Marriage License

We have our marriage license already! Yey! One down and a thousand more things to go hehe. Well, actually my brother has it. He just got it from city hall. Thank God he was free to get it or else I would have to file for another leave just to get it.

So anyway, here are the things that are needed when applying for a marriage license in Antipolo. I live in Antipolo while Joema lives in Bulacan so we have to choose between the two towns. It's no question who's in charge here haha joke!

birth certificate
certificate of no marriage (CENOMAR)
DSWD family planning seminar certificate
1 x 1 ID picture

If you between ages 18-21, you have to get a parental consent. While for individuals aged 22-25, you need to get parental advise. I don't know what the heck is the difference. Please note that different municipalities may require different documents when applying. Some would require a copy of your community tax certificate, some may even require barangay certificates. Fellow bride Dins blogged about how to get the marriage license in Manila, Makati and Quezon City. It's always better to call your Local Civil Registrar's (LCR) office.

For the birth certificate and certificate of no marriage, you can get copies of it from the National Statistics Office. You can go there or order by phone or online, which is what we did. It’s a bit more expensive when you order it online but if you don’t have the time to go there yourself or you can’t ask someone to get it for you then the easiest way is to get it online. The birth certificate will cost you P315 while the CENOMAR will cost P415. If you are requesting for both you and your fiancé and receiving from you both, ready an authorization letter from your fiancé. The site actually reminds you to have an authorization letter ready if you are not a family member or relative of the requesting party. It’s just weird that they are not consistent with their rules because I wasn’t even asked for the authorization letter. After paying, it will take only around 2 to 3 working days for them to deliver the documents.

Now the family planning seminar is held only every Tuesdays and Thursdays and it’s supposed to be from 8am to 12nn. We went on a Thursday because when I called, they told me we can attend the seminar in the morning and to everything else in the afternoon. I called them several times because I wanted to make sure we won’t wasting our time there. The first time I called and told that we have to have the DSWD family planning seminar, I asked where we should attend the seminar..in DSWD..their answer..yes. Of course I panicked. Where the heck is the office of DSWD and we wouldn’t be able to finish it in one day if we’re supposed to go to DSWD first (I’m thinking their office is somewhere in QC) and then go to city hall in the afternoon. Pam calmed me down and told me they probably have a branch there in Antipolo and that I should probably call again to make sure. She told me to ask which floor is DSWD located in city hall. So I called again and asked and made sure that DSWD is in Antipolo city hall. The lady from the LCR said it was located on the first floor and even gave me their phone number and then told me the schedules of the seminar. And then I was calm. Haha. Anyway, when we arrived at city hall a few minutes before 8am, we asked the lady in the “Information” where the family planning seminar is held. She said it wasn’t in that building, it was in POSD. OMG! Where is that? It’s near the market just after Mercury Drug. How do we get there? Just walk from here. So we walked and when we were nearing a couple was in front of us, looks like they were going to attend the same seminar. The men outside the building who saw us immediately shooed us away and told us to go at the back. They probably have seen many couples every Tuesdays and Thursdays and directed them to where the seminar is really held. When we got at the back of the building, the door was locked and no one was there. I told Joema to ask the man again where it is. I was coaxing him that we are players in amazing race and that these couples are our competition and that we have to be ahead of them hahaha. As I’ve blogged before we had to wait for an hour before the seminar started.

Before the seminar started the lady in charge had the audacity to ask “Who came in late?”. I didn’t have the power to control myself, I blurted out loud enough for her to hear “IKAW!”. Of course, she thought it best to just pretend she didn’t hear me. Stupid couple in front said they were the last to come in. Haller! We were all here before that stupid lady!!!! She asked them to lead the prayer. I was still fuming mad when she decided we should have a little game first – the boat is sinking. Grrr!!! Joema and I are the snob types (well more of me I think, he’s just too shy to mingle with the others) so we weren’t too happy with these. After the game, she sort of had us introduced ourselves. She eased on us when she knew we were both from UP. I don’t know why. Well, the seminar wasn’t really about family planning. It was more of pre-marriage counseling. She had us answer a bunch of questions about love in a marriage, communication, money matters, religion, sex, etc. It wasn’t really a total waste of time but I hope they can improve the hall where the seminar is held. There was no electricity and the place stinks. We finished around 12noon got our certificates from her and then we’re off for lunch.

We went back to city hall to apply for our marriage license. It was already one o’clock but the person in charge wasn’t in yet. Someone just handed me the form and asked me to accomplish it. When we’re done completing the form, the lady wasn’t there yet so I kinda submitted the form and our other documents to the person next to the counter for marriage license. I was terrified of this lady. She didn’t smile and asked me arrogantly where our documents where (they’re all attached to the form). And then she checked our form and then asked where the “Jr.” of Joema’s father is in the form, I pointed it to her. And then she asked why my father’s middle initial is different (it was a typo error in my birth certificate) and then asked why my mother’s maiden name is Arcilla in my birth certificate but I wrote Ercilla in the form (again a typo error). Registry in the earlier days sucks! I was so terrified of this person I couldn’t speak. The lady who signs the forms is much much nicer. When she saw that we attached all our original documents, she told we could just attach photocopies since she knew the original ones cost more (if we had to get new ones). After that we were asked to pay the P350 fee at Window 9. There were no lines for the payment so we were back at the dungeons in no time (their office is at the basement). And then they told us to return Aug 4 which is 11 calendar days after the date of our application. Voila! We were done! We would have been done in less than 30 minutes if the lady in charge was there by 1pm. But who am I to complain? I have to live with this kind of service.