I just got married in the Philippines with a church wedding in December 2010. There are a lot of questions asked about what is required, I had to do the same things if it was a civil wedding but had to do extra things to satisfy the the church. so I thought I would give a detailed review of what is needed for a church wedding to help others.
Before you fly over remember to have:
1. CNI from the registrars office about 6 weeks before you go, this costs £33.50.
2. Original birth certificate.
3. Obviously passport with at least 6 months on it.
Your fiancé will need:
1. CENOMAR which is got from the NSO, this costs around 195php
2. Original birth certificate
3. Passport or other identification
4. If married in church, before you arrive go to the local parish to get marriage bann- this is where the priest reads out the marriage for 3 consecutive Sundays.
5. Conformation certificate- get from the catholic church
When you arrive and be with mahal, go to the British Embassy in Manila in the morning to change your CNI, as they don’t process in afternoon, only pick-ups allowed. This cost around 4300php. For this to be processed you need your original CNI, original birth certificate and passport from you. Your fiancé needs to bring her CENOMAR that is got from the NSO, original birth certificate and passport. This is issued the afternoon next day. Although they did help us by allowing to pick up in the morning as we were flying to CDO at midday. Make sure you take your flight tickets as they will take photocopies for proof.
When you get to your city of marriage, apply for the marriage licence straight away, they allow you to get the other documents needed within the time it is being processed, these are to be presented when you pick-up. In Cagayan De Oro, this is issued after 10 straight days and not working days! This might differ to other places.
The family planning seminar, usually takes the whole day and spoken in local dialect Cebuano. For me though it took 20 minutes talking to a lady about starting family when you are ready and her niece in Scotland! Maybe from her niece she understood that UK people don’t need to be told how plan future family life! This didn’t cost anything for me but may differ in other cities.
To get married in the church you have to attend different interviews and seminars to be allowed to marry. Firstly we attended the Pre-Cana seminar where you talk about the 7 sacraments, but as we were a mixed marriage and not applied to my religion the talk lasted 30 minutes. These usually take place on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of every month (maybe different at other churches, so find out before), but at a cost of 1500php this can be done during the week.
Secondly, the canonical interview, this is done on a first come, first served basis so arrive early. At this interview you and your mahal will go in separately and talk about your marriage to the priest. He will ask questions about your religion and the wedding itself. As I just arrived I didn’t know much about the wedding itself and the priest asked me which priest was taking the wedding!I had no idea and explained to him I had just arrived! When I told mahal, if we not allowed to marry its my fault for not getting right!!
Well mahal hadn’t told me at that point so I wouldn't have known!
If you are marrying in a different church that your mahal goes to you will need a parish permit. If the marriage bann had not been done, you can get at the same time as we did. To do this, we paid a donation to the church of 2000php.
Once you have done all of this and the time is right you can pick up your marriage licence.
As we were a mixed marriage, we had to take all our documents to the Bishop of Cagayan De Oro to get dispensation so that the mixed marriage could take place. You have to sign a document that you allow your mahal to keep on practicing her faith and that if/when you have children that they are brought up as Catholics. He then issues you a marriage certificate to say that it is ok to be married!
ALL IS DONE!!!
Ok it does sound like a nightmare and a lot of hassle and it was, but totally worth it! Amazing day!!
Originally Posted by Englishman2010
the whole experience of getting things done is different. I'm glad like you said before that it is 10 straight days, otherwise we would be having to pick up on the day of the wedding! I had geared myself up to to spend the whole day at the family planning seminar only to walk out after 30 minutes with the piece of paper needed!
