Pat Mac Anally · The Irish Wedding Celebrant
Everything a legal wedding needs. Nothing a production wants.
Two of you, two witnesses, a registered celebrant, and a place worth remembering. Married — properly, legally, and without a seating chart, a spreadsheet, or eighteen months of being asked about napkins.
Yes. An elopement is a full legal marriage — same certificate, same registration, same Marriage Act — with the guest list cut to what the law requires: the two of you, two witnesses over 18, and an authorised celebrant. Nothing about a small wedding is legally lesser. The paperwork is identical; only the production is gone.
That's the entire appeal. No venue contract, no seating chart, no speeches you didn't want, and nobody watching you who you'd rather wasn't. The parts people actually cry at — the vows, the rings, the kiss — those stay.
“Pat was very accommodating with our marriage. My husband and I decided we wanted to elope randomly as we had family coming over from New Zealand for Christmas and wanted to take advantage of this. The only day we could get married was Boxing Day. Pat didn't bat an eyelid and was happy to come on this day. We are very thankful for him. He was happy to go with the flow with what we wanted as we were just winging our elopement, as it was very last minute.
Boxing Day, family flying in, decided at the last minute. That's the test — and it's the reason the elopement page exists.
A Gold Coast elopement package typically costs between $550 and $1,000 with a private celebrant. Pat's Elopement Adventure is $550, which includes the celebrant, the written ceremony, and every legal document. If you use Pat's garden in Benowa, the venue costs nothing. If you'd rather a mountain, a waterfall or a beach, Pat travels — free around the central Gold Coast, then $50, $100 or $150 depending on where you're going, with nothing added after you've booked.
Pick one, or tell Pat what kind of day you want and he'll suggest it — he's married couples at all of these. And if the place you want isn't on the list, say it anyway. Pat will go wherever you'd rather be married.
High up in the hinterland — rainforest lookouts and gardens. Getting married on the mountain →
Old-growth forest and breathtaking waterfalls. Getting married in the hinterland →
Sand dunes and headland rocks at the southern end of the Coast. Currumbin, just north →
Flowered parkland on the Nerang River, minutes from Surfers.
Some of the warmest weddings happen in a backyard.
A private, carefully tended garden — the backdrop for dozens of Pat's couples. If the weather turns, Pat finds cover close by — the ceremony happens either way.
How eloping with Pat works
Pat listens, and the Notice of Intended Marriage is lodged. That starts the one-calendar-month legal clock, so this happens at least a month before your date. From then on the legal side is his problem, not yours.
Written for you, sent before the day. Cross out anything that isn't you. Short doesn't mean generic — it means every line has to earn its place.
Welcome, vows, rings, declaration, the kiss. Long enough to be meaningful, short enough to be yours. Pat lodges everything with Births, Deaths and Marriages afterwards.
Planning can happen entirely by phone or video if you're travelling, so the only part that has to happen on the Coast is the wedding itself. Couples fly in for it regularly; what they don't do is arrive with the planning still to start.
More couples than you'd guess, and the number grows every year. Second marriages who've done the big day once. Couples whose families are scattered across three countries. Couples saving the wedding budget for the house. Couples who cannot face a seating chart. And — quietly the most common — couples who hate being the centre of attention and would rather not have eighty people watching them cry.
If any of that is you, you're not doing a lesser wedding. You're doing the original one: two people, the words, a witness or two, and somebody licensed to make it real.
“Not living on the Gold Coast was not such a big deal in the planning phase — with your insight, we did this easily by just using the phone and Skype… Despite the last-minute changes, you took everything in your stride.
That's the whole list. Pat handles items one and four, and talks you through two and three at the first call.
Whichever it is, the three questions that matter are the same: is the date free, is the location right, and will the words sound like you.
One calendar month — that's the legal minimum, and it's the only deadline you have.
So there's really one question: is your date free? Forty seconds to find out. If you're inside a month of your date, call instead. The month can be shortened, but only by Births, Deaths and Marriages, and only on five grounds: employment or other travel commitments, wedding or celebration arrangements, medical reasons, legal proceedings, or an error in giving notice. Pat lodges that application for you and charges $200 to do it. One phone call tells you whether you have a case.
You need two witnesses over 18 — that's the legal minimum. If it's just the two of you, Pat will arrange the witnesses.
Then you've chosen well. With two witnesses there's no audience to perform for, no processional, and no speeches. You'll have read every word in advance, so there are no surprises to brace for either.
A short ceremony is usually more meaningful, not less. Ten minutes with nothing filler in it beats forty with padding. Pat writes elopement ceremonies tighter, not thinner.
Yes — weekdays are often easier to book and the locations are quieter.
The marriage is registered, but nobody is notified. Who you tell is up to you.
You still get married. Pat doesn't hand out umbrellas, but he knows the Coast well enough to find shelter nearby and move the ceremony there rather than run it in the wet.
Plenty of the weddings in Pat's gallery had fewer than ten people at them. See them → · Read the 53 reviews →