Wedding Vows
Your wedding vows is your chance to express your personal thoughts about each other and / or share some
significant details about your journey together. They can be uniquely individual, long, short or anything in between. Your personal vows are woven into the marriage ceremony script to be read out on your wedding day, along with the legal vows.
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Below is the minimum wording which must be included in every Australian marriage ceremony in order for it to be legally binding.
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Introduction - Authorised celebrant must introduce themselves to the audience.
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Full names of both parties must be announced at some point within the ceremony, preferably early, for identification purposes.
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Vows - the legal vows from December 09, 2017 are:
"I call upon the persons here present to witness that I, (Party 1), take thee, (Party 2), to be my lawful wedded wife (or husband, or partner)."
This change allows marrying couples to make a personal choice about the terms to be used in their marriage vows that best reflect their relationship. The term ‘husband’ can refer to a male marriage partner, and ‘wife’ to a female marriage partner, regardless of the sex or gender of the person saying the vows. The term ‘spouse’ can refer to a male, female, intersex, non-binary gender or transgender person.
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Monitum -
“I am duly authorized by law to solemnize marriages according to law.”
“Before you are joined in marriage in my presence and in the presence of these witnesses, I am to remind you of the solemn and binding nature of the relationship into which you are now about to enter.”
“Marriage, according to law in Australia, is the union of two people to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.”