What do you need to get married in Perth?
- Sally Bruce
- Jun 24
- 3 min read
Whether you're planning a tiny elopement or a big wedding, there are some absolutely necessary things you'll need in order to get married. And good news - Marriage Law is the same across all of Australia, so this information applies whether you're getting married in Perth, Western Australia or anywhere else in our big country.
An eligible partner, a celebrant, two witnesses and some legal paperwork - that's all you need to get married!
Let's look at each of these in more detail.
Two people who are eligible to marry (and who want to!)
Stating the obvious here, but it's worth knowing that to be eligible to be married, both of you must:
not be married to someone else;
not be marrying a parent, grandparent, child, grandchild or sibling;
be at least eighteen years old;
and understand what marriage means and freely consent to marrying.
For more, see this blog post: Who can get married in Australia?
A Registered Marriage Celebrant to legally marry you
Registered Marriage Celebrants are authorised by the Australian Government's Attorney-General's Department to marry couples in Australia.
If you are part of a religious body or organisation that is listed in the Registered Denomination Legislation, a leader in that organisation may be able to perform your marriage ceremony - please check with them.
In light of a recent 'celebrant' con-artist's scam, it's important to check that your celebrant is actually a legit celebrant.
What documents will I need to get married?
Your celebrant will need to see photo ID plus official document/s that are proof of your place and date of birth, so
either your Passport OR
your Driver’s Licence/Proof of age Card PLUS
the original, not an extract or certified copy of, your Birth Certificate.
In addition, if you have been married previously, you will need to provide evidence of the dissolution of your most recent marriage -
a divorce order
certificate of divorce
decree absolute, or
death certificate.
If your passport doesn’t show your date or place of birth, you’ll need to provide another official document (usually a Birth Certificate) that does.
If the document/s you present is in another language, you will need to provide a formal translation of it.
If any of your documents providing evidence about your date and place of birth and/or identity are in another language, you will need to provide formal translations.
The interpreter must not be a party to the marriage. The National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters Ltd (NAATI) is the national standards and accreditation body for translators and interpreters in Australia. The NAATI website provides a searchable online directory of translators and interpreters.
You'll also need to know:
• the full name at birth AND the full current name of your parent/s – please note this includes middle names!
• the country of birth of your parent/s.
If you don’t already know this info, please try to find out – it may be on your Birth Certificate. (However, if you really can’t find this out, you can put ‘unknown’ for these categories on the paperwork.)
Legal marriage documents to be completed
There are five marriage documents that need to be completed during the marriage process - two before the ceremony, and three during or straight after the ceremony. Your celebrant will guide you through each of these and, after your ceremony, submit them to Births, Deaths and Marriages so your marriage can be registered.
Two witnesses at the marriage ceremony
Australian marriage legislation states that a marriage ceremony must have present at the ceremony two people as legally-required witnesses who sign the marriage certificates (as well as the marrying couple and the celebrant,).
For more on marriage witnesses, see Who can witness a wedding?
If you're feeling overwhelmed with wedding planning and don't know where to start, start here with what's absolutely necessary, and know that anything other than these things is actually an optional extra.
