Notice of Intended Marriage: A State-by-State Guide for Australian Celebrants

If you're getting married in Australia, there's one piece of paperwork that has to happen before anything else: the Notice of Intended Marriage. It isn't something you can skip, backdate, or rush through at the last minute — get the timing wrong and it can push your wedding date back. The short version: it has to reach your celebrant at least one month, and no more than 18 months, before the day. Below is exactly what it is, how it works, and what's actually true (and not true) about how it differs from state to state.

If you're a celebrant, keep reading past the quick-answer section — that's where this guide earns its keep. Every consumer wedding blog can give you the one-month rule. Not many will name the actual state BDM system you'll be logging into after the ceremony, or tell you plainly that "Form 16" doesn't exist. This one does, with dates and citations, so you're not relying on a Facebook group thread that's a year out of date.

Quick answer: what is a Notice of Intended Marriage?

A Notice of Intended Marriage is the legal notice a couple gives their celebrant before they can marry in Australia. It must be received no earlier than 18 months and no later than 1 month before the wedding date (Marriage Act 1961, s42(1)(a)). It's a single, uniform Commonwealth form — the same everywhere in Australia.

The Notice of Intended Marriage at a glance

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* One exception, and it isn't the celebrant path: WA, SA and NT each run their own government registry-office wedding service as an alternative to using a private celebrant. If a couple marries through that in-house service, the state charges its own bundled notice-lodgement fee as part of the package (WA $205, SA $147, NT $195, all as at July 2026) — a fee for the government's own ceremony service, not a fee for giving notice to a private celebrant. NSW's and Victoria's full itemised fee schedules (both current 1 July 2026) carry no lodgement fee at all.

Is the Notice of Intended Marriage different in each state?

No. And this is the one thing most consumer wedding content gets wrong. The Notice of Intended Marriage form and the one-month/18-month window are set entirely by Commonwealth law — the Marriage Act 1961 and the Marriage Regulations 2017 — and they're identical in every state and territory. There's no "NSW version" or "Victorian version" of the form, and no state can shorten or extend the Commonwealth minimum-notice window on its own.

What does vary by state is everything that happens after the notice is lodged and after the ceremony — which BDM system a celebrant logs into to register the marriage, and (within the same uniform Commonwealth framework) who locally handles a shortening-of-time application. That's the actual state-by-state content worth knowing, and it's covered next.

There's one narrow administrative exception that doesn't affect independent celebrants: Marriage Regulations 2017, Schedule 4 lists certain state and territory government registry office-holders who personally solemnise marriages ex officio, who are only required to prepare one official certificate instead of two. It's a technical carve-out for BDM staff, not for celebrants, and it doesn't touch the notice period or the form itself.

What actually varies state to state

State BDM online registration systems

Once the ceremony's done, here's where the real state-level differences live: the online system each state and territory's Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages uses for celebrants to register a marriage. These have all been rebuilt and renamed over the years — mixing up an old name for a current one is an easy, avoidable mistake.

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Shortening of time: who decides, and how to find out

The Marriage Act defines a "prescribed authority" as a Commonwealth, state, or territory officer or employee, individually appointed by the Minister, who can authorise a marriage on shorter notice (Marriage Act 1961, s5(1)). This is where a lot of celebrant-forum advice gets vague — and honestly, it's genuinely hard to pin down as a fixed list, because the Attorney-General's Department maintains a live register of 341 individually appointed prescribed authorities across the country, and the names on it change as staff move on.

The pattern that holds nationwide: in every state and territory, that jurisdiction's central Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages can act as a prescribed authority. Some states also deputise local courts to cover regional areas — confirmed for NSW, where the great majority of prescribed authorities on the national register are Local Court Registrars and Deputy Registrars, alongside the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages itself for the centralised path. Victoria's Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages runs its own dedicated notice-shortening application form.

Because these are individual public-service appointments, not fixed job titles, don't rely on a static list — including one published in a blog post. The Attorney-General's Department keeps the current, complete, individually searchable register here: marriage.ag.gov.au/stateofficers/authorities. Confirm the currently appointed officer for your location there before you apply.

Interpreter and translated-document requirements

The Marriage Act and Regulations set two narrow, specific rules here — not a general one. An interpreter used at the ceremony itself must first declare, by statutory declaration, that they understand and can converse in the relevant languages, and must afterwards give the celebrant a certificate that they performed the role faithfully (Marriage Act 1961, s112). And if a parent or guardian's written consent to a minor's marriage is in a language other than English, it must come with an English translation from a NAATI-accredited translator competent to do it (Marriage Regulations 2017, regs 10–11).

Outside those two cases, Commonwealth law is silent. There's no general rule requiring an interpreter to be present when a couple signs the notice, and no general rule requiring supporting identity or prior-marriage documents to be translated — it's a matter of your own professional judgement as the celebrant, satisfying yourself the notice isn't defective.

In practice, this is one of the few places where a genuine state-level difference does show up — just not the kind the Act creates. Western Australia's own government marriage registry publishes an explicit policy for its registry-office weddings: all foreign-language documents must be officially translated into English, and the registry provides an interpreter free of charge where a couple or witness doesn't speak English, including Auslan. That's a service-level practice of one state registry, not a Commonwealth requirement, and no equivalent appears on the NSW or Victorian pages. If in doubt, get it translated by a NAATI-accredited translator before lodgement — the same standard the law already sets for the one document type it does regulate.

Notice of Intended Marriage timing rules

The one-month minimum — when the clock actually starts

The one-month clock starts on the date your celebrant actually receives the signed notice — not the date the couple booked you, and not the date they filled in a draft. Under the Marriage Act 1961, s42(1)(a), a marriage can't be solemnised unless the notice "has been received by the authorised celebrant... not earlier than 18 months before the date of the marriage and not later than 1 month before the date of the marriage." If a couple hands you a signed notice five weeks out, you're fine. If they hand it to you three weeks out because they assumed booking you months ago counted, you have a genuine problem — and it's one of the more common ways a wedding date ends up getting pushed.

The 18-month maximum

At the other end, a notice given more than 18 months before the wedding date isn't valid either — the same s42(1)(a) window sets the outer limit. In practice this rarely bites, since most couples lodge much closer to the date, but it matters for couples who lock in a venue years out and want every piece of paperwork done early. Tell them: not yet.

Shortening of time: the five prescribed circumstances

Sometimes a couple genuinely can't meet the one-month minimum — and the law has a formal process for that, not just goodwill. Under Marriage Regulations 2017, reg 72 (made for the purposes of s42(5) of the Act), a prescribed authority can authorise a marriage on shorter notice if the circumstances fall within one of five categories set out in Schedule 3:

1. Employment-related or other travel commitments
2. Wedding or celebration arrangements
3. Medical reasons
4. Legal proceedings
5. Error in giving notice

Each category comes with its own evidence expectations — for employment or travel, that typically means letters of offer or acceptance and travel tickets; for medical reasons, a letter from a medical practitioner. The application goes to a prescribed authority (see the section above), not to the celebrant, and it isn't automatic — it has to be applied for and granted before the ceremony can go ahead on short notice.

Witnessing the Notice of Intended Marriage

Who can witness it

The notice has to be signed under observation by an authorised witness, and the Marriage Act 1961, s42(2), sets out who qualifies based on where the person signing is physically located when they sign.

For couples signing in Australia, the notice must be witnessed by one of six categories set out in the Act: an authorised celebrant, a Commissioner for Declarations, a justice of the peace, a barrister or solicitor, a medical practitioner, or a police officer (Australian Federal Police or state/territory police) — s42(2)(c). For couples signing outside Australia, the witness must be one of five different categories that specifically exclude celebrants: an Australian Diplomatic Officer, an Australian Consular Officer, a notary public, or an authorised Commonwealth or Austrade employee under the Consular Fees Act 1955 — s42(2)(d).

What that means at the desk: in the ordinary case you are the answer. If your couple is signing in Australia and you are too, you can witness the notice yourself, and most celebrants do. The case worth slowing down for is the other one — if a party signs while they're overseas, you are specifically not an option, and neither is anyone else outside those five categories.

If a notice does get signed under the wrong witness — an unqualified friend standing in for a JP, or a celebrant witnessing for a party who was actually overseas at the time — treat it as not properly given, and fix it with a fresh, correctly witnessed notice as soon as you spot it. The Act doesn't clearly let a corrected notice keep its original date in every case, so don't assume the clock has already started. There is genuine reassurance on the other side of this: if a ceremony does go ahead on a notice with this kind of defect, the marriage itself isn't invalidated by it (Marriage Act 1961, s48(2)) — but that's not a reason to let it slide if you catch it before the day.

Both lists are exhaustive; there's no discretion to use anyone outside them.

Remote witnessing: the 2024 rule change

Remote witnessing is real, current, and permanent — but it took two steps to get there, and the dates matter if you're fact-checking a claim from a celebrant forum.

A temporary, COVID-era measure first allowed remote signing from 20 December 2021, under the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Modifications—Statutory Declarations and Notices of Intention to Marry) Determination 2021 (F2021L01858). That measure was repealed on 31 December 2023.

The permanent rule took over from 12 June 2024, when the Attorney-General's Portfolio Miscellaneous Measures Act 2024 (Act No. 41 of 2024, Royal Assent 11 June 2024) amended the Marriage Act so a notice can be signed "under the observation (whether or not by means of a facility that enables audio and visual communication between persons in different places)" of an authorised witness (Marriage Act 1961, s42(2)(c)–(d)). In plain terms: video-link witnessing is now a standing option, not a pandemic workaround.

The location rule hasn't changed, and it's worth repeating exactly because it trips people up: if the couple is in Australia, the person witnessing remotely — which can include an authorised celebrant — must also be in Australia. If the couple is outside Australia, the witness must also be outside Australia, and in that case it can't be a celebrant. You can't witness online a notice for a couple who are both overseas.

Required documents and evidence of identity

Before the wedding, both parties give their celebrant evidence of their date and place of birth — an official birth certificate or extract, an Australian or overseas passport, or, if none of those can be obtained, a statutory declaration explaining why, together with their believed date and place of birth (Marriage Act 1961, s42(1)(b)).

The celebrant also needs to be satisfied of each party's identity: a passport, driver licence, proof-of-age card or official identity card will do. And if either party has been married before, the celebrant needs evidence the earlier marriage has ended — a death certificate if a spouse has died, divorce order details if divorced, or annulment evidence if the marriage was annulled (Marriage Act 1961, s42(10); Marriage Regulations 2017, reg 70(2)(c)).

None of these documents carries a Commonwealth-mandated certification or translation requirement. That said: if something isn't in English, get it translated by a NAATI-accredited translator well before your lodgement date, not after — that's a Notice of Intended Marriage delay plenty of celebrants have seen firsthand.

The three Form 15 certificates: what happens after the ceremony

Here's something worth clearing up properly, because it circulates as settled fact in celebrant groups and it isn't quite right: there is only one prescribed marriage certificate form in Australia. It's called Form 15. There's no separate, second numbered form waiting at the end of the process — what actually happens is that the same Form 15 gets completed more than once.

Form 15 — the one prescribed certificate

Under Marriage Regulations 2017, reg 73(1), "the form prescribed for a certificate of marriage is Form 15 in Schedule 1." It's the only marriage form you can't download yourself — it has to be purchased as pre-printed, individually serial-numbered stationery from CanPrint Communications, the Attorney-General's Department's approved supplier, and CanPrint can only sell it to registered marriage celebrants who quote their registration number on the order.

Where the three copies go

Under Marriage Act 1961, s50(1)(b), a celebrant must "prepare 2 official certificates of the marriage" on the day — both on the Form 15 template. One you keep, bound to your own Notice of Intended Marriage paperwork. The other goes to the relevant state or territory BDM within 14 days (s50(4)(a)(i); Marriage Regulations 2017, reg 76). In practice, most celebrants buy Form 15 stock in sets of three and complete a third copy as a keepsake certificate for the couple — a genuinely common, sensible practice, but that third copy isn't separately regulation-numbered. All three are the same Form 15 design; the law only requires two.

The celebrant's record-keeping obligation

This is where the paperwork becomes an ongoing obligation, not a one-day task. Under Marriage Regulations 2017, reg 73(5), every celebrant must keep a record for each Form 15 certificate supplied to them — the serial number, and then, depending what happens to it, the date it was used and the couple's full names, the details if it was transferred to another celebrant, or the date and reason if it was destroyed. Reg 73(6) requires those records to be kept for six years from the relevant event. Reg 74(1) makes getting this wrong a strict-liability offence — it doesn't require intent, just the record gap itself.

This is exactly the kind of small, ongoing obligation that's easy to lose track of once it's spread across a folder here and a spreadsheet row there — which is exactly the record-keeping gap our honest spreadsheets vs CRM comparison walks through in more detail.

A celebrant's Notice of Intended Marriage checklist

A quick working checklist — the kind you'd pin above your desk:

• Notice signed and received no earlier than 18 months, no later than 1 month before the wedding date (s42(1)(a))
• Correct authorised-witness category used, matching where the signing actually happened — in Australia vs overseas
• Evidence of date and place of birth sighted for both parties — certificate, extract or passport, or a statutory declaration if none can be obtained — plus photographic identity evidence, and divorce, death or annulment evidence if either has been married before
• Any non-English supporting document translated by a NAATI-accredited translator before lodgement — no Commonwealth rule requires it for these documents, but it's the standard the law sets where it does regulate translation, and WA's own registry requires it for its registry-office weddings — check your state if you're unsure
• Shortening-of-time application lodged, if needed, with a confirmed current prescribed authority — checked against the AGD's live register, not an old forum post
• Two Form 15 certificates completed on the day, plus a third keepsake copy if that's your practice
• BDM copy lodged with your state or territory's current system within 14 days
• Serial number and outcome recorded for every Form 15 certificate you've been issued, per your record-keeping obligation (reg 73(5)) — kept for 6 years

Common Notice of Intended Marriage mistakes that delay a wedding

Most Notice of Intended Marriage problems aren't legal grey areas — they're avoidable process mistakes, and they cluster around a small set of repeat offenders:

• Confusing the booking date with the notice date. The one-month clock starts when the celebrant receives the signed notice, not when the couple first got in touch.
• Assuming a rebranded state BDM system is still the old one. Logging into "Marriage Celebrants Online" for Victoria, for instance, when it's been retired in favour of RIO — see the table above.
• Re-keying the same details across a spreadsheet, a Notice of Intended Marriage document, and a separate Form 15, and having them drift out of sync with each other. In our own survey of 114 Australian celebrants, at least 18 — 16% — raised the Notice of Intended Marriage, Form 15, or BDM lodgement by name, entirely unprompted, when simply asked open-ended questions about their software pain points. Nobody asked them about legal paperwork directly; they brought it up themselves. One put it plainly:

  "Unless the software could send the completed documents and details directly to the BDM, I would still have to double enter everything."

• Letting a shortening-of-time application slip past the deadline because nobody checked whether the prescribed authority for that location was still the person the celebrant had used last time.
• Losing track of a Form 15 serial number once it's been transferred, voided, or destroyed — which isn't just untidy, it's a strict-liability record-keeping breach under reg 74(1).

None of these are hard problems on their own. They're just the kind of small thing that's easy to miss when the same information lives in four different places.

How CelebrantCentral handles the Notice of Intended Marriage for you

For what it's worth, everything above is exactly what we built CelebrantCentral to make boring, in the best sense — no missed dates, no re-keyed details, no wondering which state system has been renamed.

The Notice of Intended Marriage and Form 15 details live in the same ceremony record, so you're filling them in once, not three or four times. When it's time to register with your state's BDM system, CelebrantCentral's browser extension prefills your state's BDM online portal from that same record — you review it and submit it yourself. It's your submission, made faster, not a black box doing it for you.

It's priced simply: $2 + GST a month per active ceremony, capped at $40 + GST a month, hard. Leads are free until they're booked. No lock-in. CelebrantCentral was co-founded by Luke Firth, a working Australian marriage celebrant and ABIA Australia's Best Celebrant 2025.

If you're currently weighing this up against spreadsheets, our honest spreadsheets vs CRM comparison is worth reading first. And if you're already sold and wondering how to move your existing records across without losing anything, here's how to switch celebrant software without losing your data.