Marie asks:
I married a couple last night and when I got home registered the marriage and ordered their marriage certificate. This morning I woke up to a string of texts from the bride to not register the marriage and that she no longer wants to be married to him. What do I do? Or what do they do?
The good news for any celebrant placed in this position is that it’s an easy reply: regardless of submitting the marriage paperwork to the Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, at the time the couple exchanged vows in the marriage ceremony, according to Australian law they are married.
So if the earth opened up in some kind of post-apocalyptic scene and the ceremony was swallowed whole, the couple died a married couple. If the paperwork was lost, or if the celebrant forgot to register it, or if their car was stolen while they stopped for Mcdonald’s on the way home from the wedding and the paperwork was inside, the couple are still married.
So if they had a big fight at the wedding reception and they no longer wish to be married, they need to speak to someone who knows about family law, and luckily for most celebrants, that’s not us.
If you are a celebrant who is placed in this position, and you are asked to not submit the paperwork and you in fact have not submitted the paperwork yet, to not submit the paperwork would have severe consequences under Australian law, and would likely put you in jail or similar.
My best advice would be to let the couple know that one of the joys of marriage is getting to know your spouse on an even deeper level than you already thought you knew them, so consider themselves blessed to have gotten so intimate in the first 24 hours of their nuptials!
