Kate asks:

A friend is getting married. Only wants a very small ceremony so went to NSW Registry office and paid the set fee to submit their NOIM. No date has been set for their ceremony yet; they just submitted the NOIM as they wanted get the process going. Since then, they’ve had a change of heart about the style of ceremony offered by the Registry Office, and would like me to officiate their ceremony instead (yay!). The thing is, NSW Registry is apparently going to charge them $120 to transfer the NOIM to their chosen celebrant (me) – that seems outrageous given it takes literally 2 seconds to actually do a transfer in Lifelink. So, since there’s no pressing need for them to marry within the next month, I’m thinking the better (ie. cheaper) option would be to avoid that fee by abandoning the NOIM they’ve already submitted and lodge a new one with me. I wouldn’t think that doing a second NOIM would be an issue since the details on it aren’t recorded with the Registry office until after the ceremony has taken place… is this correct or do they need to stick with the original submission?

The same answer applies here as it does for any marriage that is changing celebrants; there are no problems having more than one NOIM in circulation for the same marriage. For this situation, the NOIM sitting with the Registry Office can just be left to lapse (although the couple could also cancel their booking with the Registry Office so they don’t get hassled by them at any point) and the couple can complete a new NOIM with Kate!