Fiji Wedding Celebrants and Ministers: The Directory

Fiji publishes two official registers of people who may legally marry you, and between them they are the only lawful answer. One lists around a dozen civil marriage celebrants nationally. The other lists more than 1,500 religious marriage officers across 200-plus denominations. Anyone not on either list cannot solemnise your marriage in Fiji.

That scarcity on the civil side is the single most useful fact for a couple planning from overseas, and almost nobody publishes it.

Guideline only. Marriage law and fees change, and the fee notice we could locate dates from 2019. Confirm current requirements and fees with the Registrar-General, Ministry of Justice before you contract. Last reviewed 13 September 2026.

What is a marriage celebrant called in Fiji?

The statutory term is marriage officer, not celebrant. The Marriage Act defines it as the Registrar-General, a district registrar, any person registered as a marriage officer under the Act, or any other suitable person appointed by the Registrar-General by notice in the Gazette for the purpose of solemnising marriages on his behalf.

In practice the Ministry of Justice runs two working categories:

• Religious marriage officers — ministers of religion registered under sections 4 and 5, on application by the minister or by the head in Fiji of their denomination. Registration carries no fee.
• Civil marriage celebrants — registered under what the Ministry cites as section 5(A). Registration costs FJ$3,000 (VAT-exclusive), or FJ$3,270 on the 2019 gazetted notice.

That FJ$3,000 asymmetry explains the shape of the whole market. A religious officer pays nothing to be registered; a civil celebrant pays three thousand dollars. It is why Fiji has thousands of the first and a dozen of the second, and why celebrant fees in Fiji are not nominal.

Where is the official list?

This is the part couples are almost never told. Section 8 of the Marriage Act requires the Registrar-General to publish in the Gazette, once every year, a list of the names, addresses, designations and denominations of all registered marriage officers — and that published list is prima facie evidence of registration.

Both lists are online.

Two honest caveats. The web page and the PDF do not carry identical names, so check both. And the religious officers list is the 2024 edition, uploaded in January 2025; no 2025 or 2026 edition could be located.

Who are Fiji's civil marriage celebrants?

Below are the individuals named across the Ministry of Justice's two civil celebrant registers, with the location each register records. No published rate, service area or travel fee exists for any of them — we checked, and none publishes one. What the register gives you is the thing that actually matters: legal authority, and a way to verify it.

Read the geography. Three of the fifteen are attached to resorts — two of them on islands. The remainder cluster around Suva, Nausori, Nadi, Lautoka and Ba. If you are marrying on an outer island or in Vanua Levu and you want a civil ceremony, the pool is genuinely small, and travel will be part of the conversation.

This is also why resorts so often solve it internally. Plantation Island Resort states that it was the first Fiji resort to have its own wedding coordinator officially registered as a celebrant, which matches Apisai Wavere Vasu's entry on the government register. The Remote Resort publishes "a celebrant to perform the wedding ceremony" in its FJ$3,117 elopement package without naming one, and the register lists a civil celebrant at that address. Tropica Island Resort publishes "Minister or Celebrant to Officiate" in its FJ$2,999 package, again unnamed.

One live listing in the MICE Fiji directory is a business rather than an individual: Celebrant Fiji, Nadi-based with a published page. As with any celebrant, ask which registered marriage officer will actually conduct your ceremony, and check that name against the register.

How do you verify a celebrant before booking?

Four steps, in order.

1. Ask for the officiant's full name as registered. Not the company name, not "our celebrant" — the individual's name.
2. Check it against the register. Civil celebrants against the Ministry of Justice civil list and the April 2024 PDF. Ministers against the religious marriage officers PDF, which lists denomination, name, address and phone.
3. If they do not appear, ask why. A newly registered officer may post-date the published list; that is a plausible answer, and the Registrar-General can confirm it.
4. Confirm with the Registry. Births, Deaths and Marriages, Level 1 Suvavou House, Victoria Parade, Suva; +679 3308600; helpdesk@justice.gov.fj.

There is no searchable lookup tool. Verification means reading a static list, and that is as good as it gets. The Ministry's own FAQ publishes no verification procedure at all, which is a gap worth naming.

One reassurance, and one warning. The reassurance: under section 22(1) a marriage is not void merely because the officiant was unregistered, if either party at the time believed in good faith that he was a marriage officer. The warning: section 35 makes falsely pretending to be a marriage officer and knowingly acting as one an offence carrying imprisonment for up to seven years. Fiji takes this seriously, and so should you.

Can the registry office marry you instead?

Yes, and it is the cheapest legal ceremony in the country.

The Ministry of Justice publishes a "Court Marriage" at the registry for FJ$50 VAT-exclusive, or FJ$54.50 on the gazetted fee notice. The Registrar-General may solemnise a marriage anywhere in Fiji; a district registrar may solemnise only within the limits of his own district. That jurisdictional line matters if you are hoping a district registrar will travel to your resort.

Published registry locations and hours:

Whether the Nadi or Lautoka counters conduct ceremonies on site is not published. They are confirmed as registrar offices, and the Act permits district registrars to solemnise within their district — but ask before you plan around it.

What does it all cost?

The statutory block is small, fully published, and the only part of a Fiji wedding with a national price.

A discrepancy to take to the registry, not to argue with your resort. The government publishes FJ$54.50 for registry solemnisation. Plantation Island Resort publishes "the license application fee is FJD $57.50, payable directly to the BDM Office". The two do not reconcile, the gazetted notice dates from 2019, and Fiji's VAT rate has changed twice since. Budget the higher figure and confirm on the day.

What a celebrant charges on top is a private arrangement. No Fiji celebrant publishes a fee. The only public pricing is bundled inside resort packages — for instance Plantation's Lailai ceremony at FJ$1,577 or Vakamau at FJ$8,393, and Tropica's Escape to Paradise at FJ$2,999. Every line item across the whole budget is set out in the Fiji wedding cost breakdown.

What are the timing rules?

These are statutory and they drive your travel dates.

• Notice is posted for 21 consecutive days (section 17).
• The certificate is issued after 21 clear days and within three months (section 19).
• A special licence authorises solemnisation within a period not exceeding 28 days (section 21).

Most destination couples take the special licence route, and several resorts handle the waiver request as part of the package. The Remote Resort publishes a "21 Day Waiver Letter request" and specifies arriving into Taveuni or Savusavu on a weekday before 2:30pm to visit the District Office — a practical detail that tells you how tightly island paperwork is bound to office hours. Timing in full is in how long before the wedding do you need to be in Fiji.

Who signs, and who lodges the certificate?

Two or more witnesses must be present and sign the certificate under section 25. The Fiji Government adds that witnesses must be able to sign their names and be 21 years of age or over; the Act itself sets no age, so that is a guidance layer on top of the statute. The Ministry of Justice requires two witnesses with valid photo ID at the registry.

The lodging duty sits with the officiant, not with you. Under section 25(2) the marriage officer must transmit the original certificate to the district registrar of the district in which the marriage was solemnised within seven days. Ask your celebrant to confirm when they have done it, and ask how you obtain a certified copy — FJ$16.35 including the search.

Can your own celebrant from home marry you in Fiji?

No, and this one catches couples out badly.

Only a person within the Act's definition of marriage officer — registered by the Fiji Registrar-General, or the Registrar-General or a district registrar — may solemnise a marriage in Fiji. We could find no reciprocity provision of any kind. A New Zealand or Australian celebrant registration confers nothing here. Acting as a marriage officer without registration risks the section 35 offence.

The workable route is the one many couples use anyway: a Fiji-registered marriage officer performs the legal solemnisation, and your own celebrant or minister conducts the ceremony everyone actually watches. That is our reading of the Act rather than a published government statement, so confirm it with the Registrar-General.

On work permits, Fiji Immigration publishes short-term permits for temporary engagements and states that foreigners in Fiji on a visitor permit cannot apply for a work permit while in the country. No Fiji Immigration guidance specific to wedding celebrants exists. If your officiant is being paid, that is a question for Immigration before they board.

The verdict

• Two official registers, and nothing else counts. Around a dozen civil celebrants; more than 1,500 religious marriage officers.
• Verify the individual by name against the published list, and confirm with the Registry if they are not on it.
• The registry ceremony is about FJ$54.50. Everything above that is a private fee nobody publishes.
• Three of the civil celebrants are resort-based, which is why island resorts so often supply their own.
• Your celebrant from home cannot legally marry you here. Split the legal solemnisation from the ceremony.

Next step: settle the officiant before the date, because on the civil side the pool is small. How to get legally married in Fiji covers the process end to end, every document you need covers the paperwork, and the Fiji wedding legal FAQ answers the edge cases. For the rest of the supplier list, start with Fiji wedding suppliers or browse suppliers directly.