What are the standard minimum legal marriage vows in Australia?

Getting married in Australia is a very different process that most other countries in the world where it’s quite a religious and traditional process. Australian law - the Commonwealth Marriage Act of 1961 - sets out a very certain method for getting married.

More than one month after you’ve given notice a ceremony occurs and you get lots of choice as to what goes down.

The monitum

Section 46 of the Marriage Act of 1961 explains exactly what happens in that moment:

Before a marriage is solemnised by an authorised celebrant, not being a minister of religion of a recognised denomination, the authorised celebrant shall say to the parties, in the presence of the witnesses, the words:

I am duly authorised by law to solemnise marriages according to law.

Then I have to clarify what’s going down:

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.

This is what they call the ‘monitum’ which is Latin for ‘warning’!

Marriage, according to law in Australia, is the union of 2 people to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.

It ends on my favourite phrase: “or words to that effect” which means I get a little bit of creative license as long as the spirit of the ceremony stands as it is in law here.

Minimum legal vows

So after I, your celebrant, has said that stuff, you have to both say these legal marriage vows:

I call upon the persons here present to witness that I, A.B. (or C.D.), take thee, C.D. (or A.B.), to be my lawful wedded wife (or husband, or spouse)

And again with the “or words to that effect”

What about “I do”

The Guidelines to the Marriage Act says:

A ‘question and answer’ form of the vows is not contemplated by the Marriage Act for non-religious marriage ceremonies. It should not be used as a substitute for the couple stating the vows set out in the Act. For example, the celebrant should not say, ‘A.B., will you take C.D., to be your lawful wedded wife (husband or spouse)?’, with the response from the other party of ‘I do’. The inclusion of a ‘question and answer’ segment in the ceremony would need to be in addition to the formal vows required by the Act being spoken by each party.

Which means we’re essentially doing the same thing twice, one is required by law and one is required by pop culture. What that means for a Josh Withers wedding ceremony is that unless we talk about it separately you often won’t get an “I do” thing.

Personal vows?

The guidelines suggest that personally written vows follow the minimum legal vows so as to not confuse anyone, but the law doesn’t mention it, so it’s just a nice suggestion by the Marriage Law and Celebrants Section of the Attorney-General’s Deapartment.

So what can you say in your personal vows? Anything awesome. Here’s some ideas.