How to Get A License to Solemnize Weddings in the Philippines

After submitting my applications for a license to solemnize wedding on February 27, 2009, I checked the sois.census.gov.ph website to follow up on the approval and...Wow! After just merely 6 working days (my friend took almost a month) I finally got my authorization.

Here’s the link:
http://sois.census.gov.ph/content/2009-25be36bxqk-2011

2009-25BE36BXQK-2011

Tue, 03/10/2009 - 10:22 — jnohay

Solemnizing Officer Registry Information

Registry No.	2009-25BE36BXQK-2011
Name	Ardison Ducusin Bernardo
Registry Status	Authorized
Registry Effectivity	January 27, 2009 to December 31, 2011
Validity Extension (if any)
Jurisdiction	the entire Philippines.
Religious Sect	CENTRAL LUZON CONFERENCE OF SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS
Sect Locality

Here’s the list of basic  requirements you need to fulfill:
    1.    Two 2x2 photos
    2.    SEC/GIS
    3.    Recommendation letter from your church organization
    4.    Recommendation letter from the mayor
    5.    Certificate of Live Birth
    6.    Certificate of Ordination
    7.    Brief History of your local church
    8.    A list of 200 members

To get a detailed list of requirements just visit the NSO office (Muslims have a different set and so on..)

My authorization allows me to officiate  weddings anywhere in the Philippines provided that both parties are Seventh-day Adventist members. (My denomination has strict rules and requires both to be church members although the government code requires at least one of them is a member of your church)

TEN RULES OF ENGAGEMENT (Part 2)

continued...

6. Don't marry the person who'’s not sensitive to your needs.
Insensitivity leads to misunderstandings. Marry the person who can teach you to be more sensitive to his/her needs; a person who is willing to know your emotional and spiritual needs and unselfishly fill it in. Marry the person who can communicate with you his/her ideas, plans, fears, failures, and frustrations.

7. Don't marry the person who'’s not quick to admit his/her error.
Humility, meekness, and forgiveness. Before you judge your partner, are you quick to admit your own faults? Learn to communicate deeply. Romance involves mental and spiritual intimacy. Don't marry the person who thinks he/she has every right to judge others but not himself/herself.

8. Don't marry the person who wants to become more of what you expected him/her to be than what he/she ought to be.
Partners should be able to compliment each other's strengths and compensate for his/her partner's weaknesses. Each person should be able to say, "Let me tell you who I am. I am good at this, I am almost great at that, I am poor at this, and I am embarrassingly poor at that. That's me. And here's what I think I can do here. Does that match up with what you expect me to do?" If he/she says "yes, I accept you!" then go for the bells with no questions asked. In the end each one should be able to say, "I discovered what it meant to become more of me and less of what others expected." Follow this rule and your life will not be under the mercy of other people who are trying to control your life.

9. Don't marry the person who says, "I love you dear but I'm not ready to go where we need to go, and do what I need to do because my life is not just to be your husband/wife."
"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." This does not mean that both will now have the same favorite food, favorite color, and favorite movie. Relationships should not be characterized by competition but by mutuality. Isn't it nice to hear your partner say, "I love you dear and I'm ready to go where we need to go, and do what I need to do because my life is to be your husband/wife."

10. Don't marry a perfect person because you are not an angel.
Most of us are looking for angels and not looking for wives/husbands. Don't ask for more than what you can give. Looking for somebody whose faith is so strong that he/she can evangelize the world when you yourself don't even pray to God. Looking for someone whose figure can be featured in the Glamor magazine when you just broke the weighing scale? Be realistic. Be humanly realistic. No one is perfect. Love is a developed capacity. Everyone has a need for love and born with the potential to love. Love grows in a home. Love loves imperfections.

TEN RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Thoughts To Consider Before You Get Engaged !

"An engagement is a promise to marry, and also refers to the time between proposal and marriage." Wikipedia

I am now happily married to my ex-girlfriend for 7 years. Four years before we got married, I had to work as youth pastor in a city church in Guam-Micronesia mission for one year. Leaving her behind, the experience was one of the loneliest period in my life. It was during that time I came to realize how much I love her. Trying to find the reasons why I love her and why I want to marry her, I got inspired to write these ten rules of engagement. So before you get engaged, think thrice.

My wife passed all these rules. May it guide you as well:

1. Don't marry the person who doesn't make God first in his/her life.
Of course who would want to marry someone who does not believe in the God you worship and does not practice the Christian standard you uphold. Spirituality matters most. God is the center of all meaningful and successful relationships. Don't marry the person who just goes to church; marry the person who knows God intimately.

2. Don't marry the person who doesn't make you first in his/her human relationships.
Why marry the person who loves his/her talents more than you? Why marry the person who loves his/her goals and ambitions more than you? Why marry the person who puts more time for sports and other pursuits than you? His/her first duty is to his/her family. Don't marry the person who'd rather do something else than be with you. Marry someone who values his/her relationship with God and you more than anything else. Marry the person who puts more importance on his partner's interest than his/her own. The greatest gift you can ever give to someone is to give yourself. That relationship is to take precedence over anything else, over everything except God himself.

3. Don't marry the person you think you can live with; marry the person you think you can't live without.
In short, marry the person you truly love. Others marry for fun, several marry for company, some marry for convenience, quite a few for a committed love. Ask yourself, "Is he/she the person I really love so much that I can't live without?"

4. Don't marry the person who talks more about himself/herself than he/she can talk about you.
A self-centered person brags about his/her achievements, goals, and success. A true lover always looks for something beautiful in his/her partner and never fails to discover and appreciate the unique and peculiar qualities of his/her love. He/she chooses to talk more, in private and in public, about his/her partner's characteristics than his/her own. You want someone who admire you, not himself/herself or your neighbor.

5. Don't marry the person who doesn't have a mature understanding of life's struggles and pains.
Only someone who has a deeper understanding of life's struggles can truly appreciate the value of relationships. He/she can grasp the true meaning of the realities of life; its discouragements and pains, its hardships and troubles, its mishaps and casualties. Marry someone who can show you what life is. Marry someone who can help you develop a more realistic view of yourself and your personal limitations.

To be continued tomorrow...