Rebels' Guide

News reports today that some time in August, I’ve seen reports of 11th and 18th, a marriage equality bill will hit parliament and every single individual political gets the chance to vote on their own, it’s called a conscience vote. They won’t have to look to mum and dad, or Tony Abbott, to find out how they’re allowed to vote. This is what democracy looks like, how cray cray, amirite?! So in light of this good news, and in light of the fervent clicktivism, I wanted to leave a small dose of education on how to get the proposed marriage equality act passed through the federal parliament. This may be a hard pill to swallow, but sharing stuff on Facebook doesn’t make it so in parliament. So stay tuned, it’s super easy: Before you begin, there’s a tiny bit of homework required: find out who your local member of parliament is here:  aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Members Step one Tell your local member (the one that represents you in federal parliam...

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Kat Lindsay from U On Sunday in the Sunday Mail interviewed me for this weekend’s magazine. Read it in the Sunday Mail, or online via PressReader , or below 🙂 Also, everyone should submit their wedding photos to U On Sunday so you can see yourself in print every Sunday! Submit now at  http://photos.uonsunday.com.au The last wedding in which Josh Withers unquestioningly included a few old-fashioned marriage traditions was his own. In an intimate, outdoor ceremony officiated by a friend three years ago at the Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens, Josh married the woman of his dreams, Brittany Snow, with 40 of their closest friends and family in attendance. The bride wore a beautiful white gown, her dad walked her down the aisle and the couple exchanged traditional gold wedding bands. “It was really lovely. We actually would have eloped but Britt found this beautiful dress that needed to be seen by everyone,” laughs the 33- year-old Gold Coast resident who, when his car...

Alyce and her bestie Colette are wedding photographers and Alyce is also now a wife. She was married last year and recently went through the rigmarole of changing her last name, so, I asked her to share her story below. Thanks Alyce! The feature image in this post is from her wedding and it’s by Byron Bay’s Jonas Peterson . ‘Alright, let’s see here’ The post office dude said as he began thumbing through my meticulously presented passport application. I was perhaps a little smug as I produced document after document out of my gold folder – birth certificate, marriage certificate, drivers license, current passport. I’d been through this rigmarole just one year ago prior to our honeymoon and now I was back with the paperwork to change my surname. This was me being uncharacteristically organised. Look at me with all my shit together. In a motherflippin’ gold folder, no less! Holzberger has never been an easy surname in this country, especia...

Britt just shared this article on Facebook about Zoe Saldana ‘s husband taking her last name, as opposed to the traditional, wife taking her husband’s last name. Boy, internet commentors are lovely people aren’t they! I’ll share Zoe’s Facebook post below so that it’s easier for you to lose respect for the rest of the Internet-welding human race, but I thought it would be important to cover the facts when it comes to husbands taking last names, and anyone taking last names really. The most important thing to note is this: when you get married, no-one’s name changes automatically. Your celebrant can call you Jack and Jill Smith for all he cares but it’s not legal. So point number one: a marriage ceremony is not a name change ceremony in Australia. However, when you get married, the Australian government provides an opportunity for married persons to change name. Name change options when you get married When a person gets married, they can ...

We are so blessed in this day and age to be so well informed, well educated, well resourced. Those redeeming qualities have been the driving force behind the last hundred years of change towards gender equality, race equality, and marriage equality. We know now, without any doubt, that all of us, every human walking the planet has the same opportunities, the same origin and the same fate. Our race, religion, gender, or love no longer separate us, instead they bring us together. We all put our pants on the same way and that is awesome. It’s in that theme that I am putting a call out to the wedding industry worldwide: we need to change. We need to give the sexist wedding industry the middle finger and move into the modern age we’ve been afforded. Everyone gets it. Your wedding magazine, wedding blog or wedding book is all about brides. But weddings aren’t the sexist ordeal they used to be. Weddings in the past were one day in a lifetime of woman where they truly got to h...

I love a good piece of Simpsons in any wedding ceremony. I’m researching for an upcoming ceremony and found this nugget out of an episode where normally Homer is only quoted. You can’t trick somebody into loving you. There’s a reason two people come together and stay together – there’s something they give each other that nobody else can give them. –Lisa Simpson in “Secrets of a Successful Marriage,” The Simpsons

I’m sitting in a class full of Sydney wedding celebrants and just asked what the most common weird question they get asked was: Will you do a nude wedding? Out of the thirty celebrants four, including me, said yes. I’m not sure if we’re joking. I’m still not sure if I would. I can tell you this for sure, I would have to charge another $15,000 for the required cosmetic surgery.