A Life Celebrant - Lou Szymkow

A Life Celebrant - Lou Szymkow

There are many ways your child can be included in your Ceremony. The child is a product of your love and is of course, a very important part of your marriage, and so it is always preferable to include your child in some way in the ceremony. Inclusion can be as simple as mentioning their name during key parts of the ceremony, such as the vows, or including them in a unifying ritual. 

Whilst the couple must say some specific words to each other in their marriage vows, other words can be added (personal vows) or a additional set of vows can be said specifically for the child's benefit, and although the extra words have no legal standing under the Marriage Act, they can have a great deal of emotional importance. 

Included in the vows or not, during the ceremony, the Child can be mentioned and introduced; and depending on age and ability, you can assign set tasks and responsibilities such as:

• Bridal/Groom escort
• Junior Bridesmaid/Groomsman
• Page boy
• Flower girl/boy
• Ring bearer/s
• Ushers
• Bouquet holder
• Announcer
• Reader
• Welcomer
• and lots more….

A Life Celebrant - Lou Szymkow

As others have said, you cannot marry until your divorce is finalised. 

To be eligible to be married under Australian law, you must:

• not be married to someone else
• not be marrying a parent, grandparent, child, grandchild or sibling
• be at least eighteen years old, unless a court has approved a marriage where one party is aged between sixteen and eighteen years old
• understand what marriage means and freely consent to marrying
• use specific words during the ceremony
• gave written notice to your celebrant, of an intention to marry, within the required time frame.

You can legally only be married to one person at a time. Bigamy is a crime.

A Notice of Intended Marriage (NOIM) can be received by an authorised celebrant even though a party is, or both parties are, still married to another person at the date of receipt of the NOIM. In such cases, it is sufficient that the married party or parties note when filling in the NOIM that they are still married, that a divorce order is being sought and the date upon which the divorce is expected to be finalised. However, the marriage cannot be solemnised unless evidence of the divorce is given to the authorised celebrant prior to the solemnisation of the marriage.

For divorces granted in Australia the required evidence of divorce will depend on when the divorce was granted, which will be either a ‘decree absolute’, ‘certificate of divorce’ or ‘divorce order’. 

A Life Celebrant - Lou Szymkow

That is entirely your choice and is no longer the 'norm' strictly speaking because many couples are keeping their original names.

Once you marry in Australia, either party can take the other's surname or you can join with a hyphen in either order.

You can start using your new name straight away but banks, insurers and the passport office etc. will want to see a copy fo your Offcial Marriage Certificate from the BDM (so not the legal one issued at your ceremony). 

You will still be free to revert to your birth name at any time unless you go through a legal name change, which is different from a change of name by marriage.

If you marry overseas, though, you will have to go through a legal name change and cannot then revert to your birth name without another legal name change.