Recently you may have received an email titled Phobias and Paranoia aimed at reassuring celebrants that, whilst being diligent and thorough in the legal aspects of their work, there was no need to be overly fearful about mistakes causing a marriage they conducted to be invalid.
For many celebrants this email seemed like heresy.
So much focus on the narrow interpretation of Sections 45 and 46 have contributed to an overly legalistic view of the "right" or "wrong" way to conduct a wedding.
One of our ACCN celebrants asked me - How could this be?
Because whilst some parts of the Marriage Act need revision in terms of updating language ,overall most people would agree it is based on sound principles and uses a lot of common sense.
People make mistakes. Always have and always will.
That's why many of the long term Registrars of Birth Deaths and Marriages are such useful people for advice. Their staff too have made mistakes. They meet a range of ordinary couples who are not organised or informed as hoped by the Marriage Celebrant.
So the Marriage Act IS designed to protect the couple from any mistakes the marriage celebrant might make, provided the couple are free to marry - and done as they were informed. ie so a celebrant's mistake can not invalidate their marriage
Certainly the stakes in 1961 were much higher than now in terms of property, custody and inheritance rights.
Saying that did not mean that
- a person could pretend to be a celebrant and get away with it
- nor both of the parties to marriage do the wrong thing and get away with it
There are penalties to cover those circumstance.
But be re-assured, especially if you are a member of a celebrant association. If you are human and make the odd mistake the sky will not fall.
That said, there is no excuse for not aiming for the highest professional standards!
Celebrants who are not members of a celebrant association are not just likely to make the odd mistake, they are more likely to be making serious errors all the time.
Below is the relevant part of the Marriage Act.
48 Certain marriages not solemnized in accordance with this Division to be invalid
- Subject to this section, a marriage solemnized otherwise than in accordance with the preceding provisions of this Division is not a valid marriage.
- A marriage is not invalid by reason of all or any of the following:
(a) failure to give the notice required by section 42, or a false statement, defect or error in such a notice;
(b) failure of the parties, or either of them, to make or subscribe a declaration as required by section 42, or a false statement, defect or error in such a declaration;
(c) failure to produce to the authorized celebrant a certificate or extract of an entry or a statutory declaration as required by section 42, or a false statement, defect or error in such a statutory declaration;
(d) failure to comply with any other requirement of section 42, or any contravention of that section;
(e) failure to comply with the requirements of section 44 or 46; (f) failure to comply with the requirements of section 13.
- A marriage is not invalid by reason that the person solemnizing it was not authorized by this Act to do so, if either party to the marriage, at the time the marriage was solemnized, believed that that person was lawfully authorized to solemnize it, and in such a case the form and ceremony of the marriage shall be deemed to have been sufficient if they were such as to show an intention on the part of each of the parties to become thereby the lawfully wedded spouse of the other.
R Goold Chairperson
Civil Celebrations Network Inc.
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