I am proud to be the first Australian Civil Marriage Celebrant to embrace mobile technology, allowing future couples an easy, modern way to connect with their marriage officiant and I’m equally proud that I created the App myself! I am a geek and proud to say it.

With Vows Now 1.0 you can Get JUST Married® when you want, where you want and be off to enjoy married life in as little as a few minutes… Call or SMS 0429 2 ELOPE directly from the App!

Vows Now specialise in elopement style wedding ceremonies. Perhaps you want to run off and wed in a legal marriage with no guests, no gifts, no cake, no waltzing, no poems, no confetti, no huge expense and most of all, no fuss! Download the Vows Now iPhone App or Android and you can start organising your celebrant today!

The Vows Now 1.0 Android App allows you to:

* Find out how you can Get JUST Married®
* Read about Johanna the Central Coast Civil Marriage Celebrant
* Learn the Legal Requirements for Marrying in Australia
* Make a Booking Enquiry
* Read Testimonials from Brides and Grooms who have been married by Vows Now
* Check the Availability Calendar so you can ‘Save the Date’ you want.
* Connect with us via email, Facebook or Twitter
*Stay up-to-date with our latest blog entries.
*You can even use your phone to announce that you chose to Get JUST Married® – If they don’t believe you, show them the pictures!

Happy Anniversary to Youse! I’m so very proud of you both and happy that you found each other so many years ago. Good job!

I’ve just got off the phone from a bride, frustrated with bureaucracy back home following her Fijian Wedding. She is trying to change her name in Australia and is facing many barriers. Some planning before an escape to paradise, can save untold stresses when your honeymoon is over. Vows Now can help you legally marry in Australia so all you need to do is relax and enjoy yourselves at your destination wedding.

You don’t need to forgo a beautiful wedding ceremony in Thailand, Fiji or Vanuatu. By all means still have a ceremony there, but have just a ceremony that blesses your wedding. Complete the legalities in Australia before you go. It can even be your own secret that you married together in private, before celebrating in style in a tropical resort. I have helped many couples marry legally and simply before they have left the country.

Let me clarify a few things about Australian’s marrying overseas. Information provided by NSW Births, Deaths & Marriages. More info about the implications of your overseas marriage in Australia, please visit the Dept. of Foreign Affairs & Trade, Smart Traveller website

• Under Australian law, you are legally entitled to one marriage ceremony, whether that be in Australia or overseas.
• You are not required, nor is there a facility, to register an overseas marriage in New South Wales or any other Australian state. The Registry only records events that occur in NSW.
• Your marriage is legally recognised in Australia, but the responsibility for registering the marriage is undertaken by the country in which it takes place.
• To obtain evidence of your overseas marriage, it is best if you obtain a marriage certificate or any other supporting documentation before you leave the country.
• On your return to Australia, the bride should be aware that many organisations will no longer accept overseas marriage certificates as a proof of identity document. If you want to change any documentation to your married name, its best to contact the organisation you will be dealing with and find out what their requirements are in relation to producing identification documents.
• If an organisation requests a change of name registration document, and you were born in NSW or New Zealand, then you can apply to register a change of name at the Registry.
  

Some useful things you may not have known about marrying overseas:

Marriage in Thailand

If a couple wishes to have a legal wedding performed in Thailand, the couple is required to spend a week in the capital city of Bangkok before the intended wedding date so that all their documentations can be attended to properly – including all the translations that needs to be done which the couple must be present for. These documentations must be attended to before the wedding ceremony can take place.

Then after the wedding ceremony, the couple must return to Bangkok for a further 7 days – so that their marriage certificate/documentations can be finalised and the Marriage Certificate is translated and formally issued to the couple. Again the couple is required to be present for all this.

Marriage in Vanuatu

Marriages in Vanuatu are recognised in Australia, New Zealand, the United States the United Kingdom and most other countries.

Documentation can be mostly organised prior to departure. Couples do have to be in Vanuatu for three days prior to the ceremony however. Final documentation will take place during this time and it is also handy for the bride and groom to meet the wedding coordinator and choose a location.

Three weeks prior to the ceremony, the following must be faxed for filing:

• Copies of both passports
• Copies of both birth certificates
• If divorced, the relevant papers
• A completed Certificate of Intended Marriage
• Completed Witness Forms – 2 witnesses are required but the wedding coordinator can organise witnesses if couples don’t have guests with them. Witness details needed include names, dates of birth, where born, parents’ names, place of residence and occupation.

Destination weddings are great, but sometimes the international paperwork hurdles are too high to jump over in a wedding dress. Marrying before you leave the country is an easy way to avoid hassle and holding a blessing ceremony overseas allows you to have your wedding cake and eat it too!

Want to save yourself all of the fuss and Get JUST Married®? A day trip to Vows Now on the NSW Central Coast could be the destination to save you a lot of bother. You can read here about the legal stuff to get married in Australia .

You’d never guess from the photos below that the pictures on the right are the ‘real wedding’.

Need any documents certified? Need to send off certified copies of your Marriage Certificate to help change your name after marriage? I’m pleased to announce that I have been approved by the NSW Department of Attorney General and Justice as a Justice of the Peace for the next 5 years.

If any of my Vows Now Brides and Grooms from the past or future would like assistance with certification of documents I am most happy to help out. I am also happy to provide JP services to anyone else who requires them on NSW Central Coast. I’m am located at Point Clare. Please contact me on 0429 2 ELOPE (0429 2 35673).

You know that young, fun, modern marriage celebrant you see jumping around on the Vows Now website? Yeah, something happened… She got older, fatter and more grey! The time has finally arrived where I need to update the photos on my website. I still LOVE the photos on the website, it’s just that I don’t quite look the same any more. I’m starting to wonder if I could rent myself out as ‘something old’?

Tomorrow I am being shot by Andrew Hellmich of Impact Images and I’m more anxious than if I were standing in front of a firing squad, rather than a photographer and his camera. I feel like a nervous bride, about to walk down the aisle. I don’t really want to be the centre of attention. I don’t really want to be judged on how I look. I just want you to love me for being me?

The rational part of my brain says :

“It’s OK, Andrew is a Master Photographer; he won’t let you look stupid. The man is a highly trained, professional photographer and he has photographed thousands of people on their wedding day and in commercial shoots”.

The Y Chromosome dominant part of my brain keeps saying:

“OMG, does my bum look big in this photoshoot?“

The Vows Now website was always intended to be a place where you could instantly connect we me; Johanna, the Celebrant you would hire to officiate your Central Coast elopement. It has felt a little bit like false advertising when couples come to meet me… When I meet prospective brides and grooms at my door, too many times I’m greeted with that awkward upward inflection of “Johanna????“… “Umm, yes…”

Tomorrow, Andrew will be doing for me, what I do as the Celebrant for 100′s of anxious brides and grooms. He will be the professional and take the lead. He will use his people skills and photographic expertise to keep me calm get the job done.We have remarkably similar  jobs… only this time I’ll be the one bringing ‘something blue’…. My blue steel!

Photo Credit: Rachel Murrell of Little Ruby Photography & Design

Getting married can be easy….really easy. As long as you comply with some simple legal requirements and provide the proper notice you can be married with a minimum of fuss. Telling your family that you ran off to marry without them isn’t always quite as easy.

Here are some common reactions and tips to break the news of your decision to elope:
(Based on how I told my family when I eloped!)

• “You may now kiss the bride“. This is NOT the time to reach for your phone to break the news. Stop. Breathe. Enjoy some time together as freshly weds. Telling your family before the ink dries on the marriage certificate will give you less time to take in that you just got married. As soon as you reveal your secret, people will want to speak to you or sms so they can share the excitement. When I eloped we sent a bulk sms to our immediate family that read “Guess who just got married?”. My sister in law replied with “Who?” Can. Worms. Open.
• “Sally Brown has changed her relationship status to ‘married‘”. If you chose to elope because you wanted an intimate, romantic wedding for just the 2 of you, I guarantee all intimacy goes out the window when you update your relationship status on Facebook. Nothing says passion killer more than a bazillion push notifications from Facebook. Be ready to have your wall bombarded with congratulatory messages. Even better, wait until you have a nice photo of your wedding to share.
• Break the news gently, but stand firm on your decision to elope as a couple. In almost 100 weddings I have officiated, I have only known of one couple who had family react badly to their choice to elope. (I suspect though, that whatever choice they had made, someone would have disagreed…). I too was surprised at my youngest son’s reaction to my secret marriage. Normally a very placid, easy-going kid, he was furious he wasn’t invited to our wedding. We ultimately discovered that he’d wanted to wear a suit. Fortunately his anger dissipated quickly when we explained that no-one wore a suit.
• “But we wanted to celebrate with you at a wedding reception“…. For some it’s difficult to get their head around marrying without a huge party afterwards. After my elopement we sent a postcard & fridge magnet created at VistaPrint from some of our wedding photos (see photo at top of page) with the wording below. This party still hasn’t happened yet due to some delays in construction of our boat, but my Mother-in-law still keeps her magnetic invite on her fridge. It will happen. Honest.

Whatever way you let your family know, this will be the first of many major decisions for you as a married couple. Communicate with each other to determine the best way to share your happy news. If you are concerned that Mum will feel left out if you elope, then bring her along! Mothers make great witnesses.

In 20 minutes, with some white wool, a few tablecloths, some white chinese paper lanterns (from the cheap shop for $2 each), and some freshly cut flowers from my garden, I managed to transform the space underneath my house into a ceremony venue I could be proud to share with guests. Look carefully and you can see the I even managed to obscure the classy hot water system!

Have a look and let me know what you think?

And as is always the case… It didn’t rain at all during the ceremony! Congratulations J & Q.

Been together forever but never got around to getting that “piece of paper”?
Why not Get Just Married® with Vows Now? We offer affordable, legal wedding ceremonies without the fuss of “traditional” weddings.
We understand that not everyone wants to stand in front of a crowd, some have dysfunctional families, some are more comfy in their pyjamas – All of our couples are in love & get the same papers to prove it!!

You need to give a minimum of one month’s Notice of Intended Marriage, so give Johanna a call on 0429 2 ELOPE (0429 235673) or contact Vows Now via our Booking Enquiry Form

Attention please all of those engaged-but-never-get-around-to-marrying couples. Whilst casually perusing my availability calendar I have stumbled upon the best date for fuss-free brides to marry this year. Who knew there was a day just sitting there, waiting patiently next to four public holidays!

I know how tough it is to plan a wedding. You feel like you need a holiday afterwards just to recover from the stress. It can be difficult to get time off work for a honeymoon. You can’t get everyone together for that big wedding you planned. Have you considered ditching the BIG plans, eloping and spending four whole days together as newlyweds?

Yes people! The Government and the Easter Bunny got together and made Thursday, April 5th 2012 the BEST DATE to marry in 2012. Think about it. I need you to have filed a Notice of Intended Marriage Form with me before March 4th 2012. You pop in to see me on Thursday 4th April after work. Say the minimum legal wording to each other. Sign some paperwork and you get FOUR DAYS OFF. Married!

Imagine the wonderful places you could have a short break honeymoon if you eloped in a quickie ceremony the day before the Easter break? Here’s a few suggestions:

• Hunter Valley Wineries (I have married people at Tullochs Wines and Billabong Moon)
• Terrigal Beach (Crowne Plaza have hosted a few Vows Now elopements on their ocean view balconies)
• Drop in en route to Bluesfest at Byron Bay.
• Go to the Royal Easter Show - scary rides and wood chopping are much more fun married
• Learn how to make great coffee together

Does this sound like the easy, fuss-free wedding you’ve always dreamed about? Give me a call on 0429 2 ELOPE and Get JUST Married®… and have 4 days off work to enjoy yourselves.