Knot Without You Ceremonies by Sharon

Elopements & micro-weddings

No seating chart. No running sheet. Just the two of you, somewhere beautiful, saying the thing you came to say.

An elopement is not a smaller wedding. It is a different decision — to spend the money on the honeymoon, to skip the politics of a seating chart, or simply to say the thing you came to say without an audience of two hundred.

Sharon marries couples on headlands at Terrigal, on the sand at Shoal Bay before the first dog walker, in vineyards at Pokolbin with nobody there but the two witnesses and a photographer, and more than once in a back garden with the dog as the ring bearer.

No seating chart. No running sheet. Just the two of you, somewhere beautiful.

Two of you, two witnesses, one beautiful spot

Australian law needs two witnesses aged eighteen or over. That is the only crowd required. If it is genuinely just the two of you, Sharon will arrange witnesses — it happens often and nobody finds it strange.

If you do not know where yet, that is half the fun. Sharon knows which Hunter vineyards will let you stand among the vines on a Tuesday, which Newcastle headlands catch the sunrise without catching the wind, and which Port Stephens beaches are empty at seven in the morning in March.

Short, but not thin

A good elopement ceremony runs about ten minutes. That is long enough for a story about the two of you, the legal words, your vows and the rings — and short enough that nobody gets cold.

Short does not mean generic. Sharon still writes it from scratch, still asks all the same questions, and still sends drafts until it is right. The only thing missing is the audience.

Permits, tides and the things nobody tells you

Most beach and headland ceremonies on public land need a council permit, and popular spots get booked out in summer. Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Port Stephens councils all run their own systems and their own fees.

Sharon will tell you which permit you need, roughly what it costs and how far ahead to apply — and will check the tide chart before anyone commits to a particular stretch of sand.

Micro-weddings: the in-between

Somewhere between an elopement and a full wedding sits the micro-wedding — twenty people, a long table, a restaurant that does not need to be reconfigured. It has become the most popular booking in the diary.

The ceremony is written with the same care as a full wedding and usually runs fifteen to twenty minutes, because with twenty people in the room you can name every one of them.

How it works

Five steps, and only two of them are yours

  1. 01

    We meet

    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.

  2. 02

    You book, and it is yours

    A deposit holds your date. From that moment nobody else can have it, and Sharon becomes the person you text at 11pm about seating.

  3. 03

    The paperwork, quietly handled

    The Notice of Intended Marriage is lodged at least one month before the day. Sharon prepares it, checks your documents and files everything.

  4. 04

    Your ceremony is written

    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.

  5. 05

    The day itself

    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

Is your date still legal?

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

What couples say afterwards

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.

[Couple’s names] [Venue], Pokolbin

Eloping in the Hunter Valley, Newcastle, Port Stephens or the Central Coast? Elopement packages include travel throughout the Hunter and Newcastle, all legal paperwork, and witnesses if you need them.

Weddings

Weddings written for the two of you

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.

Read more

Vow Renewals

Vow renewals & commitment ceremonies

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.

Read more

Next step

Tell me about the two of you

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.

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