Wedding legalities: attending the seminar at city hall

what a hot, steamy, sweaty day! as in literal!!

mon and i attended the pre-marriage counseling seminar at the quezon city hall today. i really didn't know what to expect from it since i knew no one who had actually attended one. one of my married friends said that during her time, her husband knew someone from city hall so they were issued a certificate of attendance without actually going through the whole lecture. another experience i read from the internet is that the couple just sat down for a 20-minute talk and poof! done. certificate of attendance issued.

that's not the case for mon and i. and you know what? we're kinda happy it isn't kasi we really enjoyed the seminar. ang kulit ng facilitator namin! sayang i wasn't able to get her name but i can tell you that she's smart. she reminds me of my old elementary teachers. she's the kind that speaks english with correct grammar, the kind that doesn't mix up P with F (i hate it when that happens!), the kind that teaches with grace and confidence. and her humor? classic! i must have heard the T* and P* words a hundred times during the lecture. the funny thing is when she says it, it doesn't really sound bastos, like she's so used to saying it or something. well, being a facilitator for pre-marriage counseling, i bet she is.

the lecture was supposed to run for three whole hours but it ran for only two. i think the extra hour is for those who will be civilly married right after the seminar. it started at exactly 1 o'clock and we were dismissed by 3.

certificate of attendance

after we got our certificate of attendance, we went to the QC civil registrar's office to apply for marriage license. for those planning to get married, fyi, the seminar from city hall is a pre-requisite to apply for a license, which means that you really have to get hold of a certificate of attendance, one way or another.

what was the lecture about? family planning, sexually transmitted diseases, the importance of family in the society, the different kinds of love (i.e. filial piety, sibling's love, marital heart, and parental heart), sex, the responsibility of a woman to her husband and a husband to his wife.. yes, as you may have already deduced, nag-enjoy talaga ako. i even took notes! ang adik ko nga daw kasi i was the only one taking notes in the room. honestly, i find the seminar helpful to those who are planning to get married. pero siguro kanya-kanya rin. baka nataon lang na magaling yung facilitator namin.

there was a quiz. haha! totoo. it was the icebreaker before the lecture officially started. we were given a piece of paper each and there were six questions. the questions were about your partner or about the relationship. so bisto na pag na-wrong answer ka. alam na!

the questions were as follows (i'm paraphrasing):

1. kailan kayo nagkakilala ng partner mo? give exact date.

2. ano ang paboritong kanta ng partner mo?

3. ano ang pinaka-paboritong topic of conversation ng partner mo?

4. saan allergic ang partner mo?

5. ano ang full name ng partner mo?

6. kailan ang birthday ng partner mo?

and the results, tadaaa!!

sinong bibo kid? hehe.

at the start of the seminar, a nurse and a midwife lectured us about the different contraceptives for men and women. they even gave away free condoms and pills, but only to those who want to get freebies. :p

giving credit where credit is due, i want to commend mon for being the "active" one when we applied for marriage license. need to organize papers? check! need to get something notarized? check! need to line up at counter 11? check! he did everything, i practically just sat at the civil registrar's office, while mon did the nitty-gritty work. happily too, if i may add. not once did he frown or felt frustrated, kahit na ang init init sa civil registrar's office. sa sobrang init, mon and i felt na sobrang hindi makatarungan sa mga employees na magtrabaho sa ganoong ka-init na lugar. i wish the government would find the budget para gawing comfortable ang workplace ng mga government workers kahit papaano. i'm just saying.

applying for our marriage license

it was a fruitful day for us and i am so happy with everything that had transpired. now that the pre-marriage seminar is done, i can now move on to the next step: registering for our pre-cana seminar. yes, yes. there's another seminar that we have to attend. this time, required by the church. i'm kind of excited about this next one because we're going for the more personal approach and spend one whole weekend for it! other pre-cana seminars run only for a few hours. but anyway, that story is for another day!

*Tagalog word for a man and a woman's sexual organ.