Yup, DH and I were married at the Registry Office. The one in Perth is a big room, gorgeously decorated, with room for 22 guests. We had to lodge paperwork 30 days beforehand and pay around $300 I think. On the day, I still did the whole 'hide from the groom' thing, I asked if I could sit in a private room while everyone else was in the waiting room. Then once everyone had filed in, the celebrant came and got me, and Dad walked me down the very short aisle. We needed to have 2 witnesses who were over 18 and knew us both, and the 5 of us sat at a long wooden table for the signing, and then stood up for the vows. When you put in your paperwork you'll be given 4 or 5 options for vows, and the celebrant will ask beforehand which ones you want to use.
All in all it took about half hour, including pictures. You do have limited picture time, as obviously they try to fit as many couples in per day as possible. So we took only a few photos there, and then headed to a local park for our 'professional' photos, which were really just taken by everyone on their digital cameras.
I have photo's of our wedding and photos from the park if you wanted to have a look, PM me and we can be FB friends, and you can see the pics
PS - About everyone elses reactions. At the time most people were horrified. I'm not sure how much was to do with the way we got married and how much was to do with just the fact that we were getting married at all, given we had only known each other 8 months. Even my parents say now though that it was the best wedding they've been to, it was about the marriage, not the day
Yup we got married at the registry building in Melbourne. We're not religious and just wanted a really low key ceremony but still memorable (we had a ****tail party of the reception so most of the money we saved went into that instead). The registry in Melbourne is the old treasury building so it's actually a really nice place to get married, lots of dark wood and leather. We had 55 guests (they have a choice of a large room or a small which only holds 8). What I liked about a registry wedding was that we were pretty much given free reign to do what we liked. I think most who choose a registry wedding keep it pretty low key but you do have the option of wearing a big white dress and hiring a string quartet if that's what you want. We paid $280 which covered the room and the celebrant then the rest was up to us.
We were given a choice of a long or short ceremony (if I remember correctly the long is about 15-20mins and short around 5mins). They give you a basic outline and you can either use that or do your own (as long as all the right civil mumbo jumbo is included so it's legal). We made us our own and you send it off for a celebrant to approve a few weeks before the big day. We kept it pretty traditional just without the religious connotations, we said vows, dad walked me down the aisle etc.
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