FIND THE SHELLEYBRANT ON EASY WEDDINGS

Here's a number that would've floored your great-grandparents: in 2024, around 4 in 5 marriages were performed by civil celebrants — 83% of all marriages. Rewind to 1970 and it was almost the exact reverse, with ministers of religion performing 88%. So if you're leaning towards a civil ceremony, you're not doing something alternative. You're doing what nearly everyone does now.

But "most people do it" has never been a good reason to do anything. Here's why couples are actually choosing it.

YOU CAN MARRY ALMOST ANYWHERE

A church ties you to a building. A celebrant sets you free. Your ceremony can happen in a winery, a backyard, a woolshed, on a Granite Belt hilltop, under a gum tree on the family property, or at the pub where you had your first date.

Out here across the Downs and South West Queensland, "the venue" is often just a patch of land with a good view — and that's allowed. The law cares about the words and the witnesses, not the postcode.

IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU, NOT A SCRIPT

Religious ceremonies follow set liturgy. Beautiful, but fixed. A civil ceremony is built around your story: how you met, the running joke, the moment one of you knew. The only bits fixed by law are small — I have to say a short legal statement (the Monitum), and you each have to say a legally required line as part of your vows. Everything wrapped around that is yours. Every word.

NO BELIEFS REQUIRED, AND NONE EXCLUDED

You don't have to hold a faith you don't, or perform one you've drifted away from. And a civil ceremony makes room for everyone — different backgrounds, blended families, two people of the same gender (legal in Australia since December 2017), whoever you are and however you love. Nobody's turned away and nobody's asked to pretend.

IT ISN'T "LESS"

The quiet worry I hear is that civil means lightweight — a signature and a sausage roll. It couldn't be further from the truth. Meaning doesn't live in the venue or the tradition; it lives in the words and the intention behind them. Done well, a civil ceremony isn't a watered-down wedding. It's the most you your wedding will ever be.

THE LEGAL STUFF, I'LL HANDLE IT

Choosing a celebrant means choosing the person who makes your marriage legal. I take care of the paperwork start to finish — your Notice of Intended Marriage, the declarations, and lodging everything with Births, Deaths and Marriages afterwards. You focus on the fun part.

GET IN TOUCH

I'm Shelley, a marriage celebrant based in Toowoomba, working across South West Queensland.

Thinking a civil ceremony might be your kind of wedding?

Get in touch:

Email: hello@theshelleybrant.com.au

Phone: 0458 748 969

CONTACT ME HERE