Bespoke wedding, elopement and vow renewal ceremonies across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland and the vineyards — written from a blank page, entirely for the two of you.
Hello, and congratulations
Everything else — the grazing table, the band, the uncle who will not sit down — is the party afterwards. Lovely, all of it. But the twenty minutes in the middle are the reason everyone drove out here.
Sharon writes those twenty minutes from a blank page. Not a template with your names dropped into it, and not fifteen rushed minutes of someone else's words. She will ask how the two of you actually happened, who made it possible, and what you are too shy to say in front of your mother — and then she will say the good bits for you.
The paperwork, meanwhile, quietly becomes somebody else's problem. Hers.
Sharon
More about Sharon
The ceremonies
Whether it is three hundred people under a marquee or two of you on a headland at sunrise, the care that goes into the words is identical.
Weddings
A ceremony is the only part of the day that actually marries you — everything else is the party afterwards. It deserves more than fifteen rushed minutes of someone else’s words.
From $1,150 inc. GST
Read more about Weddings
Elopements
No seating chart. No running sheet. Just the two of you, somewhere beautiful, saying the thing you came to say.
From $790 inc. GST
Read more about Elopements
Vow Renewals
Ten years, twenty-five, fifty. Or no anniversary at all — just a decision to stand up in front of the people you love and say it out loud again.
From $690 inc. GST
Read more about Vow RenewalsWhy the name
Long before registries and certificates, couples in Ireland and Scotland were married by having their hands bound together with cord while they made their promises. The binding was the marriage. The phrase we still use survived the ceremony that made it.
Sharon offers a handfasting inside any ceremony — three minutes, a length of cord or your family tartan, and a knot that stays tied long after everyone has gone home. It is the reason this business has the name it does.
Hands bound with cord or tartan while you make your promises. The origin of "tying the knot", and the reason this business has the name it does.
Two flames becoming one, often lit by mothers or grandmothers. Simple, and devastating in the right family.
Separate colours poured into one vessel — the favourite for blended families, because everyone gets a jar.
A shared cup of whisky, wine or something softer. Scottish in origin, extremely popular with grandfathers.
Your rings passed through the hands of everyone present, each person holding a wish in them before you wear them.
Letters to each other sealed in a box with a bottle, to be opened on a future anniversary — or the first serious argument.
How it works
Coffee, wine, a video call in your pyjamas — however you like. No pitch, no pressure. Mostly Sharon just wants to hear how the two of you happened.
A deposit holds your date. From that moment nobody else can have it, and Sharon becomes the person you text at 11pm about seating.
The Notice of Intended Marriage is lodged at least one month before the day. Sharon prepares it, checks your documents and files everything.
A first draft lands in your inbox. Then a second, and a third if you want it, until there is not a single sentence that sounds like someone else.
Sharon arrives early, sets up the PA, calms whoever needs calming, and then gets out of the way so the two of you can do the part that matters.
Paperwork, decoded
Australian law needs your Notice of Intended Marriage at least one calendar month before you marry — and no more than eighteen. Put your date in and find out exactly where you sit.
A guide only, not legal advice. In limited circumstances a prescribed authority can shorten the one-month notice period — if you are inside it, ask Sharon rather than assume.
Kind words
Half the room was crying by the second paragraph and the other half was laughing. She somehow got both our families in there without it ever feeling like a list.
We are not ceremony people. We told her that at the first meeting. She wrote us something ten minutes long that we still quote at each other.
The paperwork side of it never once became our problem. She just quietly dealt with all of it and told us where to sign.
Thirty years married and she still found something new to say about us. Our kids had not heard half of those stories.
Where
Straight answers
The Notice of Intended Marriage (NOIM) must be given to your celebrant at least one calendar month before your wedding, and no more than eighteen months before it. One month is the legal floor, not a target — most couples lodge theirs as soon as they book. If you are inside the month, a prescribed authority can shorten the time in limited circumstances, so ask rather than assume.
Each of you needs to show evidence of date and place of birth — an original birth certificate or a current passport — plus photo identification. If either of you has been married before, you will also need the divorce order or the death certificate of your former spouse. Sharon checks all of it well before the day, so nothing surfaces at the last minute.
Two, and both must be aged eighteen or over. They need to be able to understand what is happening and sign their names. If you are eloping and it is genuinely just the two of you, Sharon can arrange witnesses.
Yes, and it is mercifully short. Your celebrant must say the monitum — "Marriage, according to law in Australia, is the union of two people to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life." Each of you must then say a legal vow identifying yourselves and taking the other as your lawful wedded spouse. Everything else in the ceremony is entirely yours.
The moment you have both said your legal vows in the presence of your celebrant and two witnesses. The signing afterwards records it. Sharon then registers the marriage with NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages within fourteen days, and you can order your official certificate from the registry once it is lodged.
Next step
No obligation, no hard sell, no package deck. Just a conversation about your day and whether Sharon is the right person to stand in front of you.
