Declaration of no Impediment to Marriage

The Declaration of no Impediment to Marriage is a document that you have to sign before your marriage ceremony. It will be on the reverse side of the Official Certificate of Marriage that you will sign on your wedding day.  It is usually signed at the rehearsal, or the last time that you meet with the celebrant before the big day. It must be signed before you are married. It can be signed on the day if needs be, but it has to be signed legally before the ceremony takes place.

This document is basically a Statutory Declaration that you are over the age of 18 and there is no legal reason that you cannot be married to the person that you are about to marry. (If you are under 18 years of age you can still sign the paperwork, but you have to get a court approval to be married and it must be to someone that is over the age of 18) It states that you are a person who has never been validly married, or that you are a divorced person, or a widow or widower, and that there is no reason you cannot be married to the person that you are marrying.

Photo from Love Journal. Check out more of their work here.

 

 

Signing Legal Paperwork on your wedding day

There are quite a few legal documents that you have to sign when getting married.  On your wedding day you will be signing 3 documents during your wedding ceremony.  These 3 certificates need to be signed by the Bride and Groom. They each need to have a signature of one witness to the ceremony that is over the age of 18 and the celebrant (or minister/pastor/priest if in a church) needs to sign also.

The first is one of the official certificates, that gets sent to Births, Deaths and Marriages in the state where your wedding is held, for registration purposes.  This certificate has documentation called ‘Declaration of no Impediment to marriage’, (blog about that coming soon) on the back that is previously signed by the couple before the wedding ceremony that confirms that there is no reason that they cannot be married.
The second is another official certificate that is kept by the authorised celebrant or church, it will usually be in a big book that all of their previous weddings are recorded in.

The third is the ceremonial certificate that is kept by the couple. This is the pretty certificate. But unfortunately this cannot be used by the Bride to change her name, although I am told taking a copy with you on your honeymoon might help you get an upgrade to a fancier room. To change your name, you will have to get a copy of  your marriage certificate from Births, Deaths and Marriages. This process takes some time as the person who conducts your wedding has 14 days to register the marriage with Births, Deaths and Marriages. Then, Births, Deaths and Marriages can take a bit of time processing it. I generally recommend that couples wait around 6 weeks before applying for their official certificate from Births, Deaths and Marriages.

One thing to remember for all brides on their wedding day is, no matter if you are changing your name after you are married or not. You need to sign all of your paperwork in your maiden name, or name that you currently use. You must sign in the same name.

 

A big thank you to Love Journal photography for the use of their images on the blog this week. Check out their website and facebook, they have exciting things going on at their brand new studio. Check it out.