How to officiate a wedding?

Hi, 

When you speak to a celebrant, you can explain tha you would like your Dad to marry you. As your Dad isn't an authorised marriage celebrant and it takes sometime to complete the course, do the assessment and then apply to the Attorney-General Department to get registered, he is probably not going to be able to do that in time. But the authorised celebrant can manage all the paperwork and the legal part of the ceremony (the manadatory vows, the monitum, the witnessing of the certificate) while your Dad does the rest! So he can tell the story of your relationship and pronounce you as husband and wife. The celebrant may reduce the price because they don't have to write the whole ceremony but they will charge for a legals only ceremony. Celebrants do vary quite a bit on price so you need to ask around. Good luck!

You need to be qualified having completed the Certificate IV in Celebrancy and registered with the Attorney Generals Office in Canberra to be able to legally perform wedding ceremonies, however you can have dad perform much of the ceremony with the celebrant reciting the legal wording. I have been part of such a ceremony which worked quite well , but instead of dad being involved it was the couples high school teacher which they had become friends with both during school and after.

What a special moment this would be to have your Dad conduct your wedding for you both and your guests!

There are certainly ways he can have the lead role in your wedding ceremony. He can conduct all components and write your script, the only requirement you will have is to have a registered marriage celebrant conduct all the legal components of the wedding. You should discuss with your Celebrant your ceremony, so that the legal components are conducted in the correct order which will ensure your ceremony flows naturally.

If you would like your Dad to conduct the legal components, he will be required to successfully complete a Certificate IV in Celebrancy and apply for registration with the Attorney Generals Department. Depending on when your wedding is planned, it may be worthwhile bringing in a registered marriage celebrant to ensure you have a legal ceremony.

Many Celebrants will have a 'legal or elopement' package available to you, usually at a reduced cost to a full ceremony.

Your dad cn certainly be involved in the ceremony when are you marrying. There are lots of ways oif incorporating him into the ceremony. There are rules which the celebrant follows according to the law and provided the celebrant follows the rules your father can perform everything else.

Well, it's certainly possible for your father to officiate the Wedding. There is a legal requirement that must be stated by the actual celebrant during the ceremony, and all the paperwork must be filled out with the celebrant. 

The cost would depend on whether you want the Celebrant to write the ceremony for your Father to read, there are still necessary meeting you need to have with the Celebrant to fill out legal paperwork, and to talk you through what will need to happen legally. 

Either way, the Celebrant is still putting in relatively the same amount of hours work, except for the script - however if you want the ceremony to flow well, you will still need to work with the Celebrant to plan what your Father is going to do. 

I would say that the Celebrant's fee would most likely be the same, or very similar.