopement in my Heart Garden. (My garden was available for weddings, at no cost to couples, until November 2025.)

Michele the Celebrant - Experienced, flexible, friendly. Simple ceremony, any size any time.

Getting married in Canberra or nearby NSW? Let's make contact! Here's lots of information.

Welcome!