getting hitched in Vegas (well not really...)

Due to some snag in our schedules and Paui's frequently changing schedule for his business trips, we couldn't go home to Cebu together to apply for our marriage license in person. So our solution? We decided to get civilly married here in Singapore a month before our Cebu church wedding.   hehehe.

Yep, I am now officially Mrs. Paulito Cardeno *grins*

We had a quick ceremony, then an intimate gathering of friends at our house to celebrate this day with us.  Syempre, we feasted on delicious Filipino food care of Ate Elsa Ituriaga.

It is surprisingly easy to get married here in Singapore. hehehe.  The steps are outlined in the ROM site:
http://www.rom.gov.sg/

Step 1: Get venue and solemnizer. The ROM website offers a whole list of venues to choose from and also list accredited solemnizers. You can actually have your ceremony at the ROM office itself but the queue is too long. If you don't want to wait, then you can choose community centers (if on a budget) or restaurants in Singapore. We picked from this site: http://www.familylifechampion.org/sol .  We chose Jurong Spring because we can get a package for solemnizer and venue all at one time. hehe.

Step 2: Once the venue and solemnizer is fixed, then go online to register.
https://app.rom.gov.sg/internet/efile/file_notice_marriage_step1a.asp

Minimum of 21 days notice is required from the day of registration up to your solemnizing ceremony.

Step 3: The filing instructions will indicate a date when you can get your papers from ROM office. These set of papers will be presented to your solemnizer during the wedding day itself. We got ours around 2 days before our civil wedding.

Step 4: It is your (civil) wedding day! Just be there on the agreed time, bring original passports or IC, bring your two sponsors original passports and IC (and of course the sponsors themselves din noh). Ceremony takes less than ten minutes and you are married already.

The solemnizer has to mail the marriage certificate to ROM immediately and also gives you a copy.

Step 5: For Filipino citizens, you then need to go to the Philippine embassy to file a report of marriage.
Instructions here: http://www.philippine-embassy.org.sg/index.cfm?GPID=28

After two working days, they will give you your report of marriage and this is the document we will present to our church (together with the official marriage certificate) to prove that we are married civilly here in Singapore.  Then I think the embassy forwards your marriage record already to NSO and your NSO certificate (or something) will be available in 6 months.

Then, tapos!  Live happily ever after. Bow. ;)