Halfway To Being A Missus

Getting married is serious stuff.

Far from walking into a Vegas chapel past midnight and getting Elvis to marry you, getting married in Singapore is much more bureaucratic.

We turned up at the Registries of Marriage (ROM) bright and early on a Wednesday morning, and hung around outside with several other couples waiting for the doors to open.

It was a mixed bag of couples - locals, locals marrying Ang moh men, locals marrying China women, even a couple who brought along a kid. Second marriage perhaps.

The doors slid open at 8.30am sharp and the nervous horde gravitated towards one terminal to get a queue ticket.

My fast thinking partner saw another lonely terminal just a few steps away and we broke out from the crowd and got a ticket fast. Ladies, get hitched to an observant one.

Today's ceremony was officiously called "statutory declaration and documents verification". This is after we had already filled out a form online and secured a solemnization date 3 months in advance. The other half asked why this procedure couldn't be done online in this day and age. Good question. The best I could come up with was cos getting married is serious stuff and only by making you jump through hoops does it really hit you.

We shuffled into the waiting area and our number was soon called up on the electronic board. A quick presentation of our IDs, and then we had to read out a marriage oath. More serious business.

ZW was unfortunately running a temp and was semi-delirious as he read out the wordy and legalistic oath. He probably wont remember much. I was mildly horrified that it all seemed so..clinical and loudly voiced my thoughts. The marriage officer was slightly amused. Ah, young love.

Then it was my turn. The passage turned out a lot harder than I imagined, and in my haste to get it over and done with, I tripped over several words. I'm pretty sure I said "sodomly" instead of "solemnly".

Before you think that's it, we still have to make another trip down to the ROM in a week's time to say our vows officially in front of a justice of peace.

Like ZW said, inefficient.

I guess I'm in limbo now, neither married nor single. Hmm.