Tomorrow will be the big day. We would have been all so relaxed and prepared by now if we have not met the two ladies at the Traisen Park earlier today. We went out shopping for small stuffs with R´s parents awhile ago and while we were in one of the stores, I heard somebody says “Ito, bayaran mo na rin.” I immediately felt thrilled by the idea that there are Filipinos, other than me, in that store (or in the whole of the city) so I went closer to them and greeted them. They are two middle aged women, shopping and casually talking in Filipino. I started a small conversation with them and eventually mentioned that I will be getting married tomorrow. After both of them said their congratulations, one lady, whom I will call Mrs. K from here on, asked me if I have all the needed documents already so I said yes because as far as we are concerned, we do have all the necessary documents already. Mrs. K asked me if I have the Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage—a document issued by the Philippine Embassy in Vienna and that was when I went white. I was like “what the hell is that?” So I asked her politely about it. Mrs. K said that she is working in the Philippine Embassy in Vienna so she knows that I need this document—it is supposed to be the document which allows me to get married. I said that I have my Certificate of Singleness which is duly authenticated by Philippines´ DFA and verified by the Austrian Embassy in Manila. I also told her again that the wedding is tomorrow and so far, we didn’t have any problem with the Austrian authority. They accepted my Certificate of Singleness as a proof that I am legally capable to contract marriage. At this point I guess she got confused as well. She cannot understand why the Austrian Authority accepted my Certificate of Singleness as a proof that I am legally capable to get married. She said, as far as Philippine Law goes, this document should be acquired before the marriage and since I am getting married tomorrow it was already too late to obtain this document and she mentioned that I will probably have problems with future documentations because of this.

So what now? It was one hell of a pooper. I started to feel disappointed. I thought that everything is done and prepared already, that there will be no hassles from here on. We have encountered a lot of problems with Philippine offices while we were acquiring documents for our wedding. When finally we got it all settled (or we think we got) after months of processing these documents, I thought that should be it. It should be then smooth. But right now, after talking to Mrs. K, it does not seem to be so.

Looks like we will still be able to get married tomorrow however, we should expect some problems afterwards. Like when I will apply for a new passport with my new name.

Anyhow, the women were gone before I can ask another question. R´s father immediately phone the person he knows in the nearest Philippine Consulate to ask about this and this person promised that she will talk to the Philippine Embassy people in Vienna about what to do with our case and she will inform us then once she have an answer. Later in the afternoon, we saw the two women again. I went to them and asked further about this. Mrs. K said that it is definitely too late to obtain a Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage now however she advised me to present myself in the Philippine Embassy in Vienna ASAP. She also advised me to bring some documents. She said, she is not sure but I will probably need to sign some kind affidavit or something.

Sigh. R said, when all is settled, we will probably write a book about this.

myla