It's important for you to know right from the start that many things that take place in modern Australian Anglo-Celtic weddings hark back to the long-held traditions of Christian religious weddings. Some of the things that may be considered traditional in a modern Australian wedding ceremony may not necessarily be a legal requirement of marriage and therefore, couples don't have to include traditional, non-legal elements in their ceremony if they don't want to.

Unfortunately, you may find that when you consult civil celebrants about their services, some will certainly insist on their couples adhering to a variety of "traditional" practices in their weddings despite our Code of Practice requiring us to give couples choices about what takes place in their ceremonies. Often, this is because some celebrants have an idealised view of the marriage ceremony replicating what they have seen in religious weddings, films or on TV. If you engage a celebrant that insists on you doing things in a particular way (and no other way), or makes you do things that you may not wish to do, simply because "that's the way it's done in weddings", then you should find yourself a new celebrant who thinks and acts quite differently. We are very lucky to have such a flexible marriage system in Australia that enables us to make real choices about how, when and where we may marry - unlike many other Western countries with more rigid marriage systems.

Examples of traditional elements of the modern Australian wedding ceremony that are not legally required include:

·         The Giving of the Bride (and sometimes the Groom) in Marriage

·         The "Asking Question" ("Do you take this person to be your husband/wife?")

·         The Exchange of Wedding Rings between husband and wife

·         The "Kiss" between husband and wife at the end of the ceremony.

You are very welcome to include these traditional elements in your ceremony, but you need to know they are not legally required.  This dichotomy perplexes people who want to have a traditional wedding with all the traditional ritual trimmings, but pleases the non-traditionalists who prefer to toss wedding tradition out the window.

By the same token, many civil weddings do incorporate religious elements within them. Again, these things may not be legally required but if that is what you want in your ceremony, you are most welcome to include them. 

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

The Asking Question is not a legal requirement because your signing the Form 13 Notice of Intended Marriage and the Form 14 (no impediment to marry) Declarations before the wedding has provided your consent to the marriage. However, if you do include the Asking Question in the ceremony, it is the one place where you or your partner absolutely cannot joke in your response. If you answer "no" or something of a negative nature inferring the same, you actually revoke your consent to the marriage. If the wedding proceeds after this happens, it takes the legal aspects of the ceremony into very grey territory as the celebrant can be accused of forcing the couple to marry after consent has been revoked. Severe penalties can apply to the celebrant.