No warm-up, no waffle
The legal requirements, what happens at each of Pat's three meetings, and the questions couples are slightly embarrassed to ask out loud. If yours isn't here, call Pat and he'll answer it on the spot.
The ones people ask last
Almost everyone is, and it never shows. By the day you'll have read the whole script and walked it through at the rehearsal — nothing to memorise, nothing to improvise, no moment where you're wondering what comes next. If one of you would rather not speak beyond the legal words, that's a perfectly good ceremony and Pat carries the rest.
Then say so at the first meeting and the whole shape changes: shorter, less front-facing, fewer moments where you're asked to perform. Some couples choose an elopement for exactly this reason — two witnesses and no audience at all.
Funny without silly is the craft. Laughter early to settle everyone's nerves, then out of the way so the vows land. And since you read every word in advance, a joke you don't like never makes it to the day.
Any of them. Being given away, "obey," religious readings, unity rituals, the lot. Nobody gets pushed into a tradition they didn't ask for.
Something small usually does. Rings get dropped, microphones fail, weather moves, a child makes a break for it. At sixty to seventy weddings a year Pat has met most of it, and it gets handled at the front without becoming your problem.
You say so, and it gets rewritten. That's what meeting two is for — it's a draft, not a delivery.
Under the Marriage Act, a marriage can only be solemnised by an authorised celebrant. There are three kinds: ministers of recognised religious denominations, state and territory registry officers, and Commonwealth-registered marriage celebrants. Pat is the third — No. A18208. Your celebrant is also responsible for the paperwork before and after. For most couples the next question is timing — because one document has a hard deadline.
At least one calendar month before the wedding, and no more than 18 months. It's lodged with your celebrant — Pat completes it with you at the first meeting, which is why the Method puts the paperwork first.
Inside a month of your date? Pat can't waive the month — no celebrant can. Only a prescribed authority can, and in Queensland that is Births, Deaths and Marriages. The grounds are strict, and there are five of them:
Pat prepares and lodges that application with BDM for you, and charges $200 to do it. Call him first — he'll tell you in two minutes whether one of the five could apply, before you pay anything.
Each of you needs evidence of your date and place of birth — an official birth certificate or extract, or a passport. If either of you has been married before, Pat also needs the divorce order or the death certificate. And he has to be satisfied of who you are, so bring photo ID. Bring the lot to meeting one; Pat sights them and the box is ticked.
Two things, and both are short. Pat must say the Monitum: "I am duly authorised by law to solemnise marriages according to law… Marriage, according to law in Australia, is the union of 2 people to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life." And each of you must say a vow containing the words "I call upon the persons here present to witness that I, [your name], take thee, [their name], to be my lawful wedded wife" — or husband, or spouse, whichever you choose. Everything else in the ceremony is free text. That's roughly 60 seconds of law inside 15 minutes of you.
Two, aged over 18. Any two adults, including family. Eloping with nobody else there? Say so and Pat will arrange the two witnesses for you.
You're married when the ceremony is solemnised; the paperwork then makes it official — Pat lodges the documents with Queensland Births, Deaths and Marriages. The presentation certificate you sign on the day is included in every package. The official certificate is a separate document — it isn't posted out automatically, you apply for it yourself from Queensland BDM after the wedding. It costs $54.40, or $70.70 for the commemorative package, as at August 2026.
Meeting one: Pat listens — your story, your families, what you want and what you'd hate — and the legal paperwork is completed. Meeting two: he hands you your ceremony, written; you edit anything that isn't you. Meeting three: the rehearsal — positions, music cues, rings. The Old Friend Method in full →
Yes. The Method doesn't change, only the medium: the first two meetings happen by phone or video — the one where Pat gets your story and the one where you read the ceremony back — and the third, the rehearsal, happens in person once you land. You'll have read every word of your ceremony weeks before you get on the plane.
Check your date first — it costs nothing. Pat takes one wedding per time slot; peak Saturdays go months out. The legal minimum runway is one calendar month.
Yes — it's meeting three, and it's included in every package, not an add-on.
Yes. Pat works with your photographer on the day — where he stands, when he steps aside, which moments they want a clear line on. It sounds small until you see the photos of a ceremony where nobody did it.
Gold Coast packages run $500–$600; elopements from $550. Weddings out of the area or large enough to take the whole day are quoted in the full-service tier, $800–$1,350. Every package includes the three meetings, the written ceremony, and all legal work. All prices and inclusions →
No deposit. You pay on the day, in cash. Pat has had two cancellations in the last sixty to seventy bookings, so holding your money in advance has never seemed necessary.
Yes, and the fee is fixed per destination rather than guessed at. Nothing around Benowa and the central Gold Coast; $50 across the outer Gold Coast — south as far as Currumbin and Coolangatta, north through Helensvale, Pacific Pines and Hope Island as far as Coomera; $75 into the Tweed, including Tweed Heads and Kingscliff; $100 for Tamborine Mountain, Springbrook, Canungra, Numinbah and the wider Scenic Rim, and for anything north of Coomera including Pimpama and Ormeau; $150 to Brisbane. Pat prices it on the drive there and back. You're told the number when you check your date, and it doesn't move afterwards. The full travel list →
The wedding goes ahead. Pat doesn't carry umbrellas, but he does know the Coast — if the sky opens he'll find cover close by and move the ceremony there rather than stand everyone in it. Worth agreeing a plan B with your venue at meeting one.
Your booking transfers, provided the new date is free. There's a $150 fee, and it isn't a penalty — your legal paperwork has already been lodged with the old date on it and has to be redone.
Yes — and have since it became law in 2017. Same-sex wedding celebrant, Gold Coast →
Free, no obligation, and Pat answers everything before you've paid a cent.