Hearts and Souls Celebrant

On the appointment of Attorney-General of Australia, Lionel Murphy in July 1973, he changed the face of the marriage ceremony in Australia for all time by appointing Queensland mother and teacher, Lois D'Arcy as Australia's and the world's first civil marriage celebrant. Lionel Murphy's vision was to see non-religious couples enjoy a marriage or other ceremony that was to be emotionally satisfying, powerful in meaning, and in accordance with their wishes. 

Due to his untiring efforts, you are able to choose everything about your wedding ceremony that you could desire — vows, words, music, poetry, symbolism, style, celebrant, venue, day and time.

Without Lionel Murphy's vision and courage, you would have had to get married in a Registry Office or a Church on a week day in office hours. You would have had to queue up on a long dreary bench, and they would only have been allowed two witnesses and one photo. Their ceremony would have been purely legal and would have taken, at the most, two minutes. (Luckily Registry Offices are much improved these days! 

Because of the work of AG's Murphy and some other succeeding Attorneys-General, you can and do, choose your own place, at your own time and on the day you choose. You can choose your own professionally trained celebrant. You can invite as many guests as you want and the guests heard every word. A PA system can amplify the Brides, Grooms, Readers and Celebrants voices - another PA system played music at an appropriate volume and level. Most of you as a couple work on, plan, choose and write, then rehearse with your chosen celebrant, on-site, your own ceremony to your own wishes. 

The only thing that is different in the UK at present is you still need to be legally married by a Registrar in a short service before or after the ceremony, but then everything else is up to you. 

Just a bit of news here, not even Prince Charles and his bride Camilla Parker-Bowles had this much freedom in their ceremony! They also had to go to a Registry Office to get the legal bit done before they could have the wedding where and when they wanted! They found out that Winsor Castle (the Queens residence) was not registered under the marriage act of 1994. If they had got the castle registered it would have meant anyone could then apply to get married there.