How to change marriage celebrants
For any number of reasons, sometimes a couple needs to change marriage celebrants. Their original celebrant may no longer be available due to illness or change of plans, or the couple may have simply changed their mind. How to change marriage celebrants can vary depending on what stage of the process you’re at. It also varies depending on who is driving the change, the celebrant or the couple. Let’s take a look…
Before any ceremony planning is done
Let’s start with how to change marriage celebrants before any ceremony planning is done. You may have:
- met with the original celebrant and decided to book them
- paid them a booking fee and signed a contract
- lodged a Notice of Intended Marriage (NOIM) with them.
The celebrant may have provided you with resources to help you start thinking about your ceremony.
However, no ceremony planning has yet taken place. You haven’t sat down with the celebrant and discussed the contents of the ceremony. You haven’t provided them with details about your relationship (either in writing or in person). The celebrant hasn’t written the ceremony script.
Couple changes their mind
At this point, changing marriage celebrants is pretty easy. You’re most likely more than a month out from your ceremony, so all you really need to do is tell the original celebrant you don’t want to work with them anymore and book a new one. The original celebrant can transfer the NOIM to the new celebrant, but they don’t need to. You’ve got time to lodge a new NOIM with the new celebrant because it’s more than a month before your ceremony.
Be aware that the original celebrant will likely be able to keep the booking fee you paid them. It will have covered their time for the work they did in meeting you, managing your booking, providing you with resources, and possibly completing the NOIM.
Celebrant becomes available
If a celebrant becomes unavailable at this point, it’s usually because a family member has decided to get married on that date or because they’ve double booked themselves. In my mind they should make an effort to find some possible replacement celebrants from their network for you to contact.
They should almost definitely give you back the booking fee you paid if they are no longer available, but that will depend on how their contract is written. Morally I think they should give it back if they’re breaking the contract!
After ceremony planning is done
After you’ve done the ceremony planning, it gets a little more complicated to change marriage celebrants. You’ve now had a second meeting with the celebrant, sometimes for a couple of hours. The celebrant has spent time getting to know you and your relationship, and they’ve likely written your ceremony script. You may have paid them a progress payment and even the final payment. You may have had a rehearsal. This could be any time up to the day or even the day of the wedding.
Couple changes their mind
If you changes your mind at this point, you’re going to have to deal with the original celebrant to have your NOIM transferred to the new celebrant. Please note the original celebrant is not legally required to transfer the NOIM. If they refuse, the new celebrant can help you apply for a shortening of time so you can still get married on your date.
Unless the original celebrant has done something egregiously wrong that causes your change your mind, it’s highly unlikely you’re getting any money back from them. This of course will depend on what their contract says, but it’s worth being aware of before you decide to change marriage celebrants.
Celebrant becomes unavailable
If a celebrant becomes unavailable after doing all that work, it’s likely because they or a family member are sick. We celebrants have gotten pretty good at standing in for each other during COVID. We have great networks, and between us we will be able to find someone to turn up to your ceremony. They will have your script and your legal paperwork (the original celebrant will have transferred the NOIM to them). The original celebrant will also look after paying the new celebrant so you don’t have to worry about it. The new celebrant will need to see your identity documents, but that can be a scan or a photo, it doesn’t have to be the hard copies.
So that’s my outline of how to change marriage celebrants, and the differences given timing and who’s making the decision. I hope you don’t need to change marriage celebrants, but if you do, here’s how it could work.