Marriage License, Family Planning and the long list of documentary requirements....

A guide on how to apply for your marriage license, attending the required family planning seminar (in San Pedro, Laguna), and completing the loooongg list of documentary requirements for both your Church and your local government.




Two and a half months to go before the wedding, and we’re finally making progress with our documentary requirements. Since we’ll be having a church wedding, we have two lists of requirements:

Church Requirements:

1. Birth Certificate – NSO Certified
2. Cenomar
3. Baptismal Certificate – for marriage purposes
4. Confirmation Certificate – for marriage purposes
5. Marriage License
6. Marriage banns

 Government Requirements:

1. Birth Certificate – NSO certified
2. Cenomar 
3. Family planning seminar certificate of attendance 
4. A lot of patience. J 

We started compiling those requirements that does not need hours and effort to do re: NSO certificates. We love! love! love! the online request facility of NSO ( https://nso.citizenservices.com.ph/apply/cenomar ). Plus you can pay using your credit card! No need to go to the bank to pay the fees. J We had the certificates delivered and after 3 days, the delivery man was at our doorstep (or in my case, was at the lobby of my office. LOL). DONE!

Baptismal and confirmation certificate were also not a problem, except for one. It was easy breezy requesting and getting the certs from 3 of the 4 churches where we had our baptism and confirmation. But our last church, we went back 3 times but every time the office was closed. Boohoo. Until now, this one is still pending. Darn.

Getting the marriage license was the step we were dreading the most. First of all, you had to be there on a weekday, plus both of you needs to be present, no proxys allowed. And of course, as with all government offices, we were expecting to use up a lot of time, effort and patience before we successfully apply for our license. Before we applied, Jam decided to go to the municipal hall to ask for the requirements and the schedule of the Family planning seminar that we were required to attend so that we can process everything in one day.

Tuesday morning, we were at the municipal hall at 7:30AM, the Ms. Smiley face civil registrar said that we should go to the old municipal hall so we can attend the family planning seminar and so we won’t need to go back another day (Seminars are only given during Tuesdays and Thursday at 8AM, I think this depends on your municipality. Better go there in advance to ask, just to be sure :)). When we reached the old municipal hall, we waited for around 15 minutes, and the registration for the seminar started.

I was joking to Jam that they will be teaching us how to use a condom using bananas, and what positions to use, LOL. But it was a surprise that the seminar was really very educational. I highly recommend attending it, and not just pay your way through it. Hehe! It was more of a marriage seminar, what to expect when you’re married, what to do and what not to do and say to your partner, etc. DONE!

The seminar ended after an hour and we went right back to the new municipal hall to finish the application. We submitted the required forms (Filled out application form (+ 3 copies), additional 2 copies for both cenomar and birth certificate.)

We waited for another 15 minutes to have our application signed (Since Mr. Bossing Civil registrar was busy talking tsismis to other people. (Demnyou!)), paid the required dues (650Php!) and then submitted the OR to the Ms.Smiley face civil registrar. DONE! 

Now we only have to return after 10 days to get our official marriage license.

That’s one major pending item done on our list.

Moving on. Tumbling.tumbling. 

*btw, we really really love the new municipal hall of San Pedro, made us feel like.. well felt like we were a first class municipality instead of third. toinks.