Hi Karen
I am an Australian citizen and my partner is going out to oz on a prospective marriage visa. We could have got married first then applied for a spouse visa but we wanted to marry in oz, the application would have been exactly the same for either. We did it ourselves, double checked all the required documents, even had the medical and police check done at the same time we lodged the application, and from lodging the application to getting the visa it took 17 days. The contact between us and the guy at the immagration was fantastic. Hope this helps. Take care, Gadge