April 2026 NSW BDM Webinar: 2 Key Takeaways for Marriage Celebrants

I am on school holidays and had an opportunity to participate in the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages Marriage Celebrant Webinar for April 2026. Here are two key takeaways for my fellow marriage celebrants who were unable to attend:

1. Avoid Delays with Your Marriage Certificate

Mistakes on your paperwork can and will cause delays. If a marriage registration needs to be amended after it’s submitted, it can take around 10 business days to process amendments due to high volumes. BDM amend errors across marriage certificates, birth certificates, change of name registrations and death certificates. 

In order to prevent delays, it is advised marriage celebrants:

• Double, triple check the data input on LifeLink

• print directly from LifeLink to review the data you input

• compare the details entered with the relevant official documents

• go through the Lifelink data with your couple

• carefully review your submissions before hitting the submit button

  
  

A simple typo or formatting issue (especially with names) can delay your certificate so accuracy matters 🎯

2. Entering Multiple First Names Correctly

Another point of accuracy was the entering of names, particularly those with multiple first names. It is important to do it correctly as it affects how the names appear on the certificate.

If a name is hyphenated

For example Anne-Marie Joan

• The system has now allowed hyphenated first names to be entered as is and will be displayed as:

  • Family name: JOAN

  • First given name: Anne-Marie

  • Other given name(s):

If a name has a space

For example: Anne Marie Joan

• The space between Anne and Marie cannot be entered on LifeLink. It will need to be entered as:

  • Family name: JOAN

  • First given name: Anne

  • Other given name(s): Marie

If a person does not have any other given names, leave it as blank. Entering “unknown” or “N/A” will cause it to appear as is on the certificate. For example:

• Family name: JOAN

• First given name: Anne-Marie

• Other given name(s): Unknown

This information regarding “unknown” and “N/A” was specified as it has been entered as other given name(s) before.

Oops… but what happens if I made a mistake?

So if you find that you are in an unfortunate situation where you make a mistake, I have gone through in a previous blog how to amend mistakes :) 

There was a lot of information given in the Webinar but those were my key takeaways. What did you think was important to know?