Short answer
Check the licence first — celebrants must be licensed in every state. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 666 Australian celebrants in this directory, only 2.9% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 1.9% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Celebrants handle weddings, commitment ceremonies, naming days, vow renewals and funerals. This is what to check before you trust someone with the day itself, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
Celebrants must be licensed
A marriage celebrant must be registered by the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department, and the public register lists every one. An unregistered person cannot legally marry you, however lovely the ceremony. Funeral and naming celebrants need no registration, but most are marriage celebrants as well.
The Attorney-General's Department publishes the register of marriage celebrants online, searchable by name and location. A number is the first thing to ask for.
What 666 Australian celebrants actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For celebrants:
| What we checked | Celebrants | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 2.9% | 21.5% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 58.9% | 59.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 1.9% | 7.7% |
| Website responded when we checked | 80% | 81% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 64.9% | 81.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 46 | 39 |
What goes wrong with celebrants
- A ceremony conducted by someone not on the register, which is not a legal marriage
- The Notice of Intended Marriage lodged late, so the date cannot go ahead
- A celebrant who double-books peak-season weekends
What to ask before the work starts
- What is your registration number on the Commonwealth register?
- When must the Notice of Intended Marriage be lodged, and will you handle it?
- What happens if you are unwell on the day?
A celebrant who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median celebrant in this directory has 46 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where the celebrants are
Melbourne (31), Brisbane (30), Joondalup (18), Sydney (17), Sunshine Coast (16), Gold Coast (15). A shortlist for your own area is more useful than a national ranking — the best celebrant in the country is no help if they are four states away.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do celebrants need a licence in Australia?
- Yes. A marriage celebrant must be registered by the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department, and the public register lists every one. An unregistered person cannot legally marry you, however lovely the ceremony. Funeral and naming celebrants need no registration, but most are marriage celebrants as well.
- How do I check a celebrant's licence?
- The Attorney-General's Department publishes the register of marriage celebrants online, searchable by name and location. A number is the first thing to ask for.
- What percentage of Australian celebrants have a verifiable ABN?
- 2.9% of the 666 celebrants in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.5% across all trades.
- How many reviews should a celebrant have?
- The median celebrant here has 46. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Compare celebrants near you
666 celebrants, ranked on the evidence described above rather than on advertising.
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