Marriage Act 1961

Subject to this section, a marriage solemnised otherwise than in accordance with the preceding provisions of this Division is not a valid marriage.

A marriage is not invalid by reason of all or any of the following:

failure to give the notice required by section 42, or a false statement, defect or error in such a notice;

failure of the parties, or either of them, to make or subscribe a declaration as required by section 42, or a false statement, defect or error in such a declaration;

failure to produce to the authorised celebrant a certificate or extract of an entry or a statutory declaration as required by section 42, or a false statement, defect or error in such a statutory declaration;

failure to comply with any other requirement of section 42, or any contravention of that section;

failure to comply with the requirements of section 44 or 46;

failure to comply with the requirements of section 13.

A marriage is not invalid by reason that the person solemnising it was not authorised by this Act to do so, if either party to the marriage, at the time the marriage was solemnised, believed that that person was lawfully authorised to solemnise it, and in such a case the form and ceremony of the marriage shall be deemed to have been sufficient if they were such as to show an intention on the part of each of the parties to become thereby the lawfully wedded spouse of the other.