Written from a blank page, not a template
The first meeting is not an interview and there is no form to fill in. Sharon will ask how the two of you met, who saw it coming, who definitely did not, and what you would say to each other if the room were empty. Most couples talk for ninety minutes and apologise for talking too much. They are never talking too much — it is all material.
A first draft lands in your inbox a few weeks later. You mark it up, cut the bits that make you wince, and send it back. Then a second draft, and a third if you want one, until there is not a sentence in it that sounds like somebody else wrote it. There is no limit on drafts and never a charge for another one.
The paperwork becomes somebody else’s problem
Your Notice of Intended Marriage has to be lodged at least one calendar month before the wedding and no more than eighteen months before it. Sharon prepares it, checks your birth certificates or passports, handles divorce orders and death certificates where they apply, witnesses the Declaration of No Legal Impediment before the day, and registers your marriage with NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages within fourteen days afterwards.
You will sign things. That is the extent of your involvement.
Sound that reaches the back row
A professional battery-powered PA, a lapel microphone for Sharon and a handheld for readings, included in every full ceremony. Your grandmother in the back row hears your vows. Your videographer gets clean audio. The westerly coming across the vines does not win.
For larger weddings, music can run through the same system — processional, signing and recessional, cued by Sharon so nobody has to nominate a cousin to press play.
A rehearsal, because nerves are real
In the week before the wedding, Sharon will meet you at the venue and walk the whole thing through — who stands where, which side the rings live on, how long the aisle actually is, what to do with your hands. Twenty minutes of rehearsal removes most of the fear.
Bring the wedding party if you like. Bring whoever is doing a reading. It is also the moment somebody usually realises there is no table to sign on, which is a much better thing to discover on a Wednesday.
