The Marriage License Experience

My Mom always took care of my documents and eventually she taught me how to do things on my own. That didn't mean though that I liked doing "grown-up" stuff. The internet though has been very helpful though and it's much easier now to prepare stuff before going to the government agency involved (like how I renewed my passport).

Tying the knot involves a LONG document trail. I had to go to two churches for my baptismal and confirmation certificate. Requested for name change at the Diocese of Paranaque because the church misspelled my name in my confirmation certificate. My original birth certificates from NSO disintegrated during the flood. Good thing you can now easily request for your birth certificate and the ever important CENOMAR by ordering online. Whew!

We kept postponing our trip to the city hall because... well, just because. We planned to get our marriage license back in October, but Ondoy happened so we moved a lot of stuff to a later date. We originally planned to get it from Marikina, but ended up in Paranaque because we felt that things haven't settled in the area.

So THE day came and we prepared all the docs we needed (original and photocopies). We went to the Paranaque City Hall, found the Civil Registrar's office and we were immediately let in the office. A civil servant checked our documents and then gave us the application form. We filled it out, had it notarized (PhP50 only) and then paid for the application (PhP200). We then met the Civil Registrar (multi-awarded based on all the plaques I saw in her office). Everything just took less than an hour.

I'm so glad we processed our marriage license at the Paranaque City Hall. We did not encounter any fixers unlike my friend who processed her license at the Las Pinas City Hall and she paid PhP1,500!

Special thanks to Ms. Ma. Elnora L. Espiritu, City Civil Registrar of Paranaque, and her very kind staff for making the experience painless. And thank you to Kuya Edwin Budayao, kagawad of Barangay Sun Valley for my barangay clearance.

If we had these kind of civil servants there's definitely a lot of hope for our country.