Get All Documents Together

We were engaged December of 2008 but we only started preparing April because all the while I thought that a civil wedding preparation is easy and fast, but I was wrong. It took us more than a month to get all the documents we need (well, maybe it depends on every local government).

We went at the municipality office of Antipolo to check what are requirements for a civil wedding. That was somewhere around first week of April 2009. Here are the requirements:

CENOMAR - took 3 weeks before it was released and it cost P295 for each of you. (Antipolo)
But I checked on www.e-census.com.ph that it will only take 9 working days if you
will going to request it online but it cost P415.00 (shipping fee included)

Birth Certificate - we requested our birth certificate at e-census.com.ph for P315 (shipping
fee included) and it took 3 working days before we received it. I checked at the
municipality(Antipolo) it only cost P200+ but it will take 2 weeks.

Pre-Marriage Seminar - held every Friday from 8am-12nn and 1pm-5pm (Antipolo only)
you don't have to pay anything but you just have to donate any amount after the
seminar. We were there at exactly 8am but that seminar started I think 9am or
9:30 already but it finished on time.

It discussed about family planning, common problems that a married couples
usually encounter & how to manage it... things like those. Honestly, it was so hard for me and my bf to listen and focus on the discussion since we both came from work. Both of us were so sleepy and tired, but atleast we were able to finished it, hehehe. When the seminar ended, we were given certificate.

Finally we already got all the 3 most important requirements to apply for a marriage license. Since we were so tired we decided to go home and just go back Monday to apply for a marriage license.

Application for Marriage License - have 2 copies of CENOMAR and birth certificate, 1x1 ID picture with white background and of course the original copy of the documents that I mentioned earlier. Fill-out Marriage License application form (3 copies) the clerk at the municipality office will check all the information that you wrote on the form. Everything should match what's on your birth certificate. Then you need to pay P350.00 for the license. It will be released after 11 working days.

Our marriage license will be release on May 29, one more week before we could have our wedding scheduled at the city hall. Our target date is June 8...I hope we could get the date that we want.


By the way, if one of you is below 25 years old, there might be additional requirements. (Like a written consent from your parents)

So for some of you who are planning to have a civil wedding, start getting the required documents ASAP.